Why Should I Care About SEO?
Are you a small business owner or a new entrepreneur working hard to grow your business? What would your business look like if you had a continuous lead generation machine bringing you new customers and prospects every day?
If that sounds like just what you need to uplevel your business, then you should care about SEO and building your SEO strategy. Don't worry if you're not sure what SEO is or how it can help your business, we've got you covered. So keep reading to learn everything you need to know about search engine optimization.
What Is SEO?
SEO, or search engine optimization, is a process, or series of processes, that improve your site's rankings in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Page). And while Google is the most widely used search engine, there are others including Yahoo, Bing, and YouTube. YouTube is the second largest search engine behind Google and you can rank your website and drive traffic organically to your site through video marketing.
Search engines use bots to crawl every indexed page on the internet. They then rank these pages according to their algorithm. Some of these terms might seem foreign, but don't worry we included a glossary of terms at the end of the article.
How Does SEO Help My Business?
Ranking high on the first page of Google can send you hundreds of visitors to your website every day. What would that do for your business if you could perpetually increase your lead generation? You can do this through optimization.
Not only can you drive traffic to your website, but you can also optimize both SEO and social media. Pinterest is a great example of how you can use search optimization on a social media site to drive traffic to your website.
Some more benefits of SEO include:
Target quality leads
Organic search is free as opposed to PPC (Pay-Per-Click, online advertising)
Has a higher CTR than PPC
Builds brand awareness
As you can see, marketers and business owners alike can't afford to neglect their SEO strategy. So don't neglect your business blog as it is a powerful lead generation machine.
Some Basic SEO Terms
As promised, we're breaking down some of the confusing terms of SEO. Here are some key terms you need to know when designing business websites.
Algorithm
An algorithm is a series of instructions or steps one must follow to solve a problem or finish a task. Search engines put every website through a series of questions to determine where it should rank.
Analytics
Analytics looks at a series of data or metrics to find a meaningful pattern. In SEO, you need to track how many people found your site for certain keywords as well as what those keywords or phrases are.
CTR
CTR, or click-through rate, is the percentage of people who saw your website on the SERPs and then clicked to read the content on your website. This is a key metric to track for your SEO strategy.
Duplicate Content
This refers to content that appears on the internet more than once. It can happen innocuously when you cross-post on a different platform such as Medium or LinkedIn. However, it can also happen when someone plagiarizes your content and should be tracked so you aren't dinged by the SERPs.
Search Engine Results Page (SERP)
Search Engine Results Page, or SERP for short, is the result that Google shows a user based on their query or search. There are several sections to the first page including paid ads, featured snippets, GMB profiles, images, and videos, as well as the organic results.
Google My Business (GMB) Listing
Your Google My Business profile is where you can claim your business to increase your rankings in local searches. Over 80% of mobile phone users conduct 'near me' searches showing local intent. When you can rank for these searches you will bring in local customers every day.
Digital Marketing Strategy
This is a plan that your company can use to meet your business goals using the internet. You won't be successful with online marketing without following a cohesive plan.
Black Hat SEO
These are disapproved practices that people use to increase their rankings. However, today's algorithms are smarter than ever, and using these unscrupulous practices will result in being banned by Google and other search engines.
You Can Uplevel Your Business When You Care About SEO
It's easy to see why you should care about SEO for your business website. However, it's also clear that creating a successful SEO strategy isn't easy.
And to uplevel your SEO and your business, you should work with an expert such as COASTR Marketing. If you're ready to uplevel your SEO strategy, reach out to us today.
