What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a strategy used on digital properties to improve a website’s position in the search engine results. SEO requires the use of certain keywords, vocabulary, and phrases that are used by the consumers when they are searching for services or products.
Today, websites rely on search engines, (especially Google, owning 75% of the overall search market) in order to appear to the consumers, who are searching for information online.
This includes all different types of businesses and services meaning that the audience is highly likely searching for the product they need, and if a website is at the top of the search, then it most probably has a great SEO score.
Many businesses and companies understand the basic benefits that SEO provides for their digital properties, and that it will increase their visibility online, but what else makes it so vital for a website’s success?
Once you’ve accepted that a website needs SEO, the next step would be finding out how to manage SEO, and a few techniques and tips which will boost your SEO score.
1. You want your target audience to find you
The main goal of SEO is to allow your website to be found in the sea of websites, however, it’s not so easy to reach the first page of the search engine results. If you’re selling a product or a service, you shouldn’t be surprised to find out that there are plenty of other competitors who are selling and/or providing the very same services.
According to a survey, 62% of consumers use a search engine solely to learn more about a business or service, whilst only 41% are ready to buy. This means your website needs to make an impression on the searcher, which will be hard to do if they can’t find you.
2. Traffic is good!
It’s common for people to complain about traffic, however, traffic is loved by websites, as it means that the page is getting more visitors, and the goal is to turn that traffic into customers.
It’s very well known that when searching for websites, people rarely go farther than the first page of a search engine, and the higher position you are in, the more clicks your website is going to get.
3. Brand, Brand, Brand!
As previously mentioned, your website needs to make a good impression on the consumer, and although the notion of branding is usually associated with marketing, SEO definitely plays a part; your website and brand display your content, which influences what consumers say about it.
It’s a relationship that requires attention, as you need to assure that the content you provide is aligned to what your target audience is seeking. Keeping this in mind, you can grow your SEO using the keywords, and create content that fits the brand you want.
It is also important to try and gain clicks from other sites too!
Your website should be a window reflecting your brand and making sure it is established with the ideal consumers.
4. Authority, Credibility and Trust
Having a higher position in the search engine results will lead consumers, especially new ones, to trust your website. Trust is vital and having a recognisable brand with being highly positioned in the search engine results is a match made in heaven for both the consumer and seller.
Having a good ranking gives the impression that your business or service holds a level of authority in this industry, in the sense that you have earned the position on the first page, and thus instantly giving your website a sense of credibility.
Consumers are more likely to buy from a website they feel confident in, compared to a website that seems, unknown, irrelevant and perhaps even untrustworthy.
5. Clicks Achieve Buys
It should seem clear by now, that the more visits you get, the more likely you are to sell your service or product, so it seems that SEO is an important member of your sales team. This links closely to the next point “competition”.
6. Competition
The more buys your website receives means one of your many competitors has lost some. Maintaining a business also means staying ahead of the competition, and SEO is one of the best ways to do this. If your website is first in the search engine results, you’re most likely to get 20.5% of clicks, if you’re second, this decreases to 13.32%, and third place receives slightly less at 13.14%. If you find your website ranked 10th your website receives just 7.95%.
Therefore, the keywords you use in your content make such a difference to sales! Keywords and phrases are an essential part of moving up in the rankings, leading to more visitors, more traffic, more sales.
7. Think of your consumers!
SEO really does improve your consumer’s experience on your website. Search Engines use algorithms to place website rankings, and a part of this is relevant content and user experience. So, for instance, a website could have all the keywords for a good ranking but lacks other factors such as responsiveness (especially for mobile use), correctly structured code and many other reasons, it won’t achieve the ideal SEO score to appear on the first page.
Having your website’s SEO analysed regularly informs you what areas of your website could be improved, and thus enhancing the user’s experience, which links to the improvement of your branding!
8. SEO is measured using a quantitative scale
SEO uses numbers and percentages to help summaries and categorise key components of a website and external links to the website. It breaks down the good and bad.
This means it’s easy to follow and understand, even as a non-technical person, you can keep up with your SEO, and visually see where your website does well in terms of the SEO score, and most importantly where it can be improved.
9. Improve your own understanding of the online world
Not everyone is tech-guru, however as you work alongside SEO to improve your website’s visibility, you begin to understand more about how the online world works, and techniques that you need to improve your online footprint.
Having this knowledge, alongside online marketing really improves your abilities from a business perspective, and perhaps even as a consumer!
10. Let’s talk about money!
If SEO isn’t your best friend by now, maybe knowing that it isn’t very costly might do the trick. SEO is a very good investment in your business, that works long-term, improving your ratings and rankings.
It also means your website is part of the organic search results, which means you don’t have to pay the search engine to place you on top temporarily.
At Absolute Websites, we can ensure that your website has a great SEO score and that it meets the needs of content, branding, great-consumer experience, and so much more, to keep your website highly ranked by search engines. See how we can offer a premium SEO service for your company here.
Now that you know about SEO, let’s see if you can answer this:
Q: “Where’s the best place to hide a dead body?” (Scroll down for the answer)
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A: “The second page of Google.”
Our website has been reviewed and approved by webdesignlistings.org – Bespoke Websites Listings You can find us in designerlistings.org’s SEO Directory
