What is SEO?
SEO stands for search engine optimization, this is a digital marketing strategy that focuses on your website’s appearance in search results on search engines such as Google. Understanding how SEO works can help you develop strategies to increase your website’s visibility online and generate traffic to your website.
A successful SEO strategy and consistent implementation will result in your website achieving a higher rank in the page listings returned by Google when a user enters a specific query. Users look to search engines, like Google, to answers their questions or direct them to a certain website for information, entertainment, shopping, and a host of reasons. The clicks you get from appearing in search engines cost you nothing. Appearing higher in search engine results, thereby being more visible, costs you only the time and effort to develop and implement a strategy.
There is almost a 100% chance that over half of your website visits come from search engines, often it is more than half. If your competitors have an SEO strategy and you do not, they are receiving at least twice as much traffic to their websites than you. Developing and implementing an SEO strategy for your online property is the next step you should be taking after your website launches – and some argue (myself included) should be taken into consideration when writing your business plan.
There is almost a 100% chance that over half of your website visits come from search engines.
When a user enters a search query (asks Google a question) the response is a search engine results page (SERP). The SERP presents the user with what is called ‘organic results’ along with paid ads. The organic results are presented in order of what Google deems to be the most relevant and most likely to present you with the best experience when visiting.
You cannot pay to appear in the organic results list, and the ranking is determined by a complicated algorithm developed and maintained by Google. Notice how I keep referring to Google and none of the other top search engines like Bing or Yahoo? Google has developed and maintained the most highly effective search algorithm in history and their competitors do not even come close. I personally recommend and use some of the others but when it comes to optimizing your website for SEO, make no mistake we are almost always referring to Google results.
Organic search results are presented along with paid search results (ads) with the paid ads given more prominence on the web page, yet more people rely on the organic results for accuracy and those are still far away from the most sought after links presented by Google. Not to diminish the results of paid ads, they have their place in comprehensive SEO strategy but they are not required to increase the number of visitors to your site.
So How Can All This Help My Business?
Hopefully, the answer to that is more obvious now than when you started reading and my guess is that you already had an inclination as to how SEO can help your business. When people are looking for information, services, products, and even a distraction or entertainment, they go online. Your customers are literally searching the internet for you and you need to make it easy for them to find you.
Getting listed in the SERPs and getting listed higher than your competitors is crucial and not just for all that free traffic but also to develop and maintain your brand awareness. If a business doesn’t appear in a relevant search result is it even a business at all? If it doesn’t appear in the top ten (page one) of Google searches is it even relevant? Harsh questions are hard for business owners to think about, and while yes they are harsh, there is some truth to it. There is a reason that search engines come preinstalled on your devices. Laptops, tablets, and phones all come with a search engine ready that play a prominent role in their functionality.
Getting listed in the SERPs and getting listed higher than your competitors is crucial and not just for all that free traffic but also to develop and maintain your brand awareness.
Businesses meet customers where they are and they are online and they are searching. Since search results are free traffic a case can be made that effectively implementing and maintaining an SEO strategy is the single most cost-effective return on your investment that you can make. In some cases, those costs can be free. At the beginning of the year, I co-hosted a monthly Zoom seminar for Jus B Media that presented all the information needed to begin optimizing your website to appear in search engines. Should you have the time and interest you could do all the things needed to optimize your site for search engines to find you and rank you in their results.
Of course, Jus B Media can do all the things for you as well. We offer comprehensive search engine optimization plans to fit almost every budget and if you hired us to build your website for you then you are already halfway there. A properly coded and constructed website is a large part of how Google finds you and lists you.
Now that you know what SEO is and how it can help your business, I encourage you to dig in and make it work for you. It has truly been transformational for so many businesses looking to increase visibility, awareness and to generate leads and sales.
Lead Web Developer at Jus B Media. Passionate digital problem solver, Wordpress and Front-End Developer. Love working with start-ups, non-profits and small business to develop and grow their online properites.
