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Search engine optimization is the process of optimizing web content for a search engine. This includes, but isn't limited to, keyword selection, page titles and meta tags, site architecture, and other methods. The goal of SEO is to ensure that your site appears high on any given list of relevant results returned by popular search engines such as Google. If you are looking to promote your business online or want to make it easier for people to find you, then search engine optimization is essential.
Why Is SEO Important?
There are several good reasons why search engine optimization is important. Let's take a look at some of them:
- You will get more visitors to your website. When customers find you in the search results, they are much more likely to purchase from you than when you have no presence whatsoever. In fact, according to research conducted by HubSpot, 75% of consumers use the first three pages of search results to help determine who they are going to buy from. So if you want to build a loyal customer base, SEO is critical.
- Your rankings can vary based on the type of keywords used. It is a common misconception that all keywords are created equal. A recent study found that there were over 20 million unique variations of a single word! That means that different search phrases can lead to very different results. For example, if I search for "dog training" with Bing, my top result is a link to a dog trainer near me. However, if I search for "dog training services," my top result is for a pet store. This illustrates how important it is to get the right keywords in place when doing SEO work.
- SEO can be extremely profitable. According to Moz, about 50% of the traffic coming from organic searches comes from mobile devices. Mobile users tend to spend longer periods of time browsing websites so if your site shows up in their searches, you have a greater chance of keeping them around. So while most businesses focus heavily on getting ranked highly in Google, this doesn't necessarily mean that getting ranked highly in Bing is useless. In fact, Bing has a number of features that allow businesses to create custom landing pages for each specific keyword, which can be incredibly useful for increasing conversions.
- SEO can be extremely easy to do. All you need to do is optimize the content of your website. There are many tools available that can help you out here. Once you've done that, it's just a matter of getting people to come visit your site. As mentioned earlier, mobile users spend more time browsing sites, so if your site is optimized well for mobile users, you'll increase your chances of ranking high.
How Does SEO Work?
SEO starts by determining what kind of search terms potential customers might use when looking for information on your product or service. There are dozens of ways to figure this out including keyword research tools and competitor analysis. Once you know the types of keywords that will best describe your product, you can start using those words throughout your site. For example, instead of simply having the phrase "dog training services" appear in a sentence, you could include the word "training" somewhere else on your site.
You also want to make sure that each time someone types a query into one of your targeted keywords, your site displays prominently. To do this, you can put links to your site in the page headings. You should also consider putting these links in the footer, sidebar, and other places where you think they will be seen regularly. Finally, you can write an article specifically geared toward the keywords that you're targeting and submit it to sites like EzineArticles and Squidoo. This is a great way to get your articles featured on a wide variety of blogs around the internet.
Once you've built a healthy backlink profile, it's time to start submitting your content to directories. These sites don't always give credit for incoming links, but they are still worth submitting to because they provide free exposure for your brand. And once you reach a certain level of popularity, they may even feature your site on their homepage or blog.
In addition to building backlinks, you can improve your visibility through SEO by adding social media accounts and sharing your posts on forums. By doing this, you will gain followers that will eventually become customers. Also, you can ask friends and family members to share your content with their own networks. While it's true that viral marketing is not guaranteed, it does increase the likelihood that your content will spread quickly.
While you can hire a professional SEO company to perform the bulk of your SEO tasks, you can also get started with the basics yourself. Here are some things you can do to get started on the road to higher rankings:
- Make your website mobile friendly. It's 2016 and if a user wants to visit your site, they expect it to be easy to navigate on a smartphone. If you aren't mobile friendly yet, get it fixed today.
- Submit your content to directory sites like Dmoz, Yahoo Local, Yelp, and Craigslist. Most of these sites accept submissions manually through a form so you can just follow the instructions for each site and submit your content.
- Use tools like Screaming Frog and Majestic SEO to check the backlink profiles of competitors and see what keywords they rank for.
- Find a good keyword tool to track the performance of your keywords and monitor the competition.
- Submit a sitemap to Google Webmaster Tools.
- Write a few articles and submit them to article directories and blogging platforms.
- Post regularly on discussion boards and forums related to your industry.
Conclusion
Search engine optimization is one of the core aspects of digital marketing strategy. Whether you are a small mom and pop shop or a multi-national corporation, SEO will help you to dominate your market. With the right knowledge, you can easily learn how to implement search engine optimization techniques into your marketing plan and increase sales and profits.
