Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization, SEO, is the process of growing the quantity and quality of a website’s traffic by increasing the visibility of it in search engine results. It refers to the improvement of unpaid or “organic” results.
Why is SEO important?
SEO should be and in fact, is important for many reasons. Organic traffic makes up the majority of the traffic that websites receive. Search engines, especially Google—which is the number one search engine in the world, values SEO while ranking results. Even if you have paid advertising campaigns, SEO will be of great help for differentiating your website from your competitors in addition to lowering the cost of your paid campaigns. 40 percent of all click-throughs belongs to the first 3 organic results on all search engines. This explicitly shows that ranking high in the organic results has far more potential for businesses.
SEO is a long-term strategy, and businesses should invest mostly time and energy in SEO to get returns in the near future instead of investing money to get results immediately. One of the most favorable aspects of SEO is that it’s being cheap if not completely free—should you choose to delegate the task. SEO is a powerful tool for businesses of any size; however, small businesses can take advantage of SEO more easily, as small businesses cannot compete with bigger businesses in ads spending. Marketing activities are done on a budget in small businesses, making SEO very convenient. Nevertheless, it is important to bear in mind that SEO is a useful practice to grow business, build and improve brand awareness, and maintain a competitive edge for all businesses regardless of their size and industry.
How is SEO done?
Favorable SEO results come in different forms. By optimizing their websites businesses build trust and credibility, stay relevant to what visitors look for, and enhance the user experience, all of which increase the websites’ traffic—and quite possibly conversions. There are many different parameters, according to which search engines evaluate and rank businesses’ websites as well as many SEO practices. However, not every SEO practice yields favorable results. There are good ways and bad ways to it! And, there are a number of—free and paid—SEO tools available to use!
Here are 13 simple SEO tips for good SEO:
1. Audience
Businesses first should decide who their target audience and potential customers are in order to get started with SEO. Businesses should decide what content to create and how based on their target audience not only in for digital marketing purposes but also for almost everything.
2. Content
Content is everything in digital marketing. Users search for content. Businesses market their content. Search engines rank websites based on content. Content should be original, relevant, and timeless whenever possible as well as interesting and engaging for users. Businesses should tailor their content creatively according to their audience’s needs. Moreover, content should be of an optimal length, not too short not too long. It should present solutions and answers as clearly and quickly as possible to users. Search engines value keywords and headers while ranking websites; therefore, it should contain headers and keywords.
In addition to their written content, businesses must have visual content like images, videos, graphs, infographics, and tables to make their website visually attractive and appealing. Creating such content helps visitors stay longer on the website, which in turn induces search engines to rank those websites with quality content higher in their results. In addition, businesses need to make sure that such content files should naturally include the keywords they use in the file name and have alt tags.
3. Keywords
Keywords are important for businesses because they are what users, especially ones with high intention to convert, search for. They make content relevant and keep a competitive edge for businesses in the industry. However, keywords should be used and placed conveniently. Search engines punish random and irrelevant use of keywords.
4. Competitors
Businesses should analyze their competitors regularly to see what they are doing both on- and off-site to draw and maintain traffic, which keywords they use, and how they present their content and website.
5. URL Structure
People should be able to easily understand what the website is about from its URL. It should also be a relevant and creative one.
6. Social Media
Social media is a great way to interact with potential customers. Therefore, businesses should establish their presence on different social media platforms. Social media is a great opportunity to build brand awareness and acquire leads, especially for small businesses.
7. Google Local Listing
It is very crucial for small businesses to show on the local business listing on Google when users make a search about their services/industry or with their keywords.
8. Ratings and Reviews
Businesses should encourage customer reviews and ratings, as search engines tend to rank websites with better reviews and ratings higher in the search engine results page. Obviously, businesses should do their best to get good ratings and reviews.
9. Optimization for Mobile
Businesses need to make sure that their websites work smoothly on mobile devices. They also need to keep in mind that 69% of Internet users prefer mobile devices for product research and shopping.
10. Analytics
Setting up an analytics account to monitor everything ranging from user behavior to conversion is the key to a successful SEO practice. Analytics accounts help businesses analyze how users react to certain decisions, test different approaches, and get insights about what they are good or bad at and what more they can do.
11. User Experience (UX)
Businesses must empathize with users if they would like to be successful in digital marketing and SEO. Users, just like everybody else, do not want to spend a long time on the Internet to find what they look for. They need precision and accuracy—and, they need it fast! Users grow more impatient every day. Therefore, speed is vital for websites. Additionally, users should be able to navigate around easily and smoothly on the websites to find what they are looking for—and businesses should do their best to facilitate this process. After all, the user experience is what draws and maintains traffic on a website.
12. Links
A. External Links
Backlinks
Backlinks are important for SEO. Search engines tend to rank higher the websites that have been referred by other websites. Furthermore, if the website giving the backlink is a competitor in the same industry, it is much more valuable. Obviously, such references and links should come from quality websites with good traffic and ratings for search engines to consider those links valuable.
Outbound Links
Additionally, businesses can refer to other websites, preferably in the same industry, by giving external links to websites with good and informative content. Search engines take it into account as well. In this way, businesses can help their visitors learn more about what they search for from other relevant content and websites, which improves user experience—and, search engines award this.
B. Internal Links
Businesses can give links between their own web pages, as this practice helps visitors stay and spend more time on the website and increase the number of pages visited, all of which are crucial metrics for search engines in ranking websites. What’s more, visitors can find more information and related content about their search thanks to internal links, which enhance user experience.
13.Patience
SEO is a long-term investment. Therefore, businesses should not expect extraordinary results immediately. It takes time and effort! They need to invest in SEO regularly and consistently to be successful and maintain that success in the future.
SEO is an investment that yields results in the long-run. It helps businesses target people with a high probability of converting. In this blog post, we have talked about 13 important tips for businesses of any size, but especially small ones, to become successful in SEO. Stay tuned or contact Earnado now for more!
