Categories
If you are a business owner, you have likely heard of SEO at conferences or networking events. Maybe one of your friends suggested it to you. Either way, SEO is one of the most important digital marketing methods, especially if you want to grow your business. However, Google will often release algorithm updates that affect rankings throughout the year, meaning your page one ranking could be lost.
If you are an entrepreneur looking to grow your business, you have come to the right place. In this article, we will take you through the different aspects of SEO and how it can generate more traffic to your website.
Different Elements Of SEO
SEO stands for search engine optimisation and is one of the best marketing strategies. There are thousands of businesses that optimise their website for SEO however, not many of them do it correctly.
SEO isn’t easy and there are many things you need to do before you start to see your rankings increase. Once rankings increase, you will soon see more organic traffic visiting your website. Not only will you see more traffic but you will also see more conversions. It is something we all want to see as a business owner, right?
Let’s take you through the different elements of SEO and explain why they are all important.
Keywords
Once upon a time, SEO used to be websites spamming keywords on your pages to help their site rank well. Now, SEO has come very far and prioritises user experience a lot more. Nevertheless, keywords are still essential for a website to rank well. If you are not optimising your website for the right keywords, you can wave goodbye to the first page of Google.
A keyword is something you search online to find what you are looking for. For example, when you search “Mens Streetwear”, you would expect to see men’s clothing in the style of streetwear. If you search for beach holidays, you would expect to see package holidays at the beach. You get the point.
Before optimising your website for these keywords, you must complete keyword research. This keyword research will give you search volumes and let you know how competitive those keywords are. If the keyword gets a lot of searches, you know it will be highly competitive so you need to put a lot more effort into it.
Content
Content is essential for every website, even ecommerce websites. This content is where you have an opportunity to naturally optimise it with the keywords you discovered during your keyword research. There is more to content than just optimising it for your keywords.
The content on your website is an opportunity to reach out to a specific audience. It is your chance to show the personality of your brand, showcasing what you believe in. There are many ways where you can increase the content on your website. Content can be increased by adding category content and blog form content.
Category content is where you will write about the service or product you offer. It is a great opportunity to drive organic traffic to your website and increase conversions. It is also an opportunity to link to other pages which users can click on to land on other pages, helping to improve click-through rate and user experience.
Blog content is something else which you can do for your website. Here, you can write about topics that are relevant to your industry. It is a good place to show off your knowledge and give useful guides to your users. For example, if you are a fashion brand, you can write a blog post on how to dress with a smart-casual look during winter. There are so many things you can write about as well. Just ensure you complete keyword research for those blogs to help increase organic traffic visiting your website.
Off-Page SEO
Off-page SEO is another aspect that is also very important for your website. It is anything that happens “behind the scenes” and something that you cannot see as a user. Optimising metadata is a form of off-page SEO. It is a great way to increase click-through rate to your website, by creating enticing meta titles and descriptions which users will want to see more of.
Another part of off-page SEO, and a very important piece of SEO is link-building. Link-building is essential for building authority on your website. It is also an opportunity to increase traffic to your website. Link building is something that many marketers get wrong and if they do get it wrong, it can lead to your rankings dropping as Google will penalise you.
Local SEO
Local SEO is great for small businesses that don’t have large marketing budgets to compete with larger companies. The reason is that these keywords will receive fewer searches and therefore, have fewer businesses trying to rank for these keywords.
It is believed that around 60% of searches on Google will involve a location in the keyword. For example, a dentist in Hawthorn.
If you are a small business that is looking to increase footfall then local SEO is essential. You will be competing with other companies in your area as well which is why you must get this right.
A good way to do this would be to increase your local directories and, creating specific pages for a location. It will help drive more traffic to your website and be more qualified. Therefore, the users are more likely to convert.
Google My Business is also very important for local SEO. Once you have optimised your GMB listing, you will see your business on the Google Business Map Pack. Again, this will help increase your organic traffic and visit your business more if you have a shop.
To Conclude
SEO is essential if you want to start your business on the first page of Google. It will help drive more traffic to your website and help drive more conversions. Once you have optimised your website for relevant keywords and search terms, qualified traffic will start to flow through.
There is one big issue with SEO which is why companies will avoid it. That is, you will spend a lot of money on your website before you see the results. For websites with low authority, it could be between 6-12 months before you start seeing organic traffic. Nevertheless, you will soon make your money back once the traffic does come through.