More than 90% of purchases begin with a search engine. Whether it’s Google, Amazon, YouTube, or a social media website, the majority of people begin researching a product or service by performing an online search. This makes SEO one of the most powerful digital marketing strategies available to small, medium, and enterprise businesses.
What better way to market your business than to an audience who is actively searching for what your company offers? Google dominates the search engine market share with more than 90% of searches worldwide being made on its website. This translates to massive opportunities for growth by optimizing your website to appear on the first page of Google for high-converting keywords.
What is search engine optimization?
Search engine optimization is the process of increasing the search visibility of a web property for a specific keyword, key phrase, or keyword topic. Most people associate SEO with ranking web pages organically on Google, but the truth is that SEO is required for YouTube, Amazon, and even social media to maximize the search visibility of your video, product, or post.
The four fundamental aspects of SEO are keyword research, SEO content creation, on-page optimization, and off-page optimization.
Keyword research
This involves identifying the search terms that are best suited to your business as well as the content that will be required to rank for that search term. The ideal keyword is one with low competition, high search volume, and high business/commercial value.
SEO content creation
To generate traffic your content needs to rank highly for a keyword or keyword topic. SEO content refers to content that is published and ranks for search terms that will place more prospects into your sales funnel.
On-page optimization
This process refers to optimizing a page to target a specific keyword. On-page optimization also includes optimizing content for specific traffic opportunities such as featured snippets, rich results and other Google features that appear on the first page of the search results.
Off-page optimization
This includes all tactics that work to improve a page’s optimization but take place off-page. Examples building links internally and externally, directory submissions, and citations.
What are the benefits of SEO?
As one of the most powerful digital marketing strategies available, search engine optimization offers companies a long list of benefits that contribute to growth through increased search visibility. If you own a business, here are a few of the top reasons to invest in the optimization of your website.
Increased website traffic
More than 90% of users will click on a first-page result when they type a search into Google. The closer your page is to the number one position the more clicks your website receives. On average, the top 5 positions account for 65% of the total available clicks made on the first page of search results (desktop).
SEO drives more traffic by improving the SERP position (search engine result page) of your website.
Targets an audience best suited to your business
Optimizing your website to appear for specific keyword searches allows your company to be found by people who are actively looking for businesses like yours. This means targeting website traffic with buyer intent as well as visitors that will become customers in the future by moving them further into your sales funnel.
Performing content provides compounding returns
Content that ranks on Google’s search engine continues to drive traffic indefinitely which increases the return on your investment over time. As content surfaces at the top of the search results, your website receives more traffic from relevant keyword searches. This creates compounding returns as opposed to the option of pay-per-click (PPC) where the traffic stops when you stop paying for every click.
Lead generation and increased revenue
At the end of the day, the goal of SEO is to increase the leads and revenue your website generates for your business. SEO provides your company with the ability to reach a broader audience at each stage of the buyer journey so that you build brand awareness and nurture leads into new clients and sales regularly.
Why hire an SEO company?
The fundamentals of SEO are easy to grasp, however, search engines have steadily become more sophisticated in the way websites are assessed for ranking. There are more than 200 ranking factors that influence how high a website will rank. Smart Digital Marketing Ltd ensures your website can perform in the areas that matter the most.
Establish an effective keyword strategy
The keywords your content targets play a huge role in the level of success you experience in ranking a new or existing website. An effective keyword strategy should be the first aspect of the development of your site to establish short-term and long-term goals. An SEO specialist will establish the exact terms to target and the content required to develop your site to appear on the first page.
Stay updated on the latest trends and opportunities
Many things that worked in SEO a few years ago, that are no longer relevant today. Having an SEO company that understands the most current tactics and changes to the algorithm can generate more traffic to your website. Google makes minor updates to its algorithm daily and major changes at least four times a year.
Having a professional in your corner will help you maintain the growth of your website experiences through SEO services.
Maximize traffic opportunities
Google offers many different traffic opportunities within its search engine result page. Optimizing for SERP features can significantly boost the volume of traffic your web pages receive. Examples of Google SERP features include (but are not limited to) featured snippets, People Also Ask box, the local finder, video carousels, image carousels, etc. Each requires a specific type of optimization.
An SEO consultant utilizes a variety of optimization tactics that contribute to generating additional traffic from the SERP.
Increased conversion rates
When you hire an SEO agency all of your website activity is tracked and monitored to optimize conversion rates. At the beginning of your digital marketing campaign, an SEO consultant will identify key performance indicators to benchmark the performance of your content. By analyzing visitor behavior and the results of your KPIs, adjustments can be made to scale up the success you achieve and eliminate the poorly performing aspects of your website’s performance.
Gain the competitive edge
The competition is steadily rising as more business owners realize the importance of search engine optimization. An SEO agency will analyze your competitors on the first page of Google to determine the key factors that are working to rank on the first page. Your SEO strategy is based on what’s currently working to get results and what it will take to beat the top 10 websites.
Make 2021 the year you dominate the search results
SEO is more important now than it ever has been, after all, there’s no point in having a website if no one can find it. If you’re not sure where to begin, give us a call or send us a message. We’re happy to provide you with a free consultation and website analysis to get your website moving in the right direction.