TV adverts, radio jingles, billboards, leaflets, posters, etc used to be the traditional method for businesses to reach their customers. However, with more advancements coming into the industry, business owners have shifted to the online space to grow their businesses. With the help of a digital marketing company, your business will reach more customers online while using fewer resources than you would if you used traditional marketing methods. Companies use websites, blogs, emails, social media, etc to grow their online presence.
In the sea of online businesses, what could be the one thing that makes a business stand out from other businesses in the same niche? The answer is SEO, Search Engine Optimization. Most online businesses have websites, emails, social media, and other platforms which they use as a means to put themselves out to the public. However, when you search for something, different websites are ranked on different pages and it is a no-brainer that most people will view the top three results, and hardly will anyone check the next page when searching for something. This and many more are made possible because of SEO. so, would you like your business to grow fast? If yes, here are five tips on how SEO can help your business grow fast.
- SEO helps to drive traffic to your website:
Having a website is very important if you are running an online business. A website allows any internet user all the details they need to know about your business – your products and/or service, contact information, Frequently Asked Questions about your brand, and so on. But what is the essence of having a well-designed website if no one visits it? With the help of SEO, you can bring more traffic to your site if it is properly optimised. SEO can make you more visible to people and your business will be very easy to find when people are searching for the product or services that you provide. This is done by using keywords or phrases that people search and using them on your website. These keywords will make your site appear as one of the top searches when these keywords are searched.
- SEO helps you provide a better user experience:
You can draw internet users to your site by using keywords or phrases to rank high on search engines. However, after bringing these people to your site, how do you keep them? The answer is SEO. Your website needs to be designed in a way that it is easy to use and people can easily find whatever they want from your site. If your website is easy to navigate and does not take forever to load, people will be more willing to visit your website than other sites. You can optimize your website by partnering up with an SEO company. Digital marketing agencies will help you make sure that people are happy to visit your site at all times.
- SEO builds credibility:
Using keywords to attract internet users to your site is one of the basic roles that SEO plays in the growth of an online business. However, there are other responsibilities that are required from a website owner when an internet user visits the site. First, internet users want to be assured that they will find what they are looking for. Also, they want information from verified sources. When you offer these, people begin to trust the information on your website and stay longer when they visit. This will help to make your business more visible on the internet and on search engines.
- SEO helps to build engagement and generate leads:
How would you feel if you visit a business’s website and after scrolling through the pages on the website, you do not find any means to contact this business? Not an email, or a social media handle, or contact number, nothing at all. Terrible, right? Having the means to engage through which your potential and existing customers can engage your page will help you foster a good relationship with them. This way you can generate leads for the business and if you play your cards right, you can also bring more sales. To succeed in this, you might need to meet an SEO consultant for help on how to generate leads and funnel these leads into sales.
- SEO brings value:
When your site begins to gain credibility among internet users, people begin to value the site. Because they are certain that they can get correct information from the site and if they need to make any complaint or inquiry, they will be attended to in a short time. This will bring more value to your brand and people will begin to refer you for free.
The benefits of SEO to any online business look so sweet and every online business owner wants them for their businesses. Every business wants to be the first result on a search engine when someone searches for anything in that niche. However, you must know that these benefits take time to actualize, but at the end of the day, it is worth the wait.
But when it comes to ranking websites, the idea of an easy task might be what you expect. This is never the case as there are so many factors considered by Google when ranking sites. A well-placed focus on the “why” of a competitor’s success can help you learn what they’re doing that is outweighing your own, and put measures in place to reverse it. A second part should analyse how sites fare online: do enough people visit? Where does their traffic come from – organic searches or paid advertising campaigns? Are there conversions happening without promising too much but delivering less than expected after purchase? If yes–how substantial are those results compared with total visitors & other marketing efforts?
To answer these questions, it is necessary to perform a thorough SEO analysis, which covers several aspects:
- Crawling
Google’s crawl process begins with a list of web page URLs, generated from previous crawl processes, augmented by Sitemap data provided by website owners. When Googlebot visits a page it finds links on the page and adds them to its list of pages to crawl. New sites, changes to existing sites, and dead links are noted and used to update the Google index.
- Indexing
In layman’s terms, indexing is the process of adding web pages into Google search.
Depending upon which meta tag you used (index or NO-index), Google will crawl and index your pages. A no-index tag means that that page will not be added to the web search’s index. By default, every WordPress post and page is indexed. A good idea for ranking higher in search engines is to let only vital parts of your blog/website be indexed.
- Queries
When you enter a search query into Google, it searches in its database for the webpages that are most relevant to your query and displays them as search results. This relevancy is determined by its algorithm. Unfortunately, nobody knows exactly what Google’s algorithm prioritises…except for one universally agreed-on factor: The number of quality backlinks to the target page.
After the analysis, comes the optimization…
Unfortunately, search optimization is not a fix it and forget it type of task. Google’s search algorithm is constantly evolving as they attempt to provide the best results for their searchers, and, of course, make as much money as possible in advertising. With that in mind, you should be doing these following tasks on a regular basis to continually optimise your website, and stay ahead of the search curve.
1. Keyword Research
You have to have an understanding of the current search landscape and your keywords. This is critical to not only do at the beginning of any marketing strategy, but also occasionally re-evaluate. Different tools will give you a wide range of search terms, how often they are searched, and the competition over those words (based on how many businesses are buying ads based on those search terms.) You’ll want to find as many relevant keywords for your business as possible that have low competition but high search numbers.
2. SEO-friendly Content
Content SEO refers to creating content that helps your web pages to rank high in the search engines. It includes everything to do with the writing and structuring of content on your website. In 2021, a study found that 89% of businesses rely on organic search as their most powerful distribution channel. Content SEO is important because search engines, such as Google, read your website, so the words you use on your site determine whether or not your site will rank in their results pages. Without quality content, your site does not stand a chance in the search engines.
3. Page Speed
Google is beginning to punish slow running websites. You want to make sure your page is always up to speed. Luckily there is a tool to do just that. Google Speed Insights will not only tell you if your page is running slow, but it will give you suggestions on how to speed it up. It is important to do this regularly and even follow up on those suggestions. Things you are doing on your website (posting new content, new products or pages) can slow your website down. You don’t want to be penalised for slow speed if you don’t know it is occurring.
Conclusion
Like visitors, Google reads and scans your website text. Google’s algorithm decides the ranking of your site largely based on the content you publish. So, you need to write awesome SEO content, focus on the right keywords and structure your website in such a way Google understands it. It’s a lot of work, but it will pay off in the long run.
