If you plan to have a successful online business, then you should plan to incorporate SEO practices into your marketing strategy. Utilized effectively, SEO can bring potential customers to your website without requiring extra marketing efforts. And unlike ads that have a start/stop time, SEO is always working for your site. If you are new to SEO, then you will need a basic understanding of this great tool.
SEO Introduction
SEO is an acronym that stands for Search Engine Optimization; the simplest explanation is that SEO is a process/method that can increase the visibility of your website/product/ business in search engines. You could also consider SEO as a tool that helps your website stand out in searches on Google.
Once you look into implementing SEO practices, you will also want to find out how you can optimize your SEO tool to improve your ranking in online searches. Imagine that you are a carpenter and basic SEO is a hammer – it will get the job done, but not at the same pace or quality if you improve said tool and upgrade to a nail gun. Better SEO practices mean better results for your website and business.
Like actual tools, you have to view SEO as (1) a tool and (2) a worthwhile investment.
Improving your SEO can have a number of positive effects on your business:
- More website traffic
- Less money spent on ads
- Improves your business’s credibility
- Attracts more of your target audience
Optimize means “to make perfect” – it’s a process of progress with a hopeful/expected outcome of success. Part of optimizing your search engine process is to keep reworking, revamping, recalibrating to give your business the best chance possible.
Your online business needs SEO. And you also need to improve your SEO practices – consistently. And yes, you need to optimize the optimizing process. In short, you need the nail gun. It’s worth the investment.
SEO & Blogs
What comes to mind when you think of a blog? If you didn’t immediately consider its close relationship with marketing and SEO, then you don’t know as much about blogs as you think. Blogs can help your SEO. A well-written blog that employs SEO practices can help increase traffic to your website.
Quick Breakdown:
- SEO is utilized through the content on your website.
- Blogs are mostly content.
- Your blog provides information/answers questions/discusses topics that people are searching for.
- The content of your blog ranks you higher in search results.
Think about the last time you researched something through Google – for instance – “how to optimize your SEO”.
You may have not even realized that most of the “articles” at the top of the search results were actually blogs. What you are seeing in the results is SEO at work with/through blogs. And blogs actually rank higher in search results than websites.
Quick Stat: Businesses/websites with blogs produce almost 70% more leads per month. If you don’t yet have a blog, it’s time to get on it.
Optimizing Your SEO
Optimizing your SEO doesn’t just happen with/through your content. The right words definitely help, but there are also other areas on your site where SEO can be improved.
Start with your plug-ins. These software “legos” fit into your site fairly easily and are designed to bolster the functionality of your website. But installing plugins can also change your website’s code, which can negatively affect SEO. To optimize your SEO, you will need to change your plug-ins on the back end of your website.
Other Areas to Optimize:
1. Your Metadata – it’s part of the building blocks of your website and can be found betweenand. Google will say that meta descriptions and tags are not that relevant for search results, but the actual results prove contrary.
You can update this description of your website and include more relevant and focused information.
2. Add/update ALT tags on your images and videos – this helps search engines identify and “sort” your site for the best search results.
3. Speaking of images – make your site more appealing with images/graphics that aren’t draining and slow to load. Optimize your SEO by optimizing your images to create a better user experience.
The Keys to SEO Greatness
You need the right keys to unlock all of the SEO potential for your website; those “keys” are called KEYwords – targeted words and phrases in your website’s content that highlights your site in/on search engines.
Keywords are important because they help people find your website through search engines – without the need for extra advertising. And the better your keywords, the better your position in search results.
Think about your recent Google search results – if you found a website that had the exact information or product you were looking for, then that business employed the right keywords to grab your attention. That, in a nutshell, is how keywords can work for you.
How do you find out which keywords are best? Do your research to find the most high-ranking keywords for your industry and business.
Where/when/how do you use keywords? Your “batch” of high-ranking keywords needs to be used in your website content, in blogs, in social media posts, and in your photos and graphics – basically anywhere with words.
SEO practices are important for all online businesses as a notable marketing tool that can increase website traffic significantly. But a tool can only be helpful if it is used correctly. If you’re not sure what to do with that nail gun, it might be best to hand it to someone who can successfully wield its power. Your main job should be running your business – leave the SEO “nails” to Indigo Marketing. We know how to efficiently and effectively build an SEO strategy for your business.