Most small business owners accept that their businesses need a website, especially after the pandemic turned everyone into online shoppers. It’s even fairly easy for someone to put up a website. That’s where things get tricky.
Once you get your website live, you start looking for ways you can improve it. That’s when you start hearing about search engine optimization. Maybe you thought the talk was overblown, but it’s not.
You would find yourself hard-pressed to oversell the importance of SEO when it comes to your website. Not sure why? Keep reading for a quick overview of SEO and its importance.
What Is SEO?
You can think of SEO as a set of shortcuts that let your website pages rank better on search engine results. Wondering what the secret is? There is no real secret.
In point of fact, search engines provide extensive cheat sheets that you can use as a guide for building a website that will perform better in the results.
“Okay,” you say. “What’s the catch?”
The catch is that SEO can prove more complicated than a business owner can handle on their own. It’s why SEO services thrive these days.
Key Elements of SEO
There is no one key element of SEO that you can apply and never worry about it again. A few key elements of SEO include:
- Technical SEO
- Content
- Local SEO
You can think of technical SEO as all of the under-the-hood things you do to your website. That means things like improving page load speeds, optimizing image size, and making your site mobile-friendly.
Search engines put a lot of weight on your content. The better and more focused the content is on your product areas of services, the better off you are. Regular blog posts that offer value help generate real results.
You can also leverage tactics like guest posting on other sites. Use these guest post tips if you’re hazy on what guest posting means.
Local SEO means things like incorporating keywords that focus on your local area to draw local traffic.
Importance of SEO
The real importance of SEO is that it improves your page performance in search results. You get several benefits from that.
You get something of a credibility boost if you rank well in search engine results. You get higher traffic levels. You get more traffic from people who are likely potential customers.
SEO and Your Business
When you first take your business online, you’re focused on issues like web hosting and getting the site finished enough that you can take it live. Once you get beyond that point, though, you cannot ignore the importance of SEO.
Ranking well helps legitimize you for people searching for products or services. You get better traffic in terms of people who actually want the product or service you sell. That, in turn, can prove a major boon for your total sales and revenue.
Looking for more digital marketing tips? Check out the posts in our Digital Marketing and Business sections.
