The Internet is a giant marketplace. Today it is much bigger than any business would have imagined. Whether you want to shop for anything, read about new technology, or look for new places to eat, the first go-to source to discover for many people is Google.
The last few pandemic years accelerated this trend. With limits placed on us with social distancing, more consumers chose the web to surf and shop. And we aren’t just talking about clothes or accessories, but day-to-day needs – groceries, prescription medicines, doctor visits, and more.
Now imagine what it would be like to run a business without an online presence, without a website. It’s a lost opportunity – leaving the online market open for your competitors.
New technologies and software tools have made building and maintaining a website more affordable and accessible for small businesses. Despite that, only 71% of businesses have a website. Of the nearly one-third favoring website-free, 20% say they use social media instead of creating a website. (Main 2022) Having a website and a directory listing on Google are keys to being found.
A Website Alone Is Not Enough. You Need SEO!
Website design with graphics, blogs, content, and an attractive format is only part of the process required to create a searchable, findable, and workable website. A critical element of website design is to implement search engine optimization – SEO – which gives the website a fair chance of being found on search engines.
There are many things that Google requires a website to have and do to consider in its search engine search results. Most of these have to do with relevant and quality content, fast loading times, mobile optimization, meta titles and descriptions, structured data or schema markup, robots.txt file to tell search engine crawlers how to interact with the website, an XML sitemap for easier page crawling, etc.
It is important for businesses without websites to make sure that they are doing the right things and taking measures to get a high-ranking website. In addition to all of the above, businesses should also monitor their competitors’ sites and take note of what works well and try to replicate it. This can be done through tools such as Moz’s Open Site Explorer which shows how competitors are ranking for keywords across search engines.
Additionally, businesses should also ensure that their content is regularly updated by adding fresh content on a frequent basis and using internal links to other existing pages on their website as this will help to improve the overall ranking of the site. They also need to make sure that they are utilising social media platforms in order to reach out to potential customers and create
Here’s your starter guide for an overview of the essentials of SEO.
SEO Explained
The word SEO refers to ‘Search Engine Optimization.’ Marketing professionals often use tags, keywords, internal links, backlinks, and more. Some of you may find it daunting and give up the idea of optimizing SEO for your website. But don’t worry, it can be made simpler.
SEO is the process of making your website more visible in search engine results pages (SERPs). Optimizing your website for SEO involves optimizing its content and structure to make it more attractive for search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. The goal of this optimization is to ensure that your website appears at the top of search engine result pages when users type in relevant keywords.
To start optimizing your website for SEO, you should first develop an understanding of how search engines work. Search engines use algorithms (a set of instructions) to evaluate websites and determine their rankings in SERPs. The algorithms take into account factors
We agree it’s complex, but even basic SEO knowledge can significantly impact your website’s visibility. We can take you through it step-by-step.
SEO is a set of rules applied to garner more visibility for your website in major search engines (such as Google) organic search results.
Moz founder, Rand Fishkin, made a pyramid to explain how companies should go about SEO and dubbed it “Mozlow’s hierarchy of SEO needs.”
How SEO Works
The two active ways SEO happens are on-site and off-site. It is primarily why SEO marketing strategies are divided into on-page and off-page categories.
In simple words, SEO involves the following:
- Keyword research – You find keywords for your content that are best to target and provide insights into the queries your target audience is looking up on Google. There are many free and paid SEO tools to generate relevant keywords for your content.
- Content creation and optimization: Your website needs valuable content; a well-planned strategy to put content through blogs, podcasts, newsletters, and product info. The next step is to increase their visibility by sharing them repeatedly on social media platforms and building links to your content.
- Technical optimization – Technical SEO is part of on-page SEO, which focuses on improving elements on your website to get higher rankings, like making a website faster, easier to crawl, and user-friendly.
- Link building – It’s a long-term process of getting hyperlinks from other websites to your website. A hyperlink (sometimes just called a link) is a method for users to navigate between pages on the Internet.
Apart from these, search engines also look at website design and structure, visitor behavior, and other factors in determining the ranking for your site in its SERPs (search engine result pages). Do not underestimate the power of a well-designed website.
How Google Works With Search Rankings
Search engines like Google work with a clear goal – fulfill online users’ search needs by providing relevant, high-quality information and the best possible user experience.
Every time you open the search engine, its algorithms pick the most relevant pages to a specific query and accordingly rank them as the most popular ones, listing them at the top of the search page.
The tricky part is that these search engines keep their algorithms undisclosed. With repetitive usage and knowledge, SEOs have pinned down the factors to consider for ranking a page and its visibility.
Are You Ready To Start Your SEO Journey?
SEO is dynamic, but it’s ever-changing. For business owners, doing it on their own can be time-consuming and daunting to keep up with it. Furthermore, it takes some time to gain a proper understanding.
In the long run, a marketing professional’s assistance can be fruitful in achieving the desired goals. What performs well today may soon become an outdated tactic that no longer works optimally for your website.
One quick way to push the traffic is to take a paid route. We should remind you that buying ad words or paying for search engine ads is costly. It may only sometimes fit their marketing budget for entrepreneurs and smaller businesses.
At Innovate Social Media, we believe in creating organic (unpaid opportunities), giving your website a fantastic platform to shine. For more information, visit our website or write to us at info@innovatesocialmedia.com.
Works Cited
Main, Kelly. “Small Business Statistics of 2023.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 7 Dec. 2022, www.forbes.com/advisor/business/small-business-statistics/