What is SEO and Why Does It Matter

Statistics show that over 4.66 billion people are using the internet– that’s more than half of the entire world’s population! For businesses, this means lots of opportunities to tap into the market and get more customers.

Now, here’s the question: With thousands of businesses online, how do you stand out?

One of the answers is SEO.

What is SEO?

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the process of improving the quality and performance of your website to be among the top positions on organic search results. The higher you rank, the better.

SEO can be a combination of strategies that include keyword research, page optimization, content creation, and link building. While the goal is to rank and be more visible to the people who are searching for businesses like yours, the important thing when doing SEO is to deliver a great user experience and address the needs of your customers.

There are two ways to do SEO: on-page and off-page. On-page optimization involves implementing the best practices to improve your websites, such as using the right keywords, improving website speed, and optimizing the website’s titles and meta descriptions. Off-page, on the other hand, involves building links from other websites to improve your own authority.

Why do you need SEO?

With today’s digital landscape, SEO is something that you don’t do out of choice. It’s a necessity. In fact, 50% of marketers believe it’s the most effective strategy.

Here are the reasons you need to have SEO as part of your marketing strategy.

1. Visibility

When you search for information or think of buying something online, which do you click first? If you’re like most internet users, there’s a high probability that you click the websites appearing on the first page of search results. That’s the essence of doing SEO.

With SEO, you give your website more visibility whenever customers or prospects go online. If your website matches the queries users type on search engines, you can attract them and convert them into customers. With more users clicking on your website, search engines will see your website as relevant and rank it high on results.

2. Authority

In SEO, authority can mean having a high Domain Authority. This is a metric that search engines use as a measure of a website’s trustworthiness. Domain Authority is a score that ranges from 1 to 100 – the higher your score, the higher your authority.

There are different factors that influence a website’s Domain Authority. This also includes having a good number of high-quality backlinks. These are links from third-party, authoritative websites that point back to your site. Search engines see this as a vouch for your website’s authority.

3. Long-term, cost-effective strategy

One thing you need to understand about SEO is results do not happen overnight. It may take around two to three months before you start seeing the real impact of SEO. This is why many businesses look at SEO as a long-term yet cost-effective strategy.

Consistently optimizing your website, conducting technical SEO fixes, and improving the overall user experience helps in ramping up your rankings. Unlike paid advertising, you don’t have to pay for every click that flows to your website. Everything is organic. If you don’t have a big budget allocated for marketing, you can start with SEO to build your site’s authority and start capturing organic traffic. This way, you’re getting traction for your website.

4. Customer-centric approach

A great deal of SEO involves understanding the intent of users when they’re searching online. What type of keywords do they use to look for information? What do they use to search for services? What are their problems or pain points? You can address these with a good SEO strategy.

If you hire an SEO professional, they can help you uncover data on search user queries, behavior, and intent. This, in turn, can help you develop a more customer-centric approach for your website.

5. A way to understand the competition

SEO helps businesses learn the intent of their customers and provides them with different insights into the competition. Think of it this way – if you are scouting who are the biggest players on search results, your competitors are likely doing the same.

Let’s do a quick search. Type keywords associated with your business on search engines and see which websites are ranking apart from yours. Note these websites and do a quick analysis.

• What type of keywords do they have on their website?
• How good is their content?
• How do they structure their website?
• How many backlinks do they have?

Getting insights about your competitors can help you come up with actionable items to outrank them.

6. Getting on local search results

Many customers use “near me” when typing queries on search engines. This means they are looking for businesses close to them, and this is something SEO can help you address. We call this local SEO.

Local SEO is fundamental for small to medium-sized businesses, even more so for those that have a physical store. This involves optimizing your website with keywords targeted at a specific location, such as towns, cities, or even regions.

The great thing about local SEO is it doesn’t only bring you web traffic but also actual foot traffic or visits to your storefront. This can be possible if your website is optimized on Google My Business, has accurate contact information, and includes clear directions on how to get to your location.

Now’s the time to rank

SEO helps level the playing field. As Google and search engines continuously roll out updates to cater to the experience of users, your business needs to keep up. With a well-optimized website, you’re making it easier for your customers to find you amidst the noise on search results.

Ready to put your business out there? Express Marketing are here to help. Let our experts help you navigate the digital landscape and gain the edge over your competition with a results-driven SEO strategy.