SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is important for the success of any online business. However, even those who have a basic understanding of this incredible marketing tool may still struggle with the complexity and multifaceted nature of SEO. Keep reading to learn more about SEO and why it’s important for your business. What is SEO? Essentially, SEO is a set of rules for optimising websites. The higher your ranking, the higher your website will appear in a search engine’s organic results. Hence, potential customers will more likely see your website quicker. However, it’s also considered a complete framework as the entire process has a set of guidelines, a number of stages and a set of controls. What’s more, is that SEO increases the quality of a website by making it more user-friendly and faster. The Important Elements of SEO Keywords Keywords are essentially words and phrases that potential clients use to find online content. Hence, brands can use keywords to connect with prospects who may be in the market their specific products or services. Moreover, it’s important that keywords are well-researched and meticulously chosen in your content in order to be effective. How Do You Choose The Right Keywords? When researching keywords, it’s important to select ones that have high search rates, low competition and to choose short-tail keywords, long-tail keywords and local keywords. You can also use keywords to optimize all your titles, the body of content, URLs, and other on-page SEO elements. But don’t overdo it! When you overuse keywords, you run the risk of over-saturating your content. Content Only through relevant and useful content, can you employ the full benefits of SEO. High-quality content invites prospects to your website and encourages them to stay for longer, increasing your chances of making a sale. Many successful websites use blogs as a means to create inviting content. For example, if you sell hair products and you want to increase your visibility, you can publish blogs relating to hair. Blog topics like “choosing the right shampoo for your hair” and other hair related tips would be useful and relevant. So, when someone googles tips, your website would come up. Additionally, this helps build relationships with prospects by providing valuable information. Consequently, when the person wants to purchase hair products, your company will likely be first to come to mind. However, there are many different types of content that can boost SEO. This includes social media posts, infographics, podcasts, website page content, blogs, videos and more. Moreover, the best type of content is useful, relevant, engaging, shareable and interesting! SEM Search Engine Marketing (SEM) refers to marketing a business through paid advertisements on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). Here, you can bid on keywords that users enter when looking for products or services on Google and Bing. Selecting the right keywords for an adequate amount of money will increase your chances of prospects seeing your website. These types of ads are known as ‘pay-per-click’ (PPC). However, there are different kinds of SEMs including social media ads, display ads, native ads, Google AdWords, Google shopping ads and more. Although Search Engine Marketing (SEM) isn’t usually regarded as a major component of SEO strategy, it is relevant as SEM assists in reaching new and highly targeted audiences. Why is SEO important? To put it plainly, SEO is important for visibility, rankings, website traffic and aiding in the creation of a better user experience. Although other forms of online marketing can contribute to great website traffic, search engines still produce the greatest and most valuable online traffic. Moreover, if your SEO is set up correctly, your traffic can snowball over time whereas advertising requires constant funding in order to push prospects to your website. It must also be noted that search engines simply cannot do it by themselves. As mentioned, it’s important to produce quality content and keywords that are adequately indexed and displayed within search results. Should I Hire a Professional SEO Optimiser or Agency? Optimising SEO can become a tedious task which is why many businesses rely on SEO professionals, consultants and digital agencies to improve their website and SEO. However, it does depend on your business’s size, the complexity of your website, willingness to learn and time. An advantage of hiring an agency is that you’re enabling trained professionals to enhance your traffic, leaving you time to see to other business operations. However, if you have the time and knowledge, then that’s okay too. Additionally, it’s important that you choose the right SEO company for your business. Although a good SEO agency can save you time and money, the wrong one could potentially cause more harm. Ready to improve your business with B Online? Chat to us today for a free consultation!
