Search Engine Optimization and Why it is the Key to Success
What is Search Engine Optimization?
What is SEO? There is no way to fully appreciate the value of SEO without an understanding of what it is. Search Engine Optimization is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search results.
You may be asking, “what are organic search results?”. An organic search result is a listing in a Google search that appears because it is relevant to someone’s search term. For example, lets say you own Arkane Landscaping and you operate out of Philadelphia. An organic search result would be if someone was looking for a landscape service and queried something along the lines of “Landscaping Philly”, “Philadelphia Landscaping Companies”, or “Landscaping Companies in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania” and Arkane Landscaping showed up on top of the Google Search Results. This ultimately is the goal of SEO, which is to generate organic traffic-searchers clicking through to your website from a search engine results page (SERP)
How Search Engines Work
Anyone engaging in SEO must understand how Search Engines function otherwise any attempts at SEO may cause damage to your sites ranking.
Before your website can show up in SERP, all the pages must be correctly crawled and indexed. Every Search Engine has its own crawlers/spiders which scour the internet and find new web pages. The pages they find are then added to the search engine’s index, which is the record of all pages it has crawled.
When you type a query into the search bar – whether it’s everyday searches or you’re assessing the organic presence of your business – the search engine then goes through the pages in its index, identifies the ones most related to your query, and ranks them according to their relevance. These links are then served to the searcher on the results page.
Why Businesses Should Make SEO a Priority
The importance of SEO for business, begins with making sure your site is discoverable by search engines. An SEO-optimized page takes both users and search engines into account to drive organic traffic by providing relevant content that meets the needs of those searching. That’s why SEO is a top priority for search marketers.
But why SEO is important goes much further than that. Appearing at the top of search engine rankings builds credibility for your content. Customers today turn to research instead of salespeople, and SEO can let them know about the best deals, brand-new products and services, and the unique benefits you offer—all at the exact moment they’re searching for your solution. Putting that information in their hands when they need it can shorten the buying cycle, leading to increased revenue and greater ROI.
Think about it from your personal experience. Have you ever gone shopping online and went past the first page of Google for results? If you haven’t, then why would anyone else for your brand?
How SEO Helps You Beat the Competition
One of the key benefits of SEO is that it’s an inbound marketing strategy that cultivates qualified leads. When a customer searches for your product or service, the likelihood is high that they’re already considering doing business with you or a competitor. If you can reach that customer through organic search, you’re reaching them before the competition does at a key moment in the buyer’s journey—and you’re doing it without spending precious ad dollars to deliver your marketing message.
Well-ranked content performs 10 times as well as its paid counterpart and gives you helpful insights into audience intent.
Keyword Research is the Foundation of Business SEO
Keyword Research, a fundamental practice in SEO for business, is the process by which you research popular search terms people type into search engines. You then include these phrases strategically throughout your website so that your content appears higher in SERPs.
The keyword research step should underpin any SEO initiative for the best opportunity to rank well for the topics relevant to your business. Higher rankings generally equate to more organic traffic to your website.
The best keyword is a term or phrase that:
Is frequently searched by your target audience
Is relevant to the topic of your content
Is realistically one your site can rank for
Why Should Your Business Analyze Keywords?
Keyword analysis is a science. Analyzing keywords enables your marketing team to prioritize and focus on using the phrases that will drive the best results. There are a number of factors to look at when determining the value of a given keyword:
Search volume – On average (usually monthly), how many people search the keyword or phrase?
Competition – How difficult will it be for your website to rank for the keyword?
Intent – Is the person searching on the keyword looking for information or are they looking to buy?
Relevance – Does the keyword align with and have the same meaning as your product or service?
To avoid missing out on new visitors, your team must understand there are variations, misspellings, and even different ways of saying the same thing. You can’t simply target an exact match of one keyword and be done.
Learn how Arkane Solutions can help boost your SEO, traffic, and business results.
A truly great SEO platform functions as a partner with brands to scale their organic marketing programs to create valuable content, ensure that it appears in search results and helps you measure results.
