With so many marketing strategies available to each individual in this digital age, it’s hard to decide which one is the best choice for your business. Before you decide on any of the strategies, it is important to familiarize yourself with each of them, and especially one of the most important – SEO.
SEO is one of the most effective marketing strategies, and business owners often ask themselves “What is SEO and how does it work?”.
In the article below, we will outline the importance of SEO optimization and answer questions about what SEO is and how it can work to your advantage.
What is SEO?
The abbreviation SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It may not seem like something important to you, but when you know that 79,396 searches are done through Google every second, it’s clear that the internet is the present and future of business. Without an online presence, it’s hard to survive, but just being online is just not enough. To survive and be successful you need to be visible on the internet, and SEO allows.
SEO is anything but simple. It consists of a lot of planning, selecting strategies, checking, testing and actions that aim to improve the ranking of a website on Google.
SEO consists of:
- On-page SEO includes all the actions you can take on a website to improve its ranking (adding content, creating a network of internal links, increasing page speed, selecting keywords, SEO titles, etc.)
- Off-page SEO denotes all actions performed outside the site that affect its ranking. This is primarily about backlinks.
Successful implementation of a combination of On-page and Off-page SEO leads to increased organic traffic to the page, although an SEO expert should never guarantee that it will bring your site to the forefront of Google. This is simply impossible to predict because no one knows the secret of Google’s algorithm and how it works.
Like all things worth, SEO doesn’t produce results overnight. The first real results of an SEO campaign can be seen after two to three months. SEO optimization is not a one-time task and requires you to commit to it in the long run.
Why is SEO important?
To date, 4,071,629,345 searches have been done through Google (the number is growing at an incredible rate, you can see it here).
That’s why SEO is important. SEO helps to increase awareness of what you do and build your authority in the field. SEO helps you gain the trust of your users and customers. Everybody who sells has learned on the first day that lack of trust is the main enemy of sales.
It may seem like something expensive to you at first SEO that only large companies invest in, but you would be surprised how many small businesses and companies spend on SEO campaigns.
“Running a business is a marathon, not a sprint.”
SEO is exactly where it holds its biggest advantage – saving money and increasing profits.
Otherwise you would spend money on ads that deliver results that are not permanent. A 3-month SEO campaign leaves lasting benefits. You can also track these benefits yourself through Google tools like Google Search Console and Google Analytics.
Check out how your website is listed on Google through these tools and it will probably be enough motivation for you to start an SEO campaign.
Local SEO
SEO has another extremely important branch – local SEO.
If you’re a locksmith in New York, you want New Yorkers to call you when they have a lock problem. Local SEO is here to enable you.
Imagine a situation where a mother with a child realizes that she cannot enter the apartment because her keys are left inside. The baby is already nervous, crying, sleeping. Of course, the mother wants to solve her problem as soon as possible. She Googles: “New York locksmith” and finds your competitor John even though you are closer. She calls John, who is happy to be here, doing his job and acquiring another satisfied customer.
That user could have been yours if you had a profile that was optimized. Google My Business (GMB) is of the utmost importance here. Provides users with all the information you need about them, including contact, which ultimately has a positive effect on your business. Registration is free and easy, and there are many benefits that can be redeemed.
Of course the locksmith here is just an example. SEO (including local) can be applied to any website no matter what you do.
So there is no point in waiting. Maybe one of your competitors has already read this text and realized the importance of SEO. They may have already contacted us and now their advantage over you is even greater.
Are you really going to fall without a shot fired?
Contact us now. Improve your business.