SEO (search engine optimization) is the system by which websites rank on search engines like Google, Bing, and others. Essentially, it is how search engines find the websites that are going to most answer the questions that people are searching. It does this most effectively by searching websites for popular keyword phrases and ranking them. Having an SEO expert on your marketing team is an essential tool towards reaching greater numbers of people. An SEO specialist knows how to use search engine optimization to boost your website up the ranks of Google and other search engines, to drive more traffic (and more business) to your company.
Let’s face it, the world is getting busier, and you’ve probably realized by now that “getting out there” simply isn’t cutting it anymore. You can’t leave your business in the hands of your clients hoping for referrals. People today have just as many hours in a day as they did a century ago but with 100 extra distractions, which means that you’re competing against social media, texts, and a flood of other things for even a few seconds of that time. If you want to grow as a company, you need to win that competition, and SEO is your key to getting there.
Why You Need To Rank
To quote an old saying in the marketing industry: “The best place to hide a dead body is on page two of Google.” It’s a pretty funny phrase, until you try to remember the last time you looked on page two of Google, or any search engine for that matter.
It’s a saying for a reason. Here are some facts:
- StatCounter tells us that Google dominates around 92% of the worldwide search engine market share, with Bing coming in second at only around 3% and Yahoo hovering at 1.5%.
- According to Search Engine Journal, the first result that comes up on a Google search receives over 25% of people’s clicks. From there, the second result gets only 15% and the third result goes down to 11%. The tenth result, at the very bottom of the page, gets only 2.5% of clicks.
- Combined, the first page of Google search results receives almost 95% of all clicks, which means that if you’re not on the first page, you’re practically invisible
Add onto this the fact that the average amount of time a user spends from search to result is only one minute (according to Moz), and it’s clearer why it’s so important to be on page one of Google, if you want your business to be seen.
This might seem daunting. Unfortunately, there’s a lot more to it than that. The SEO landscape is big, everchanging, and constantly evolving. Keeping up the work required to maintain the rank you hold, let alone climb higher, is time-consuming and requires effort that should be devoted towards improving your business.
How To Rank With Search Engine Optimization
Seems pretty bleak, right? You’re probably asking yourself, “How on Earth can I compete with so many other businesses promoting similar things as me?”
This is where having an SEO expert comes in.
- Search engines want to answer people’s questions. So they are constantly looking for the keywords people are searching for, and rank websites based not only on usage of those keywords, but also how well they answer questions
- Utilizing search engine optimization we find the keyword phrases that will help you rank among those first options on Google, Bing, and other search engines, which means more traffic and more business to your company. This means you can grow and give yourself more freedom to improve your company
- By finding the keywords that people are searching for but not many competitors are using, you can boost your website higher up in the ranks of Google, and have more traffic driven to you, to your website, and to your business. This increases the likelihood of finding customers who will buy your products, meaning a greater income, and more growth for your company
Working with SEO experts and content writers, you will have the ability to generate more and more content using the right keywords and phrases to give your website, and in turn your business, the highest possible chances of being ranked by search engines.
But there’s more to search engine optimization than just creating content (even though it is the most important part).
Site Speed
You’ve heard the phrase, “time is money.” In the case of your website, it’s true. In fact, a mere couple of seconds spent waiting for the site to load could have a potential customer hitting the “back” button before they’ve even seen what you have to offer. (Remember what we said earlier how the average user spends only a minute from search to result? Every second counts.)
Recently, the website Moz performed a study to determine how effective site speed was with the success of websites. Here is what they discovered:
- Websites which loaded between anywhere 0-4 seconds showed significantly higher conversion rates than those that took 5 or more seconds to load
- Even the difference between the fastest loading pages was amazing. Pages that loaded in under one second saw more than double the percentage of conversions than those that loaded in two seconds
- While content is incredibly important, balancing it with faster site speed has the potential to make a huge difference in your conversion rates
If your core web vitals are slow then your website will be slow. A professional SEO Specialist will optimize your core web vitals to increase your site speed.
Shaving even a second off of your site speed can have an exponential effect on your website’s conversion rates. People want to see your site, not a loading screen, and the majority of the time they will not wait around.
SEO experts find what’s holding your site speed back and make the adjustments necessary to expedite it. Whether that be through improving links, graphics, or content as a whole, they will do what it takes to cut down on loading times, so that customers will be less likely to hit the “back” button.
Finding A Balance With Links
Having links to real information on your website shows potential customers that you know what you’re talking about. You can back up what you say with real information, which not only makes you look better in the eyes of your customer, but with search engines like Google as well.
Here’s the thing, though: It’s not enough to simply throw a bunch of links in and call it a day. Experts like Forbes show us that Google will not only consider if your links associate with your keywords, but it will also examine the quality of the sites you’re linking to. This means that using a few links from authoritative sources will show customers and Google that you know what you’re saying, but going overboard makes you look spammy and will penalize you in the long run by knocking you down the ranks.
An SEO specialist takes finding this balance out of your hands so that you don’t have to worry about it.
Traffic Is Great, But You Need Business
Traffic is very important to business, that’s self-explanatory. That’s the dream of having a website, right? Having lots of people visit it? But you are a business, after all, and to stay in business, you need people to pay for your products and services. It is better that you get 100 people who will buy coming to your website instead of 1,000 people who will just browse. With good SEO, you are more likely to reach the people who are searching for what you have to offer, which in turn increases the likelihood of making sales.
Having an SEO professional can help you generate content for your website that can bring the right people to your business, the ones who might be more inclined to hit the “buy” button.
Why Shouldn’t You Do This Yourself?
So it seems pretty straightforward, right? Just find the right keywords, put them in your content, and voila, instant business!
If only that were true.
Much like your business, there is an art and a science to using SEO and one that an SEO expert is professionally trained to use. Because, while keywords are helpful, there is such a thing as canceling yourself out. In the marketing world, we have a nice and cheery name for it:
Keyword Cannibalization
Like we said, cheery.
Keyword cannibalization is when you attempt to target a certain keyword multiple times between multiple pages. Rather than ranking you higher, this causes Google to make your pages compete against each other, which does more harm than good. In fact, you’ll begin to drop down the search engine ranks.
Why? Because rather than having a single high-authority page, you’ll have multiple semi-effective pages, none of which will be strong enough to get you in the money-spots of search engine result pages.
Combatting keyword cannibalization can be fixed, but takes some reworking, eating away at the time that you should be devoting elsewhere. SEO experts have that time and will make it their goal to repair and prevent this SEO misstep.
Ranking With SEO Requires Constant Work
Search engine optimization is not a single event, but rather it is an ongoing process. Because, as we are living in a streamlined world, where new content rises and falls in popularity (sometimes within a day, or even from search-to-search), it takes constant work and vigilance to make sure that your website is always producing content that will rank.
And this is one of the greatest benefits of having an SEO expert on your team. You will have someone in your corner who knows how to use the right phrases, the right keywords, and the right tools to help your website, and your business, improve.
In short, SEO experts take that job off your plate so that you can focus on other aspects of your business, which means that you are free to grow and increase your capabilities. A common term in the marketing industry is to “work on your business instead of in your business.”
Here Is How To Gain Authority With SEO
As you can see, search engine optimization is an essential part of digital marketing, but one that requires a lot of time and effort to maintain.
And this is what makes SEO experts so valuable: They take the tiring task of maintaining SEO off of your plate and in turn the possibility of greater business goes up. All the while, you get more freedom to improve your company and make sure that the quality of your products and services goes right up. The potential for business will grow, which can help you and your family live more comfortably.
XYZ Marketing is proud to offer SEO services to your business, to help your website rank higher on search engine results and direct more traffic to your business. We have case studies to prove our SEO works. We have brought companies from nothing into something great.
Whether you are looking for Ogden SEO, Salt Lake City SEO or other areas, schedule a time to meet with our team of experienced professionals to learn more about how you can benefit from search engine optimization.
Go with XYZ Marketing today for your Marketing. We are your next level.
