I often get asked about SEO and its importance, so I'm going to shed a little light as to both what it is and why it's important for your website.
SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the way you prepare your website to be indexed or "crawled" by search engines like Google and Bing. Search engines crawl every page of every website on the internet and rank them in importance to make it easier for consumers to find what they need.
Why Is It Important?
SEO is crucial if you want to get eyeballs on your website. Imagine if you sold a revolutionary kind of slip-on running shoe, but whenever someone Googled "slip-on running shoes" your website didn't even show up on the top 3 pages. Those are people who are specifically looking to make a purchase and they couldn't find you because Google didn't understand how relevant your site is to those keywords.
Most people don't look beyond the first page of results, so if you aren't ranking high enough your business isn't going to reach potential customers. There are both simple and complex ways you can optimize your website to rank higher than your competitors. It's not a quick fix, but in time you'll appreciate these free or low-cost solutions to getting discovered by your audience.
Thinking Long Term
Clients always ask for these changes thinking it'll be a quick process toward getting their website to the top of Google results. I want to clarify that optimization itself is an ongoing process and it takes time. While you can add meta tags to your photos and include keywords that will help your site, there will always be more content to publish, more research, and new keywords to discover.
You will need to continually update your content to keep it fresh. And you will always be looking for additional ways to build site authority through backlinks from other websites. While it sounds like a lot of work upfront, it will mean potential customers will be able to find your site without you having to spend a dime in marketing.
"Build site authority by getting high ranking websites to post links to your page."
Okay, So How Do I Do It?
The quick and dirty version?
- Research the keywords that people would use to find your page
- Publish quality, relevant content to your site regularly
- Use those keywords in your page titles, headings, and body text
- Add those keywords to meta tags for all the images and videos on your site
- Build site authority by getting high ranking websites to post links to your page
Building site authority is one of the most important steps, and unfortunately, one of the most time-consuming. It requires reaching out to top-ranking sites and social media related to your company to get them to post about you with links back to your site.
Example:
Your revolutionary slip-on running shoe company could get a write-up on a Zappos.com blog page that includes a link to your homepage. Zappos has a very high ranking when searching for running shoes. The link on their page not only sends more people directly to your site, it includes authority points that mean your site will get taken more seriously by search engines.
The more authority those sites have, the more they'll increase your authority ranking. You can learn more about site authority at the links below.
How Do I Do My Research?
There are several free and paid sites that can help you along the way. I've listed a few below. Feel free to explore them as several contain tutorials on how to get the most out of your research. Most of the advanced features require a paid subscription, but if you're crafty you can combine the sites to get more out of the free features and trial periods.
- Semrush
- ahrefs
- Moz
When In Doubt, Hire a Professional
If it sounds like another full-time job, it can be. That's why there are a host of SEO specialists and SEO copywriters that focus specifically on this subject. Hiring someone with SEO knowledge can give you back valuable time and save you the frustration of going back through your entire website to optimize content. They can also be an excellent resource for new content that has SEO baked in.
If you're looking to hire an SEO specialist please feel free to reach out on my contact page for an estimate. I'd be happy to give you a quote or refer you to someone in the field.
I hope I've been able to shed a little light on the subject, but if you have any further questions feel free to leave a comment or contact me directly!
Holly Holstein is a Los Angeles-based writer with over ten years creating content. She writes independent reviews and articles and is not compensated for her posts. If you enjoy her articles, please sign up to become a member!
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