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What is SEO and why is it important?

What is SEO and why is it important?

SEO stands for search engine optimisation. Simply it means getting your website ranked on the first page of the important search engines (typically Google and Bing), in the non paid search results. The explanation is pretty simple, but achieving great results can take a lot of work - especially in competitive markets.

SEO is about driving more traffic from organic search - which is the non paid for search results. Remember the term organic search - it is the name used by Google - so you'll see it used quite a bit.

We are going to look at the details of what SEO actually involves a bit later on this article, but first we need to look at why it's such a big deal.

Why is SEO an important part of most marketing strategies?

We carried out research across our customer base and found that on average SEO generated 52% of all traffic to their sites. For some sites it was as high as 80%, and for others it was much lower. On average it generated over half of all traffic.

People associate the first page results with market leaders

In general people trust Google's search results - which explains why they have such a large market share. With this trust comes a belief that if they find you on the first page of Google you must be one of the main companies in the market selling that service or product.

So even for sales that you can't attribute directly to SEO, there's a strong chance that it's had an influence along the way.

People are lazy

They want quick results. If they find what they need in the first page of the Google results (they will) and you aren't there - the chances are that they won't get any further in their journey to finding you. If you aren't there you're missing a lot of opportunities.

It can be cheaper than other marketing channels

A few years ago SEO consistently came in at half the price of the equivalent PPC advertising on a cost per sale basis. Things have changed as SEO is now typically more time intensive than it used to be. However, it does tend to come in less expensive than PPC when looked at in the longer term. Even though it tends to take longer to get results, the results last for longer and you're not paying every time someone clicks.

In addition the SEO work that you'll be doing nowadays will be adding value in a number of other ways than you're unlikely to be measuring directly - so the value for money  of SEO should be even better.

A site that takes SEO seriously tends to be a well looked after site

  • It will be well organised
  • There will be clear sign-posts to users as well as search engines
  • There will be fewer errors and issues
  • It should load faster
  • There will be more comprehensive information

A site that takes SEO seriously should be more customer focused

I'm taking the broader view of SEO here and definitely one wearing a white hat. To understand the right SEO key phrases to invest in, you need to understand your customers. Anything that encourages a business to spend more time understanding and serving its customers is a good thing.

Well that's six important reasons why SEO is an important part of a maketing strategy. Now we are going to look in more detail at what it involves.

On site optmisation and off-site optimisation

If you are reading about SEO you'll read about on-site and off-site.

On-site is everything that you do on your site and includes:

  • Optimising the pages - meta data and visible date (more about this later)
  • Making sure there aren't any errors and issues on the site
  • Optimising the images you use on the site
  • Making sure you have an up-to-date site map
  • Using good internal links on the site
  • Creating content to answer your customers questions

These activities would all classed as on-site SEO.

Off-site SEO is everything that you do on other sites to improve your rankings

These can include:

  • Making sure you have good quality links into your site from other sites
  • Optimising your social media and other marketing channels for your priority key phrases
  • Creating information and posts on other sites that link back to your site
  • Keeping your local listings up to date
  • Posting videos on YouTube
  • Posting slide show presentations on SlideShare

This could be a whole article in itself. I'm sure the list I've given you above will give you a pretty good idea of off-site SEO activities.

Measuring how you are doing

A good starting point is to measure how much traffic you are getting from Organic search. The best and most common tool for this is Google Analytics. It's free and its great.

As soon as you are measuring the amount of traffic, you need to understand how it's performing. At the most basic level this will be the enquiries and sales that it is generating. In the industry these are known as conversions or goals. Depending on how valuable these are for you, you can even track telephone enquiries and where they came from.

You'll probably also want to understand how people are using the site. Which pages do they arrive on (known as landing pages)? Which pages do they look at and spend time on? Where do they leave the site?

If you're like most people you'll also want to track how well you are ranking for important key phrases. If you've only got a few key phrases you could do this manually, but most people will use an automatic tool. There are lots that do the job at different price points - just have a quick search on Google.

So now you know what SEO is and have pretty good idea of what it involves. From my experience it works well and will generate value for the majority of businesses. I recommend that whether you choose to do it yourself or use an expert SEO agency - it should be an important part of your marketing strategy.

Tips for success

Most businesses that I come across are doing something in regards to SEO, but plenty don't really understand it or take it that seriously. You should now understand that it isn't a black art and is a good opportunity to get better results from your digital marketing spend. Don't be tempted to get fixed on where you are ranking for specific key phrases. Today it is more important to focus on the quality of your organic traffic, that it is growing and consistently delivering better results for your business.

  

 

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