What is Search Engine Optimization?
Search Engine Optimization, commonly referred to as SEO, is the general practice of increasing quantity and quality of traffic to your business’ website through more direct search engine results. You may be questioning, why exactly is SEO so important? How will SEO benefit my business? The next few sections of this educational article will discuss the importance of SEO and how beneficial it is to include SEO in your marketing efforts. If you still have any further questions or concerns after reading this article, or require general assistance with developing an SEO strategy for your business, contact Pearl Marketing at [email protected]!
Importance of SEO
SEO is extremely important because it can increase traffic to your business’ website by making it easier for online users to find your website through major search engines, like Google. You want your website to be one of the first sites that pops up in the search results after a user types in keywords related to your business and/or industry. If it doesn’t, someone else’s website is showing up and users will likely click on their website and give them business. Users will not scroll through pages and pages of website results to find your business. They want quick results for quick solutions to whatever problem or matter they need help resolving.
How to Develop a SEO Strategy
One of the best ways to help your SEO is to ensure that you are effectively using metadata. Metadata is made up of meta titles, meta descriptions, and keywords. Metadata is input into the backend of the website, normally input by a web developer or whoever is in charge of your website development. It is imperative that metadata is added to each webpage that is a part of your overall website. In other words, if your website has four pages – 1) Home page 2) About Us page 3) Services page 4) Contact Us page – you will want different meta titles, meta descriptions, and keywords associated with all 4 pages. Let’s break down the components of metadata, shall we!
Meta titles – The title of your webpage. For example, if you are searching for a business on Google, you will see the title in big, blue lettering. Titles are normally the first thing that catches a users eye when searching for something, and it explains the overall subject of the webpage.
Meta descriptions – Meta descriptions are a more in depth glimpse of the content covered on a particular webpage. The descriptions are found underneath the title and page URL. It is important to have a strong meta description for each webpage because users will read them to determine whether your page is worth clicking on to read more.
Keywords – At Pearl Marketing, we still feel that keywords are important to include in your metadata. It’s important to first understand what keywords people are using to search for the products and services you provide. Think about the words used most in your line of business. Do your research and see what language your competition is using. Then create a list of keywords associated to the words on each webpage of your website and popular words used within your industry. This will allow for your website to be found when users input those keywords into the search bar on search engines, like Google. For example, if you are a hair designer, it would be good to use keywords like “affordable,” “experienced,” “hair designer,” “stylist,” “professional,” “best,” “near me” for your home page.
Website Content
A key aspect to effectively developing your business’ website is to ensure that the content provided is clear to understand, as well as organized and laid out to be generally attractive. Websites that have moving content or chat boxes tend to have a greater amount of traffic because users are highly attracted to engaging content. For SEO purposes, the words and phrases you use within the text of the content on each web page is important because these words and phrases can increase the odds for your website to appear first during a search, rather than another business’ instead.
If your business barely has any metadata or does not have words and phrases related to the metadata within the web pages, then it will most likely appear somewhere far down the search engine line. Studies have shown that most individuals do not click past the first or second pages during a Google search, as they are usually satisfied with the information provided on the first page. Having accurate metadata and relevant text on each web page will help your SEO immensely.
Creating Effective Content for SEO
If you’ve made it this far, you now know that SEO efforts are absolutely essential in order to improve your business’ rankings and increase brand awareness. There are many SEO tools to help you understand your business’s website from a client’s perspective. For instance, the beginning portion of your website should be clear to understand from any individual’s perspective. If you are selling something, let’s say a water filtration tool, you should have an explanation as to what that is so a client from any background is able to understand what it is.
The Client’s Perspective
Besides ensuring that the content on your business’s website is clear and concise to understand, it is also important to use forms of tracking to understand the clients perspective. There are SEO/Analytics tools that give you the ability to track website traffic and the amount of times a user spends on an individual webpage from your website. These tools can track where the traffic is coming from and compare the stats to previous months and years. This can help you understand the demographics of your audience better, how well users are finding your website (organic vs paid) and where improvements need to be made.
Keep In Mind…
It is important to keep in mind that SEO efforts are a process, and it will take time to build up a collection of highly engaged users and see a consistent upward trend. It is key to not give up your efforts and remain consistent in updating quantity and quality of content, as well as metadata.
Mobile Friendly Sites
Some important things to keep in mind when developing website content is to ensure that you have a web friendly version AND a mobile optimized website. At Pearl Marketing, we always ensure that when we create a website for a client that it is also a mobile optimized site. More than ever, users are engaging with the internet and businesses on their mobile phone, so it is important to cater to this. Having a mobile version also gives on-the-go users the ability to view the content in an efficient manner.
We Are Here To Help!
If you have any questions or concerns on Search Engine Optimization, or if you would like guidance in choosing the right Analytics tools, please feel free to contact us at Pearl Marketing. We have a solid team of experienced marketing consultants that specialize in a wide variety of marketing services. Reach us at 603-732-9070, or email [email protected]
Take Advantage of Pearl Marketing Academy!
Pearl Marketing also has an online academy with four educational courses that are guaranteed to boost your marketing know-how on topics like this one! Our four courses involve Social Media Marketing, Video Marketing, Lead Generation, and Corporate Branding. To view more on the courses that we offer, click HERE: https://www.pearlmarketingacademy.com/, or email [email protected] with your questions.
