What is SEO and Why is it important?
You’ve probably heard a hundred times that SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a vital digital marketing tool. But do you know what it is and how it works?
SEO is the process of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic to a website or web page from search engines. SEO is made up of multiple elements and knowing what they are and how they work is key to understanding why SEO is so important.
SEO makes your website more visible which means more traffic and more opportunities to convert prospects into customers. It is a valuable tool for brand awareness, building relations with prospects, and positioning yourself as an authoritative and trustworthy expert in your field.
The Crucial Elements of SEO Marketing.
Keywords
Keywords are words and phrases that prospects use to find online content, and that brands can then use to connect with prospects who are looking for their products and services. Keywords must be well-researched, carefully chosen, and judiciously used in your content to be effective.
When it comes to keywords, it is important to look for ones that have high search rates and low competition and to choose short-tail keywords (such as a cat), long-tail keywords (such a ragdoll kittens for sale), and local keywords (such as kittens for sale in Auckland) to work into your content. Along with a primary or seed keyword, you should also have secondary and tertiary keywords as they will still offer value to your business.
Content
Content is a vital part of SEO because it’s the vehicle you use to reach and engage audiences. Knowing your angle and crafting content that fits is essential.
For example, if you owned a flour company and wanted to increase your visibility, you must publish a series of blogs about cooking, ingredients, calories and more. When a person who wanted to know about cooking went looking for that information, your blog would come up and you’d be able to build a relationship with that prospect by providing valuable information. The idea is that when the time came for that prospect to buy flour, for instance, you’d be the first company that came to mind.
Content must be educational, but also interesting, relevant, and shareable. Content comes in a variety of forms;
Web page content
Videos
Blogs
Infographics
Podcasts
How-to-guides
Social media posts
Off-Page SEO
Off-page SEO involves external optimisation practices that happen away from your website rather than on it. The main technique used for off-page SEO is backlink building since quality backlinks to your site from external sites tell search engines that your site is valuable and high-quality which helps to build authority.
There are many tactics for backlink building, and some of the current best practices include guest blogging, creating lots of infographics that will be highly shared, and using influencer marketing in your content.
Local SEO
Local SEO is becoming increasingly important as more and more people use mobile devices for search. In 2020, 63 percent of Google's US organic search traffic originated from mobile devices.
So, let’s say you own a restaurant, then local SEO would ensure that when people in your area go looking for the best restaurants in town, they’ll come across your site.
Along with using local keywords, other local SEO best practices include claiming directory listings, creating location-specific pages for your site, and creating pages for your business on Google My Business local directories and Google Maps.
Search Engine Marketing
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) refers to paid marketing efforts, and it includes things like native ads, Google AdWords, social media ads, pay-per-click (PPC), Google shopping ads, display ads, and more.
Although SEM isn't always a major component of a comprehensive SEO strategy, it does have its place as it can help you reach new and highly targeted audiences. You can also make your SEO and SEM work together.
Examples of SEM advertising activities include:
Paid and targeted campaigns
Keyword-based copy that specifically relates to your business or product
Performance indicators such as click-through-rates (CTR) and cost-per-click (CPC)
Understanding The Importance of SEO For Modern Businesses
VISIBILITY AND RANKINGS
Increasing visibility is one of the most important functions of SEO. This means making it easier for prospects to find you when they search for something you have to offer. Visibility is directly related to your ranking.
You want to rank high on the search engine result so prospects will see you and click through to your website. The more effective your SEO efforts, the higher your ranking and the better your visibility, which is especially important when you consider that a quarter of web users never click past the first search engine result page.
WEB TRAFFIC
One of the main goals of SEO is increased web traffic, and you increase traffic when you increase visibility and rankings. Consider this for a moment: the #1 spot on a Google search gets nearly 32% of clicks and moving up just one spot in search results can increase click-through rate by an amazing 30.8%.
So, if you want more people to find your website through a search engine, then you need to use SEO practices that will help you rank among the top five positions, and ideally number one.
Authority
Page Authority is increasingly important to search engines as it’s becoming more important to web users. Essentially, authority means that your website is trustworthy, high quality, relevant, and has something to offer.
CREATING A BETTER VISITOR EXPERIENCE
Having a high-quality visitor experience is critical, you want to create a seamless and positive customer experience. Doing this shows your stakeholder(s) that your business is professional, innovative, and cares about the experience that your visitors receive.
For instance, when you take steps to make your site responsive, it will make it usable for all your mobile visitors as well as people who visit from a laptop or desktop. Similarly, by increasing your page load speed, you'll reduce your bounce rate and encourage visitors to spend longer on your site. Consumers expect a page to load as quickly as possible with a loading limit to not creep past three seconds! The longer a page takes to load, the higher the bounce rate and the lower your conversions.
In conclusion, SEO is important because search engines aren’t perfect. If you don’t take steps to counter their failings, then your website will pay the price.
For example, if a site doesn’t have a proper link structure, then search engines may not crawl and index the site properly which can lower rankings. Coding errors can block search engines entirely, making it impossible for your site to rank, no matter how much time you put into other SEO efforts.
