WHAT IS SEO AND WHY DOES IT MATTER?

Bringing traffic to your website can be a difficult task. For both established websites and new ones, getting organic traffic from search engines is easier said than done. That is where SEO comes in. By understanding Google’s rules, you can more easily optimize your website to appear at the top of the search results page.

SEO stands for “search engine optimization” and it is the strategy of getting your website to rank highly on Google. Ranking highly, such as on the first page of search engine results, increases the number of people who visit your website. This will, in turn, get you more business through your website. 

Search engines like Google have several different rules for how they choose who earns a top spot on the results page. These “rules” include things like what to put in your website’s meta information, how much text to have on each page, and how to get links from other websites. What SEO experts do is assess your website’s overall performance and then work on the areas that need help. By helping your website comply with these rules, Google rewards you with ranking higher on their results pages.

No matter how great your website is, that doesn’t really matter much if no one can find it. By using SEO, you can make sure that people searching for the things you sell or services you provide can find your website. Without SEO, you not only won’t be getting traffic to your website, but you can also look unprofessional to someone trying to find your business. If someone searches your business’s name in Google, you want to make sure you show up! (We drop more knowledge on why SEO matters in this informative post)

SEO is a game-changer in bringing in leads. When your target audience searches a word pertaining to your business, what an amazing opportunity it would be if your business was the first website that showed up. We already know that this person searching on Google wants to learn more about, and even buy, what you are selling. With 91% of users not going past the first page, it is vital to use SEO to rank well on Google.

While SEO can help your site tremendously, Google has many many things they look at on your web page when they are trying to decide how highly you should rank. It’s a combination of how your website is built, how many pages are on your site, how many words are on those pages, and then they even look at how long people stay on your website (the user experience). Regarding your website, there are a few things you want to keep in mind. Make sure your website isn’t too small, be active on updating your site, and make sure your pages aren’t too short. Keep these simple SEO principles in mind to boost traffic.

Because SEO can be a confusing topic to many, it often gets mixed up with Google Adwords. While Google Ads and SEO use some of the same principles and both show up on Google, the huge difference is that with a Google ad you pay for every single click you get, but with SEO, every single click is free! And the more SEO traffic you get, the higher Google will rank you. If you work hard at your SEO and start getting lots of website traffic, that traffic will just lead to more traffic. With Google Ads, though, you will always have to pay for every click you get. Even though it can help you get instant traffic to your website you will be dependent on it forever.  In short, with Google Ads, you will always have to pay for each click, but with SEO, you will never have to pay for a click, no matter how many you get.

With practice and implementation, you can improve your website ranking on Google. Getting qualified leads to your website should be your first priority, and SEO can help you do that. No matter if you decide to DIY it or hire an expert, SEO is worth the investment of every business with a website. Learn even more SEO strategies on our blog and don’t be afraid to reach out with any questions you might have on SEO. We know it can be difficult but that’s why there are SEO specialists out there like us to help your business succeed.