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What is SEO? Why is SEO important to your business?
What is Search Engine Optimization?
The term "Search Engine Optimization" refers to optimising a website for search engines. In simple terms, it refers to upgrading your website in order to boost its exposure when consumers use Google, Bing, and other search engines to look for products or services linked to your business.
The higher your pages' exposure in search results, the more likely you are to attract attention and attract new and existing clients to your company. SEO targets unpaid traffic ("organic" results) rather than direct traffic or paid traffic.
Unpaid traffic may originate from different searches, including image search, video search, academic search,news search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.
The History:
In 1998, two graduate students at Stanford University, Larry Page and Sergey Brin developed "Backrub", a search engine that relied on a mathematical algorithm to rate the importance of web pages. The number calculated by the algorithm, PageRank, is a function of the quantity and strength of inbound links.
PageRank estimates the likelihood that a page will be reached by a web user who randomly surfs the web and follows links from one page to another. In effect, this means that some links are stronger than others, as a higher PageRank page is more likely to be reached by the random web surfer.
Page and Brin founded Google in 1998. Google attracted a loyal following among the growing number of Internet users who liked its simple design. Off-page factors (such as PageRank and hyperlink analysis) were considered as well as on-page factors (such as keyword frequency, meta tags, headings, links and site structure) to enable Google to avoid the manipulation seen in search engines that only considered on-page factors for their rankings.
Why is SEO important?
When it comes to deciding the ranking of websites that appear in its Search Engine Result Pages(SERP), Google considers several distinct elements. They want to find content that is not just related to the user's inquiry, but also trustworthy and valuable to the reader. Content that ranks high on the SERP has a far higher chance of generating clicks and attention than content that ranks below.
For example, when someone types “Chocolate Cake” into Google, they’re likely looking for a recipe, ingredients, and instructions on how to make it. If you wrote an article about making chocolate cake, you’d want people to find your recipe. For anyone to find it, you need to rank above all the other websites with recipes for chocolate cake. Making your page rank higher is called SEO.
Most online searches begin with a search engine like Google. In fact, 69.8% of those searches start on Google.
Here is how SEO helps your business
Increases visibility and rankings of your website
Users are more likely to choose one of the top five options presented by a search engine while looking for a service or product online. SEO helps you rank higher in search results and gain greater online visibility, increasing the likelihood that potential customers will visit your site and convert.
Increases website traffic
If potential customers can't locate your website, you're missing out on sales. SEO boosts your organic search engine traffic and the number of daily visits to your website. Because the more relevant people who visit your site, the more likely you are to sell to them. This immediately translates to an increase in sales.
Increases authority and builds trust
The better your SEO score is, the higher you’ll appear on search engines like Google and Bing. While ranking higher on Google is appealing to all brands because of increased visibility, a secondhand benefit is the trust you gain with potential customers. Users defer to the recommendations that a search engine generates, so having a higher position for the keywords a user is searching for will solidify your product or service as trustworthy in the user’s mind.
Authority means that your website is of high-quality and relevant content,, and has something to offer. The more authority your site has, the higher your ranking will be, and the more prospects will come to trust your brand.
Mobile-friendly website increases exposure
A well-optimized website explains what product or service is being offered, how to get it, and answers questions that may arise. Search engines like Google and Bing can simply pull the information they need to transmit to users by tailoring the site build to the user's experience. If a user has trouble navigating your site, search engines are likely to have trouble as well.
A website that is well-optimized is more likely to gain more customers and make more sales. People are also more likely to then share your brand across other social platforms like Facebook or Instagram once they’ve found your website through a search engine.
Site architecture plays an important role
A good website architecture leads to a great user experience, which is important for SEO marketing. PageRank focuses on things like fast loading times, a safe connection, and a mobile-friendly design.
Ideally, you’ll map out the architecture of your site before even buying the domain. That allows you to really get into your user’s head and reverse-engineer your way to a great user experience (UX).
A good website
- is easy to crawl
- has original content
- is mobile-friendly
Increases growth of the business
There’s no doubt about it–SEO is key to the growth of your brand. As we mentioned above, the higher you rank on a search engine for a variety of high-volume keywords, the more organic (aka non-paid) web traffic your site will receive. It’s as simple as that.
In the end, the ultimate reason SEO is essential is that it can help you achieve many of your business goals. SEO can help you build better relationships with your audience, improve the customer experience, increase your authority, drive more people to your site, give you an edge over the competition, and increase conversions, which means more sales, more loyal customers, and more growth for your business.
Conclusion
SEO has its challenges, but the opportunities it brings help future success for any type of business and is important to a brand’s web presence now and in the future.
SEO is beneficial to your website's social promotion. People who discover your website through a Google or Bing search engine are more likely to share it on Facebook, Twitter, or other social media platforms.
SEO can put you ahead of the competition. If two websites sell the same content, the one that is optimised for search engines is more likely to attract more visitors and generate more sales.