All businesses want to see their website on the top search results of Google, but many fail to accomplish that. In fact, over 90% of pages never get organic traffic. This can be associated with different factors, but the most important one is the lack of an all-encompassing SEO strategy.
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a set of strategies designed to improve a website’s visibility on search engines (Google being the most important one). The higher you rank on Google, the more traffic you will get to your website.
When users make searches on Google relevant to your business, you want to make sure you are one of the first results. Google’s algorithm organises these results based on a few key factors:
- The meaning of the query and its context – Google analyses the intent behind the user’s words, as well as information such as location or past search history.
- The relevance of the content – Google looks for keywords related to the query and where they appear on the website (body of the text, headlines, etc), and analyses other types of content such as images and videos.
- The quality of the content – Google’s systems prioritise content that is helpful for the user and that demonstrates expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. One way Google determines this is by understanding if other authoritative websites link to your content. Many companies use a white label link building service to fulfil this need more efficiently.
- The usability of web pages – Google looks into how accessible and user-friendly the content is. For example, it will prioritise content that is mobile-friendly and that loads quickly.
The goal of SEO is to make sure that the content you provide fits this criteria, by being relevant to the user, informative, authoritative, and easy to navigate.
Why is SEO so important for your business?
Several empirical studies have shown that SEO has a direct correlation with positive outcomes on businesses’ performance. When a strong SEO strategy is put in place, companies are able to stand out from the competition and drive more traffic to their websites.
Here are some reasons why SEO is so important:
SEO increases brand awareness
SEO is one of the best ways you can stand out from the crowd. Most people don’t click past the first page of Google, so you can only get eyes on your business if you work on ranking higher.
Consistently getting yourself on the top results of Google will bring you visibility, which leads to stronger brand awareness, putting you ahead of the competition.
SEO drives quality traffic to your website
If you have a good SEO strategy, the people who are already looking for the type of products or services you are offering will find you much more easily. These users are your target audience, and they are much more likely to buy what you are selling.
SEO increases conversion rates
A comprehensive SEO strategy not only increases click-through rates (the percentage of users that click on a specific search engine result) but also conversion rates.
This refers to the percentage of people who completed a desired action (for ex. purchased a product or signed up for a newsletter).
SEO boosts credibility and trust
If your business appears frequently on the first results of Google, and if you create a positive user experience on your website, this sends a message to people that your brand is trustworthy and credible. Trust is one important factor in building customer loyalty.
How can you improve your SEO?
A comprehensive SEO strategy demands that you tackle SEO from several different angles. It is a process that takes time and commitment but has proven results. Here are some ways you can improve your search engine rankings.
1. Create high-quality content that is relevant to your audience
Creating content that is informative, helpful, engaging, and relevant to your target audience is going to be rewarded by Google’s demanding algorithm. As Google itself states, you should create content that prioritises people, and not search engines.
Make sure the content you put out can answer the questions your audience has and shows first-hand knowledge about the topic you are writing about.
2. Research and use relevant keywords in your content
It’s important that you strategically insert relevant keywords in your content. Start by brainstorming a few main topics related to your business, and then leverage research tools such as Google Keyword Planner to find the most relevant words and phrases that your audience is also using.
Try to find keywords that have lower competition and high demand for better results.
3. Improve your off-site link building
Off-site link building, also known as backlinks, refers to the process of getting other websites to cite you and link to pages on your website. Backlinks play an important role in search ranking because Google sees it as a factor of authority and credibility.
There are several ways you can get good quality backlinks, such as guest blogging for example, but the most important one is creating great, sharable content that other people want to reference.
4. Improve your On-Page SEO
On-page SEO refers to the optimisation you perform inside your website. Besides providing relevant, high-quality content, this also includes:
- Optimising title tags and meta descriptions and making sure they are clear and have relevant keywords.
- Keeping your URLs short and descriptive.
- Using header tags (H1, H2, H3, etc) to structure your content.
- Linking pages to other pages inside your website.
- Optimising your images.
- Making your website mobile-friendly.
- Eliminating duplicate content.
5. Keep monitoring your SEO results
After optimising your content, you must continually track your efforts and evaluate the results. Some measures of success include organic traffic growth, conversion rates, backlinks growth, average time on page, and bounce rate, just to name a few.
Monitoring these performance indicators will help you keep improving over time.
Bottom line
SEO is a multifaceted process that requires ongoing work and commitment. Continually improving and monitoring your SEO efforts is the best way to ensure your business stays visible online, driving in more visitors and sales.
Featured image credit: Merakist/Unsplash
