Building a website used to be an accomplishment in and of itself for a business. However, the landscape online is getting more and more competitive by the day and having a well-designed website on its own isn’t enough to be successful. There are hundreds, possibly thousands of websites just like yours selling the same things on the internet. How can you stand out? One way is through search engine optimization, or SEO.

What Is SEO

SEO basically means optimizing your site to increase visibility and move up in search engine rankings. Most people never look farther than the first page of search results when they Google something. This means that if your website does not show up on the first page of a Google search, no one will ever click on your website. Search engines have bots which crawl your website pages in order to index them. The search engine than analyzes this data and uses many different signals from this data when ranking pages in search results. Learning how to use this to your advantage can boost your online visibility immensely.

How It Can Benefit You

The first result on a Google search gets 32% of all clicks. Since most people click on the very first webpage listed on a Google search, you want to be that very first website that pops up. The more people who click on your website, the more customers you gain, and the more sales you make. 53% of potential customers say that they research a product online before buying it. Having a strong online presence has never been more important.

How to Start SEO Optimization

There are over 200 factors that go into how search engines rank content. Many different techniques exist for boosting SEO, but here are a few of the basics.

• Keyword Research- Research what keywords you want to rank for. For example, if you are a company who sells dog beds, you want to rank for the phrase ‘dog beds’. Google offers a keyword research tool which allows you to see the amount of traffic, competition, and cost of keywords while offering you similar keyword ideas. When creating content, make sure to use the keywords of your choice in the header, image alt tags, and sprinkle them here and there in your written content.
• Quality Content- Good keywords aren’t everything; you also need high-quality, engaging content. Google will rank your website based on how long people spend on it. So, if people click on your website, but click away just as quickly, this will hurt your ranking. Make sure you content offers exactly what the consumer needs and will keep them interested.
• Links- Links are essential to building solid SEO. There are three different types of links to pay attention to: internal links, outbound links, and backlinks. Internal linking involves linking pages of your website to other pages to encourage viewers to continue to explore your site. Outbound links to other websites provide outside resources, information, and support for your content. Backlinks are other websites which are linking to your site. A good backlink portfolio is time consuming to build but essential to ranking well.

In conclusion, search engine optimization affects how your website shows up on search engines and whether or not people engage with it. As shown, it is hugely important to your business’s success and can help you gain more customers and increase sales. SEO can be complex, but there are a few basic things you can do to improve it. If you want more help from our talented team with improving your SEO, contact us today. Check out our other products and services and see how we can help your business thrive.