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What is SEO? The People Want to Know!
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Search engine optimization, commonly known as SEO, is an inbound marketing strategy a business can use to improve its website visibility through specific search queries. Its ultimate goal is to help increase the quantity AND quality of online traffic (generated leads) to your site.
And applying SEO strategies means consistently implementing best practices, shifting, and adjusting marketing content to enhance your brand’s online profile and awareness. In addition, SEO consists of various digital marketing tools, like keywords, backlinks, website speed, content blogs, page mechanics, and meta-descriptions— all intricately working together to drive people to your online business.
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However, please be advised that it’s not this quick fix, one-and-done type of thing you apply to a campaign as a marketing tactic. SEO is an ongoing digital marketing application you can incorporate to reach, connect, and continuously serve your customers with excellence while also becoming more visible to potential customers online!
Why is it so effective in digital marketing?
Successful search engine optimization for internet users coming to your website is just as vital as customer service excellence over the phone! In fact, the top keys to SEO effectiveness include learning to:
- Serve clients’ needs through online quality assurance
- Adhere to various search engine guidelines and best practices [Per Google, Yahoo, and Bing]
- Understand customer search intents and preferred content
- Provide the resourceful information and answers your searchers need
In truth, SEO works because it serves as both a customer research technique and an online sales channel for your business. And the key to its effectiveness is discovering how to incorporate the technical and strategic elements simultaneously to meet customer needs and present it in a way that’s appealing to search engines.
And remember, applying SEO takes a little trial and error to find the best strategies for your business industry. So, no ONE methodology works for every company, but there are common practices that have proven efficient when you apply and incorporate the right ones into an appropriate strategy campaign!
What are the immediate benefits of incorporating SEO into my online marketing plan?
If you want your business to have long-term brand awareness, grow its target audience reach, and obtain an ROI, then a digital marketing SEO strategy is just what you need. In this section, we’ve provided five prime benefits we believe are most prevalent when implementing SEO.
1. Search Engine Optimization ultimately helps you reach more people online.
While the goal of many digital campaigns is to zero in on a targeted audience, SEO helps companies attract any online visitor searching and intending to find matched products and services. Even more, it will work at any given time, regardless of which stage a customer or client is on in their buying journey.
However, the solution to ensuring your business can expand its reach is to consistently utilize targeted and focused keywords that match your products and services. In addition, you’ll want to incorporate top keywords on your website and in all publications over time. Again, this doesn’t happen overnight; but with time, you’ll reach more prospects and potential leads1 who may take strong interest in your company.
2. SEO helps improve your website visibility and usability.
As long as you apply SEO best practices to each of your website pages, usability and visibility will increase over time. The solution involves consistently pushing out and publishing relevant and resourceful content on your website. And website content that is appropriately saturated with industry keywords helps bots regularly search your site and move you up in search rankings.
Overall, SEO makes business websites search-engine-friendly while also improving site visibility and the experiences of visiting website users. But, again, you must put in the work to consistently develop high-quality and insightful content that will attract visitors and bring your site to the forefront!
The Best Recipe for an Engine-Optimized Site!
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- Add a teaspoon of high-quality backlinks on your high-volume pages.
- Stir in the PROPER WEB DEVELOPMENT TECHNIQUES that ensure your site is fast and responsive.
- Incorporate KEY SITE STRUCTURE & NAVIGATION during its development.
- Consistently add FRESH RELEVANT CONTENT to your site.
- And lastly, always remember to hold regular SEO SITE ANALYSES & AUDITS to check and ensure it remains optimized.
3. It can also enhance user engagement rates.
Are enough people frequenting your website? Most business owners don’t know unless they have an outsourced digital marketing partner measuring this for them. However, a well-optimized website will typically bring in quality leads and steady visitor traffic. But to keep visitors engaged, company sites must have resourceful online content that matches a searcher’s intent.
And when they do, those sites usually have visitors who will spend more time browsing them. Yet, here comes the best part— Increased engagement rates on a business website can ultimately lead to more conversions and increased ROI. So, if you want to improve your user engagement rate, ensure you have a responsive, mobile-friendly website that is analyzed regularly, checked and cleared of any errors, and updated with proper SEO page mechanics as needed.
4. It Works Hand-in-Hand with Content Marketing
Genuine industry content and SEO go together like macaroni and cheese! So, each time you develop and post valuable digital marketing content for online visitors, you help increase your rank on SERPs. And as I’ve said many times, ‘All content isn’t created equal.’ So, ensure it is high quality and optimized with the keywords for which you want to rank.
Bottom line— search engines and bots love crawling fresh, updated content. And the more they can find new and reliable information from your website, the more attention they bring to it. Fortunately, you can put out helpful content in many ways, like via content blogs, web pages, digital ads, emails, social media posts, and even through images and videos. And these content venues will ultimately help your site rank better.
5. SEO can provide your online business with tangible and quantifiable results.
One of the many things we love most about SEO is that it eventually helps you track changes in your rankings, lead conversions, and site traffic volumes. For instance, the Google Analytics2 platform offers a comprehensive suite of information, enabling you to access data on an extraordinarily granular level.
The following list consists of types of information you can find through SEO analytics results.
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- Gain a better understanding of how visitors find your business online.
- Learn which keywords are working best
- And see what your site is ranking for
- Find out which pages are the most popular
- Discover how visitors reacted to specific calls-to-action
- And learn where there’s room for improvement.
Moreover, with SEO, you’ll always have the opportunity to—
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- Take deep dives into your site’s health.
- Use the insights and analytical results to make necessary adjustments to your strategy.
- Upgrade and change each digital campaign to measure improvements.
How can an SEO strategy work for my business?
First and foremost, you must develop your digital marketing strategy around SEO best practices! And this is where marketing professionals like BUILDINGBLOCKS come in! Over the years, we’ve learned to grasp the best ways for businesses to leverage SEO strategy for their industries. For instance, our motto is ‘Everything starts with an IMPACT plan from which you can build on.’ So, based on your business growth needs, goals, and investment type for a planned ROI, we can incorporate the best course of action for obtaining accurate results!
Overall, there are two main ways search engine optimization helps your business.
I. SEO can ultimately give your company a competitive advantage!
Although heavily investing in SEO isn’t the be-all and end-all, the amount you invest should make sense and align with what’s best for your business industry and goals. Because what’s most important here is that if your competitors are investing in SEO, you should too! After all, you cannot win the game if you’re not playing!
However, before incorporating an SEO strategy, research your direct business contenders to learn their weaknesses and strengths. Knowing this is vital to incorporating an effective strategy and increasing traffic to your website. In addition, there are two other things you must also do:
- Research your target audience’s needs. Consistently provide the search venues most conducive to their finding your business online. The more you provide relevant and matching search content, the easier for them to find you online. And, eventually, the higher you rank in search results.
- Keep your website up-to-date by doing the following:
- Loading fresh and resourceful content pages.
- Maintaining website performance checks regularly to confirm loading speed and responsiveness remains accurate.
- Providing positive user experiences to ensure visitors can easily access what they need!
II. It also helps improve your rank position in local searches.
In applying the things above to gain a competitive edge, you not only help your company maintain that edge, but you also gradually move up the search results page. Page one is the ultimate goal and advantage, as it’s where businesses get over 90 percent of the search traffic!
And when it comes to local searches, most people today want access to products and services that are conveniently nearby. In truth, they prefer getting what they need asap rather than waiting for a delivery or utilizing services more than 20 miles away. So, part of your SEO strategy should include keywords and phrases like “coffee near me3” and “nearby,” or using local service zip codes.
Did you know that 28% of local smartphone searches result in conversions— meaning they end in a purchase? And since Google conducted this study in 2016, we’re sure the percentage has increased since then! Therefore, having a local SEO strategy is also vital to improving search rank position.
To begin, you’ll want to ensure you have a Google My Business account and start setting up reviews for customers/clients who are nearby and have encountered your business. Reviews and ratings are a vital part of establishing credibility and building trust!
Okay, I’m ready to get started!
Incorporating a marketing strategy with SEO provides crazy benefits in bringing more traffic to your website and providing long-term exponential growth. As long as you’re attracting quality leads and ensuring visitors can easily connect and access what they need online, you’ll soon experience success and yield a substantial ROI.
And here’s the best part, getting started with us is just one click away!
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References
- Reaching more online customers and generating more leads with SEO. Photo concept by Anastasia Nelen.
- Tangible SEO Results- Digital Marketing Google Analysis. Image by Myriam Jessier.
- SEO local business search image concept by Patrick Tomasso.
