What Does SEO Stand For and Why It Is Important

Alongside social media, every good digital marketing plan should include Search Engine Optimization or SEO. SEO is often overlooked by many businesses because they don’t understand the value or it or simply just don’t understand it at all?

So, what does SEO stand for and why is it important for your business?

Search engine optimization or SEO is the name given to activity that attempts to improve search engine rankings. It’s a way you ‘optimize’ your site’s content so so that it is visible in search engines. A lot of small to medium size businesses don’t use SEO for branding or sales and falsely believe that because they have built a website, then this is all they need and that their customers will find them. The old ‘build it and they will come’ mentality is not a good strategy in this digital age. To prove a small point, look at your own search behaviour! Have you ever tried to google™ a local business for the first time and can’t seem to find them anywhere in the search results? Oh hang-on a minute……there they are on page 10! Yeah right, who scrolls through all the way to page 10? I know i don’t! It’s crazy to think a business has invested time and resources into a swanky new website, but put no effort into sending people to it or making it easy to find in search engines. In all honesty, without implementing an SEO strategy for your website, then you really are wasting your time and money on the website in the first place. SEO driven websites can help rake in huge profits for businesses, just because they are easy to find or easy to search for. It’s never too late to start but the longer you leave it, the longer it will take to get you to where you need to be.

SEO Is Too Technical?

Technical terms such as algorithms, SERPs, MetaTag, Short-tail keywords, Long-tail keywords, 301 redirect, spider, crawlers and HTML can be overwhelming and make your head spin. And for any busy business owner, who is already struggling to just get through their email inbox every day, it also means they just don’t have time or the desire to learn something that seems complex. Believe me, it’s not rocket science. But I won’t lie, it is time consuming, frustratingly dynamic and at times the technical terms can make your head hurt, but anyone can learn AND if you are a business with a website then you should definitely be investing in it. Google™’s algorithm in particular is always changing, its very smart and can be complicated to understand for the average marketer, let alone busy business owner. So if you have a website and you don’t have time to do your SEO yourself, then please outsource it.

It’s All About Content

I’m sure you’ve heard the term “Content Is King”? So what does this mean and what effect does this have on how Google™ ranks your site? You should always make sure that your content is fresh, ie new and consistent, evergreen and relevant to your audience. Whatever you do, do not use clickbait, misrepresent or name things something that are not. This does not bode well with the Google™ gods. Google™ is always looking for high-quality content, things that people are actually ‘googling’ for and doesn’t want to see fluff or overuse of a word or term. In addition to the quality and relevance of your site’s content, Google™ is also looking for other important factors like how people engage with your site, load speed, mobile-friendliness (responsiveness), unique content, and valuable content. All of these things are what Google™ uses to evaluate your site’s ‘authority’ and help to rank it higher or on the first page of search engines.

Know Your Customers

When optimizing content, you should know its importance to your target audience and what it is for. Do some research on your audience and understand the specific keywords or key phrases they use when describing or searching for your products and services and use these keywords and phrases in your SEO efforts. This is just so important as this is how you maintain relevance in your content and become a lead player in your industry in Google™’s eyes. Search engine optimization is all about knowing your customers and delivering your content in a way that your customers will find it and engage with it. It’s your responsibility to know your customer, what they want, and ensure you have them as your main priority in everything that you do. Because when you do, this is when you are able to implement SEO like a pro. Doing SEO is not hard and your not always going to get it right the first time, but keeping up with your customers, learning what and how they use your products and services will ensure you do it better next time.

Want More Info?

If you would like to know more about SEO and what you can do for your business, here is a good article we recommend you start with: https://yoast.com/ultimate-guide-to-small-business-seo/