Why Does Your Website Need SEO?

If you’ve been in business for a while, you probably already know that the last twenty or so years have brought significant changes for companies all over. Among other innovations, the widespread use of the internet is probably the most massive change that we’ve had to get used to and incorporate into our businesses.

Nowadays, it’s mandatory that your business has a website – a good one. But it’s not just that. Your site also needs to look right, and be attractive to readers, and – most important of all – be searchable. What you want is to rank as highly as possible on Google and other search engines. And for that, SEO is essential.

Let’s look at why SEO is so critical for your website and your business success, as a whole.

What is SEO?

To understand why your business site needs SEO, we first must talk about what SEO is, exactly. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) does what it says on the tin – it optimizes your website for ideal search engine results.

Meaning, it helps your website rank as highly as possible on Google and other search engines. That is achieved partially through smart use of keywords that the search engine picks up on, but also through creating high-quality, relevant, and valuable content.

Why is SEO important?

Okay, but why is SEO so important for you and your website? Well, there are several reasons why you should be putting it on high priority. Here are just a few of them.

• Helps increase traffic

The increase in traffic you will gain from this is, perhaps, an obvious advantage, but one that cannot be overlooked. The higher up you are on that results page; the more people will come across your business.

Whether they click on your website when they come across it or just make a mental note of it, this kind of visibility will majorly contribute to your overall traffic, over time. It also contributes to overall brand awareness.

• Improves searchability

One of the most important things for your website is for people to be able to actually find it. You must make it easy for them by working on your searchability. That means making sure that your target audience and potential customers who are trying to find you have an easy time doing so.

Keywords go a long way when it comes to this, and it’s an extra incentive to work to obtain a placement on the first page of search results. If when typing in the name of your company, something else pops up first, then your SEO is not good enough.

If a customer can’t find you, they’ll just turn their attention to the competition, and that is a lost sale for you.

• Contributes to brand building

Brand building is just as much about what others say about you as it is related to what you say about you. You see, a major part of it is the content you create and what you use it say. Your actual content is important, but so is the way you implement SEO.

You can use keywords to create the narrative you want and project a certain image. All the while, you have to make sure that this is in line with your audience’s expectations and interests. The result will be a highly and carefully curated image that is completely cohesive with the branding you wish to establish for your business.

• Gives you an edge over the competition

When you’re ranked higher than your direct competitors, you automatically gain an advantage. The higher your position is in search results, the more traffic you’ve got, and the more people are going to be exposed to your page.

It doesn’t take a genius to realize that if you rank higher than your competition, people are more likely to check out your page and use your services, over theirs. Investing in SEO is really a must, rather than optional, if you want to survive on a market that is oversaturated with businesses just like yours.

• Creates a better user experience

A good user experience is everything, now. And SEO can help you ensure that your users are well catered to and that your content is valuable and accessible to them. All your efforts should be going to making sure your users find your website and your content as quickly and as easily as possible.

If you fail to provide the convenience or value that users are looking for, you will be surpassed by competitors who were able to offer a better user experience than you. So, when creating your website and creating your content, think about who is likely to visit your site, why they are on your site, what they’re looking for, what they want to read, etc. That will help you frame things in a way that is user-friendly and easily accessible.

How to do SEO the right way

Just implementing SEO isn’t enough; you have to do it the right way, too. The ideal SEO strategy may not come to you on the first try, but it can certainly be tweaked and improved in order to generate the best results for your pages.

• Cater to your user

The way you conceive your content makes a significant impact. That is because of the way Google prioritizes pages in results nowadays. Gone are the days when keyword density would land you on the first page of results. Now, your content needs to be relevant to the search terms. So, if a user searches for “dog leash”, but your content is about dog food, instead, your page will not be ranked high, no matter how many times you use the keywords “dog leash”.

In order to rank, you need to make your content well-written, relevant, and useful – in other words, you must provide value to the reader. That’s what Google is focusing on, now: user experience. Keep that in mind when creating your content.

• Optimize for mobile

There is no denying it anymore – the number of people using the internet on mobile devices vs. desktops is growing. Consequently, your SEO strategy needs to be adapted. That is to say, you need to prioritize mobile optimization. Yes, it’s an extra hassle, but it’s essential.

It makes sense and it will make a huge difference – you want to catch the users via the device they are using most frequently. Also, if you don’t, Google will penalize you for it. Google prioritizes mobile-friendly sites when indexing, so if you don’t get with the program, you miss out.

Having a website that’s safe and formatted and optimized properly is extremely important for ranking. In fact, if your site cannot be verified as safe, it won’t even make it to the top pages.

• Pick the right keywords

Keyword use is one of the most important things in SEO implementation. However, how you pick your keywords and use them is just as crucial. Keywords won’t help much, unless you are strategic about choosing them.

You see, if you’re looking to rank higher, then you don’t want to actually go for the most popular keyword. That’s the obvious one everyone uses, and the competition is intense. Instead, you can be the first result for one (or several) of the secondary keywords and obtain much better results.

You also want to be careful about how you use them. They need to be included sparingly. It used to be that you needed to stuff your content with as many keywords as possible. However, nowadays, it’s much more important to place them organically, so they will sound natural in high-quality, valuable content.

Conclusion

As you can see, SEO is not just important, it’s downright essential to your business website. It provides advantages from every point of view, and helps your business grow and thrive. Whether we’re talking about increased traffic, help with brand building, better searchability, or a bigger advantage over competing businesses, SEO can take your website from average to wow. You can very well take care of the SEO portion of your site on your own, but it’s a very good idea to hire a professional who’s well versed in search engine optimization.

Guest post by: Caroline Black