Are your prospective clients finding your website when they search for your products or services? When you search for your business, is your site at or near the top of the results? Did you know for the past several years, at least 87% of shoppers begin their product search online? If you have heard of SEO and SEM but don’t understand how it relates to your business, we are here to help! Search engines like Google and Bing return two types of results: paid and organic.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the process by which a website is optimized, so it is included in the list of results for a specific search. It increases the likelihood the website or page will appear near the top of those search results. SEO is accomplished in many ways, using HTML best practices and also by carefully scrutinizing the page and site content. SEO allows your site to be discovered organically without paying a search engine to include your page in search results.
Organic search results can be enhanced by using SEO techniques. Paid search results are the product of a well-managed SEM campaign. Either method can be used to increase traffic to your site, and both approaches have benefits and disadvantages. Why is SEO so important to your business? The simple answer is that it drives customers to your website without paid advertising.
The Basics
Google, Bing, and other search engines crawl the Internet to index website content and display the results for search queries. Website speed, security, document structure, and the “bounce rate” of your site are all factored into your rating. The website bounce rate is the percentage of users that enter the site and then immediately leave. Search Engines display websites with a low bounce rate higher, viewing their content as more relevant. The best thing about SEO is you do not have to pay the search engine to improve your results; however, the benefit of these changes may take some time. Some enhancements are technical so that an SEO expert can improve your organic search results.
Optimizing Each of Your Webpages with On-Page SEO
On-page SEO is an excellent place to start learning the ropes. This is the process of making your page content relevant to keywords people are using in their search. This effort does not focus solely on the body of your website content. In addition to ensuring all content is engaging and easy to read, on-page SEO considers keyword research and placement. We are optimizing your title tag and metadata as well as the HTML alt tag for all images. SEO can be improved by excellent content but also by the inclusion of well-formed HTML source code.
Off-Page SEO: Improving Ranking Outside of the Website
Off-page SEO are actions taken to increase SEO outside of your website. One example is when a search engine sees links to your content created on other websites or platforms. One way to increase links is by “backlinking.” Backlinks are links to other relevant high-ranking sites. Search engines will view these links on other websites as evidence illustrating the trustworthiness and relevancy of your website. Another way to improve off-page SEO is to harness the power of many social media platforms. Examples might include marketing with popular influencers or sponsored mentions of your page on their page. It is important to know SEO does not stop with the content on your website.
Technical SEO: Optimizing the Technical Side of Your Website
Technical SEO is the work done “under the hood” of your website. This effort optimizes your page content so your site will rank higher in the results returned to a specific query. In brief, this includes optimizing page speed, ensuring plugins when present are updated, and having well-defined HTML structure and content. Technical SEO may be tempting to skip due to its complexity; however, this work is vital to improving SEO.
SEO is vital in making sure you are generating the most traffic possible to your website. Whether you need SEO, SEM, or both, B-Web is here to help. Our SEO experts will use strategies to maximize your traffic and place your website in front of prospective customers. Call us today for your free consultation and get your business to the top of the list.
