Does My Website Need SEO?

October 21, 2022

What is SEO & Why is it Important?

You’ve probably heard a hundred times that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a vital digital marketing tool. But do you know how SEO works? Even if you have a basic understanding of what it entails, you may still not have a solid grasp of this complex and multifaceted process.

SEO comprises multiple elements, and knowing what they are and how they work is key to understanding why SEO is so important. In short, SEO is crucial because it makes your website more visible, which means more traffic and opportunities to convert prospects into customers.

It’s also a valuable tool for brand awareness, building relationships with prospects, and positioning yourself as an authoritative and trustworthy expert. So, here’s everything you need to know about SEO and why it’s vital to succeed in today’s digital world.

The Crucial Elements of SEO Marketing

Gone are the days when keywords were the only SEO technique that mattered, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t still crucial. The difference is that today, keywords must be well-researched, carefully chosen, and judiciously used in your content to be effective.

But what are keywords, exactly? Keywords are words and phrases that prospects use to find online content that brands can use to connect with prospects looking for their products and services.

When undertaking the key steps of keyword research, it’s important to look for ones that have high search rates and low competition and to choose short-tail keywords (such as Bottle), long-tail keywords (such as Boxes of bottles for sale), and local keywords (such as Boxes of Bottles for sale in Singapore) to work into your content. Along with a primary or seed keyword, you should also have secondary and tertiary keywords, as they will still offer value to your business. Finally, use keywords to optimize all your titles, URLs, and other on-page SEO elements (more on that later…)

Content

Content is vital to SEO because it’s the vehicle you use to reach and engage audiences. Knowing your angle and crafting content that fits is essential.

For instance, if you own a nursery and want to increase your visibility, you might publish a series of blogs about gardening, choosing suitable species of plants, growing tips, and more. When a person who wanted to know about gardening went looking for that information, your blog would come up, and you could build a relationship with that prospect by providing valuable information. The idea is that when the time came for that prospect to buy a plant, you’d be the first nursery to come to mind.

Today’s content must be educational but also interesting, relevant, and shareable. Content comes in a variety of forms, including:

Web page content
Videos
Blogs
Infographics
Podcasts
Listicles
How-to guides
Whitepapers and e-books
Social media posts

Search Engine Marketing

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) refers to paid marketing efforts, including native ads, Google AdWords, social media ads, pay-per-click (PPC), Google shopping ads, and display ads.

Although SEM isn’t always a significant component of a comprehensive SEO strategy, it does have its place, as it can help you reach new and highly targeted audiences. You can also make your SEO and SEM work together.

Examples of SEM advertising activities include:

Paid and targeted campaigns
Keyword-based copy that specifically relates to your business or product
Performance indicators such as click-through-rates (CTR) and cost-per-click (CPC)

Understanding the Importance of SEO for Modern Businesses.

Visibility and Rankings

One of the most important functions of SEO is increasing visibility, making it easier for prospects to find you when they search for something you have to offer. Visibility is directly related to your ranking.

The more effective your SEO efforts, the higher your ranking and visibility. The higher you rank on a search engine result page (SERP), the more likely prospects will see you and click through to your site, which is key to increasing your organic page ranking. This is especially important, considering a quarter of web users never click past the first SERP.

Web Traffic

Increased web traffic is one of the main goals of SEO, and you increase traffic when you increase visibility and rankings. Consider this moment: the #1 spot on a Google search gets nearly 32% of clicks, and moving up just one spot in search results can increase CTR by an impressive 30.8%.

The golden grail for many marketers is the ‘Featured Snippet’, often referred to as position #0, as it appears above the first ranked URL. This is usually content taken from a blog’s landing page that answers a question people are searching for and can considerably boost your organic click-through.

So, if you want more people to find your website through a search engine, you need to use SEO practices to help you rank among the top five positions and, ideally, number one.

The Crucial Elements of SEO Marketing

Keywords

But what are keywords, exactly? Keywords are words and phrases that prospects use to find online content, which brands can then use to connect with prospects looking for their products and services.

When undertaking the key steps of keyword research, it’s important to look for ones that have high search rates and low competition and to choose short-tail keywords (such as dog), long-tail keywords (such as terrier puppies for sale), and local keywords (such as puppies for sale in Boston) to work into your content. Along with a primary or seed keyword, you should also have secondary and tertiary keywords, as they will still offer value to your business. Finally, use keywords to optimize all your titles, URLs, and other on-page SEO elements (more on that later…)

Authority

Page Authority (PA) is increasingly important to search engines as it’s becoming more important to web users. Essentially, authority means that your website is trustworthy, high quality, relevant, and has something to offer.

Scores range from 1 to 100; the higher your number, the more authority your site has. You can find your PA rating using tools such as Moz, and while it’s difficult to influence it, many SEO experts believe it’s to do with link profile – getting external links from credible and well-visited sources.

Creating a Better Visitor Experience

Another reason SEO is critical is that all the time you put into generating great content and on-page SEO optimization improves your site’s usability. This creates a seamless and positive customer experience.

For instance, making your site responsive will make it usable for all your mobile visitors and people who visit from a laptop or desktop. Similarly, increasing your page load speed will reduce your bounce rate and encourage visitors to spend longer on your site. Consumers expect a page to load as quickly as possible with a loading limit to not creep past three seconds! The longer the load time, the higher the bounce rate and the lower your conversions.

Remember, Search Engines Are Fallible

SEO is essential because search engines aren’t perfect. If you don’t take steps to counter their failings, then your website will pay the price.

For example, if a site doesn’t have a proper link structure, then search engines may not crawl and index the site properly, which can lower rankings. Coding errors can block search engines entirely, making it impossible for your site to rank, no matter how much time you put into other SEO efforts. Other common areas where search engines can run into problems include: