If the questions on your lips are “What is SEO and why do I need it?” Then you’ve come to the right place. It’s important to make sure your business gets found online and SEO helps you do just that, but what is SEO?
What is SEO?
SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is simply a way of ensuring that you do everything possible to get indexed on Google (or other search engines). The results users receive are “prioritized” by Google according to many factors, one of them being relevancy.
So when you perform a search, you’re actually getting results from Google’s index as opposed to just the live internet. To make a long story short and sweet, you’ll want to be indexed by Google.
Now that we’ve tackled the “what”, let’s explore the “why”:
5 reasons why you need SEO:
- Organic search is the best source of website traffic
Organic search plays a huge role in the performance of your website and in getting users to engage, which then leads to conversions, which is what your business’ ultimate online goal should be. Because Google owns the vast majority of the search market, most marketers will know that sticking to the guidelines Google has set out is a good way to ensure positive rankings.
- SEO helps to build credibility and authority
When it comes to Google or any search engine for that matter, establishing authority is vital, you want to be virtually seen by Google as the expert in your field or a credible source of information on a specific topic. You can achieve this by having quality backlink profiles, positive trends in user-behaviour, machine-learning signals, and by having your on-page elements and content well-optimized.
- It improves User Experience
User experience can make or break your website’s success because Google has learnt how to interpret both good and bad user experience. Your users know what they want and they expect to find it easily so it’s your job to make that happen. Making information easy and quick to access should be high up on the priority list because if it isn’t you’ll end up with many users leaving your site relatively quickly, which doesn’t look good to Google.
- SEO influences the buying cycle
When SEO is done well, it influences the buying cycle in a couple of great ways because prior to becoming your customers, people will do a fair amount of research first, and you can ensure that your business is as visible as possible and also looks as authoritative as possible. Use clever SEO tactics to draw attention to specials, good deals or services that you offer – Doing that could make a huge difference in how your business performs online.
- You really do need to be on the first page
If you want your content and website to be seen by users, then you’ll need to be on the first page of Google to ensure that you get found. Every SEO specialist worth his/her salt knows that the first three organic search ranking positions get most of the click-throughs from users and many of the others sadly don’t get any action at all.
