SEO is about getting found. It’s about attracting traffic and attention to your website, based on your content — and getting that content to the right people. Our goal is to help make sure that your site gets found by the people who are looking for it.
So what does this mean?
A search engine optimization strategy should take into account a person’s intent when searching for something, making sure that those searching for certain keywords can find you. By utilizing SEO, you improve the chances of someone finding your website through a search engine such as Google.
You might be asking what exactly is SEO. How does it work? What’s the goal? What’s the benefit to you, your business, or your company in getting a better ranking on search engines for certain keywords and phrases? Or are you asking how it works, what is SEO and what our goal is?
“SEO” stands for “search engine optimization,” which means improving the way a website shows up in search results. Because of that, it’s important to understand how search engines work — including Google — so you can fully understand why a website gets ranked as high as it does.
What does search engine optimization have to do with my business?
SEO can help your business in three ways:
1. SEO drives more traffic to your website – SEO is about getting found and what better way to get found than on a search engine? If this is done properly, it can bring thousands of people to your website. There are literally millions of websites out there, it’s hard to be seen without some effort behind them. You can impact your company’s growth by having a professional team handle this for you.
2. SEO can increase your sales – This should be a no-brainer. For example, if you are selling something online, the end goal is the transaction: the sale. A study shows that you can make a whooping 13%-18% increase in sales by getting to the top of Google.
3. SEO helps your website rank better on search engines – This helps people find your website and again, leads to more traffic and ultimately more business from all of those people coming to your site.
So how does SEO work?
Search engines like Google use complex algorithms to determine where web pages should rank for particular searches or keywords. These algorithms are designed to establish what they believe is the most valuable content on a given topic. They use keywords, or phrases, to figure this out.
Let’s look at an example.
Let’s assume you’re looking for information about the best irrigation companies in Austin and you do a search on Google for “irrigation companies Austin.” Here are some of the terms that Google might use in determining which web pages should rank at the top of their search results:
1. Phrases: “best irrigation companies” or “top irrigation companies” or “local irrigation companies”
2. Keywords: Irrigation, Companies, Austin, TX, or any other city in Texas…etc…
Differences between paid and organic search
Some of you may have heard of the organic search. This is when your website appears because someone browsing the web happens to come across your site in another way. Usually through a paid advertisement, such as Google AdWords or any other paid marketing channels.
Organic search means that you get to appear in front of people without having to pay for an advertisement. This is important because it helps keep your site from being “spammed,” which hurts the pages that are being advertised on it, but also impacts the internal website ranking, in terms of how well you rank on a search engine result page (SERP).
The three pillars of SEO
The three most important qualities that search engines look for in a website are ON Page, OFF Page, and Technical SEO.
On-Page SEO: On-page SEO is the most important aspect of search engine optimization. It pertains to the content you have on your website. Google has a complex system that counts on hundreds of elements and metrics. The first step they take is to determine which pages are popular based on the keywords you are using in an attempt to rank in the search results.
This means that, if your site contains highly specialized, in-depth information about a certain subject, as long as users are searching for that topic, you are likely going to be able to rank for it. You can easily see how this could increase traffic from search engines and thus increase sales for your business.
OFF Page SEO: Off-page SEO is a process of using other websites to rank websites. For example, linking to high authority websites that are authoritative in the niche you are targeting.
The problem with this is that the more links you receive, the more people will find your site and the more traffic it will get, but without it being in the hands of search engine algorithms. In other words, if one or two hundred people link to your website and ten of those links stand out as high-quality results (using their own quality metrics), you may not be able to rank well on search engines.
You should always be wary of external links; they can change fast and often lead to a loss of ranking status.
Technical SEO: Technical SEO is about the technical aspects of your website. It’s about the technologies you’re using for your sites, such as CMS, server type, server location, and more.
There are many skills you need to know in order to run a successful business on the web – from coding to design. Technical SEO is all about understanding these things and how they relate to the quality and quantity of traffic.
How do search engines actually work?
Search engines rely on algorithms to determine the ranking of web pages. As a result, there’s no way to tell for sure whether or not a particular page will be ranked #1 for any given query.
Think about it – if search engines published their algorithm, it would be much easier for people to game the system. This would lead to lower quality listings for users and a reduction in traffic (business) for those who do manage to rank.
While we can’t know with certainty how search engines work, we can make educated guesses based on years of research from marketing experts and analysis of different search results.
Conclusion:
SEO is a very important aspect of how you can get your business to be found by customers. As we discussed earlier, many people who are searching for your type of company or product will look first at the results page of a search engine. It is an important part of attracting and engaging potential customers.
It can also drive high-quality traffic to your website or landing page if you happen to be selling something online. Remember this key principle – when you run out of money, the only thing left to sell is traffic.
Traffic is more valuable than anything else because it indicates demand for a specific product or service (your product). So once again, SEO should be one of the top priorities in any online marketing plan.
