Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of increasing the amount of traffic your website receives through search engine results. It is a great tool to organically increase your rankings in search results – now who wouldn’t want to rank higher for FREE? Integrating keywords relevant to your website and its audiences is the most popular SEO tactic. Implementing SEO strategies are a simple and *nearly* effortless way to raise your ranking within Google's search engine. The higher your ranking, the closer to the front pages of these Google Searches your website will appear. This increased visibility boosts traffic, increasing your presence online and making it easier to get a potential customer’s attention!
93% of customer interactions over the internet begin with a search! Google, bringing in 33.6 billion dollars in revenue in its last quarter, is the leading search engine provider by a landslide. This site handles 63.2% of search queries in the United States, making it vital to ensure your ranking on Google is as close to #1 as possible. Google is also in the lead concerning the mobile search market! The search engine handles nearly 90% of all search queries and owns Google Search, one of the most popular mobile apps across smartphones.
SEO Optimization
SEO doesn't mean completely changing your content or ripping apart your website! SEO should be integrated with your preexisting pages and posts. Some helpful SEO tips are:
- Utilize relevant keywords. Be sure to sprinkle keywords relevant to your industry and audiences throughout your copy and content. Include words your viewers would use in a Google Search because this raises your ranking on Google, bringing your website towards the first pages of these searches.
- Quality & Consistency. Your audiences should want to share your content! Make sure your content is interesting and up to date to stay relevant. Regularly posting quality content will retain traffic and increase your spreadability. It’s also a great idea to set up a schedule to keep a consistent flow of content being published.
- Make easily shareable content. Having other websites link back to your page is a huge part of SEO and search-ranking. The more pages your link appears on, the more relevant your website is according to Google. This includes links on social media profiles, so use social promotion to your advantage! Try including a share button on posts to make it easy for others to pass the link on from friend to friend on their social profiles. A share button also makes it easier for other bloggers to grab your link and pass it on through their posts.
- Social Media Marketing. You likely already encourage people to share your content on their Facebook and Twitter pages, but it never hurts to do a bit of social media marketing of your own. By sharing your content on other platforms, you are increasing how many places your website is linked. Every time you are retweeted, quoted, or reposted, your link is then spread to another page on the internet. These backlinks allow potential customers to click through to your website and help your search rankings – it’s a win-win situation!
- Website speed. The speed of your website is another factor in SEO and how you rank in search engine results. The speed of your website, especially your mobile website, affects traffic and SEO so it is important to ensure your website is as fast as possible. If your website is laggy and crashing, it will definitely be a turn-off! Don't drive away your audience or hurt your ranking with a slow website. This goes for the mobile version of your website, as well. You can verify the speed of your page with tools such as Google Page Insights. Page Insights provides data for both mobile and desktop browsers and search engines so you know what needs to change to speed up your website!
- Internal linking. Internal linking is the practice of including links relevant to your content within your posts. Linking to other websites gives audiences further reading. It also increases your credibility with your audience and search bots. Search bots crawl the web collecting data, and the more sources they find, the more credible your website becomes. Internal links help bots know what content is relevant to your posts and website as a whole, allowing you to show up higher and in more results on Google.
- Meta Descriptions & Titles. A meta description is the bit of text (only 160 characters long) that appears under the title of your website on the search engine results page. Creating a short and sweet, meaningful, and eye-catching meta description will draw in clicks and traffic. Though this helps increase click-through rate (CTR) and drive traffic to your website, it doesn’t directly affect SEO.
- Image tags. Under the image's alternative text, clearly and accurately describing the image to the best of your ability will increase the likelihood that it'll appear towards the top of an Image Search. This tag helps to better define your image and more accurately index the picture. Implementing this is a great SEO practice for e-commerce websites!
- Consult a digital marketing expert. Speaking with a digital marketing expert, such as one of our highly skilled team members at LETSDEVELOP.TV, will leave you with invaluable industry insights. A digital marketing expert knows first hand what does and doesn't work, as well as what tools and services may work best for your brand.
Types of SEO
SEO isn't exclusive to general search results. In fact, there is SEO that targets various types of searches, such as:
- Image Search SEO
- Video Search SEO
- Academic Search SEO
- News Search SEO
- Paid Search Results (Google Ads)
- Industry Specific Vertical-Search Engine SEO
- Location-specific SEO strategies (addressed location targeting).
SEO increases the amount of traffic driven to your website through organic search results. It is important to pay attention to SEO because it is a FREE way to rank higher in organic Google Search results. Many SEO practices can easily be implemented throughout your website and every piece of content you post, so don’t be afraid to try some out! It doesn’t have to be as time-consuming or complicated as you may think and if you adopt even just a few tactics it can increase your ranking.
Looking for more information about other digital marketing topics? Head on over to our blog. To learn more about LETSDEVELOP.TV, our services, our experts, or to consult a digital marketing guru, please contact us. We are a full-service marketing company, that specializes in brand development, web page design, and web video production.
