When it comes to your website, you may have heard the term SEO tossed around quite a bit. But what is it? And how can it help your business achieve its goals? In this post, we’re going to break down what SEO is, the ways it can drive traffic to your site, and ultimately, how it will benefit your business.
Navigating Your Way to the Top of Google
What is SEO anyway? SEO stands for ‘Search Engine Optimization’. This is the practice of enhancing your site in certain areas to make it more visible to search engines. When it comes to what makes good SEO, it comes down to many different factors. This includes combining strategic keywords, writing excellent content and publishing frequently, having a fast and efficient website that works for everyone and being a trustworthy website that people spend a lot of time on and keep coming back to. At its core, SEO is the practice of making sure your website answers the user's questions accurately, efficiently and in a way that search engines can easily find. Don’t worry if this all sounds a bit daunting. We’re here to support you through this SEO journey.
How SEO can Work for your Business
So, if SEO is such a big area to cover and get right, is it really worth putting in the effort? Well, given that SEO can be one of the most beneficial ways of getting your business in front of the eyes of your customers, it's worth your attention. Let's explore some of the ways SEO can work for your business.
Increased Visibility for your Business
Have you ever struggled to find the right customers looking for your services? Well with SEO you no longer have to. They’re searching for it themselves and with good SEO, they land straight on your site.
Building Trust in your Brand and your Services
Your customers trust the search engines they use. So if those search engines suggest your site as the answer to a query, the customer already has a level of trust built towards your business. Being near the top of the search engine pages will position you as an authority in the industry.
Increased Organic Traffic to your Website
With all these people searching and finding your site organically, you might be able to start considering reducing your paid advertising budget. By getting SEO set up correctly once, you may be able to reap the benefits of potential customers reaching out for a long time.
Improved User Experience
Giving your customers an excellent experience on your site, especially on mobile, can improve your SEO ranking. The longer a customer is on your site and engaging with it, the higher it will rank on search engines. So not only will you have happier customers using your site, but you’re more likely to see an uptick in visitors.
Competitive Advantage Against Your....Competitors
Good SEO is something no competitor can take away from you or outbid you on. With 25% of people clicking the top search result, it's an extremely valuable position to hold over your competition. Just ask yourself how often you go to page two of the search results.
Cost-Effective Marketing for your Business
In the world of digital marketing, SEO is an efficient way to save money and time. By using SEO best practices, you can target specific keywords and demographics to make sure you’re reaching the right people. This targeted approach brings more qualified leads to your site just by making a few simple changes.
Improved Accessibility
Inclusivity is the name of the game when it comes to most areas of business at the moment and SEO and search engines are no exception. Making sure your site is accessible to people with disabilities can start raising you through the ranks of search engines. This can be done by adding ALT tags to describe your images, ensuring your site can be read aloud with a screen reader, or increasing the contrast between text and background to make it easy to read. Not only will you be rewarded by a higher ranking but it also demonstrates your commitment to inclusivity as a company, opening up your site to a whole new audience. Win, win, win!
Local SEO and Map Traffic
“Great camping store near me” search. You may think SEO is solely for online businesses, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Having your brick-and-mortar store set up with great SEO explaining where you are and what you offer can attract nearby customers or even drive foot traffic right to your door.
Data-Driven Insights
It should be no shock by now that everything you do online is being tracked to some degree. By using this technology to analyze your customer's behavior on your site and what keywords are bringing in the most traffic, you can adapt your approach to maximize your efforts.
Sustainable Growth
Excellent SEO can’t be achieved overnight, it takes a long-term strategy and dedication to the cause. While this may seem frustrating, the nature of this means that once you begin to see results from SEO they will continue to grow sustainably, over a long period, ultimately helping your business scale at a pace you can keep up with.
Start your SEO Journey
As you set off down the long road of SEO perfection, remember to follow the path most trodden. There are countless SEO tools and strategies you can use to summit the peak of the Google results page and set up camp. Start your journey today and begin reaping the benefits of SEO for your business. Or if you're not sure where to start, get in touch and we can guide you with our expert SEO strategies and conversion-driven websites.