At this point, almost everyone is familiar with the term Search Engine Optimization (SEO). While many people understand the basic concept around SEO, most people don’t fully understand its potential impact or how easily it can be implemented into their current digital marketing strategy.
SEO: A Simplified Explanation
Search Engine Optimization refers to the actions taken to improve website rankings on search engines such as Google or Bing. Unfortunately, getting to the top of Google isn’t as easy as paid ads or keyword stuffing. SEO is intended to help consumers find what they’re searching for and satisfy their unmet needs. Because of this authentic goal, cheating the system to get to the top is quite difficult. In order to rise in search engine rankings, your business must put SEO at the forefront of its marketing strategy, pushing high quality, relevant content to consumers.
Why Paying Attention to SEO is Crucial
SEO should not be an afterthought; it should be the backbone of your digital marketing strategy and act as a guide for the content you create. Strong SEO correlates to higher organic traffic, making it an extremely valuable opportunity for businesses to increase their website traffic without the use of paid ads. Because organic traffic is from customers who are actively searching for solutions, they make perfect warm leads to pursue. In order to attract and maintain the attention of these valuable leads, you must ensure your content aids consumers by answering the questions they’re searching for and providing possible solutions through your business offerings.
The Easiest Ways to Improve SEO
While many business owners are intimidated by the vast possibilities of SEO, there are many easy tactics to get your business on the right track.
- Start Blogging: If you haven’t already incorporated blogging into your marketing strategy, now is the time to start. When it comes to SEO, blogging is one of the easiest ways to optimize your search engine ranking. Blogs can include keywords and related photos and media that will get recognized by search engines. This boosts your website’s relevancy and provides an additional channel for web traffic. Blogs function as informative pieces of content for your audience and an opportunity to demonstrate your expertise on a topic. The goal should not be to pump out as many blogs as possible but to share meaningful posts that answer the queries real people are searching for.
- Update Existing Blogs: Simply posting relevant blogs isn’t enough to stay on top of the SEO game. For best results, reoptimize blogs by switching up the title, keywords, photos and media. This refresh brings new life to the blog, causing it to be re-recognized by search engines. These quick updates convey the content is up to date and therefore more relevant to searchers.
- Network and collaborate online: Collaborating online is essential to effective SEO. Although consistent information coming from your brand is a great start, it’s crucial that other people are talking about your brand as well. The larger the overall conversation about your brand, the better search engines will recognize your content and recommend it to others. Getting other people posting about your brand and participating in content swaps and collaborations can be a fantastic way to boost your ranking. However, again, quality matters. Collaborating with the New York Times, for example, and having them tag you or link back to your page, will do wonders for your credibility in the eyes of search engines. The more authority, the better the association for SEO.
- Stay active on social channels: Every social media post contributes to your business’ online presence. The stronger the overall online presence, the more search engines will recognize you as a credible page to be recommended to others. Often overlooked when it comes to SEO, YouTube is an especially key tool as the second most popular search engine. Since it’s also owned by Google, posting on YouTube continues to build your online presence, proving to search engines you are a consistent voice across platforms. Again, while posting consistently is great for SEO, it’s important that the content is relevant and high quality. If you’re not sure if your content passes the quality check, circle back to whether or not the post is helpful to your audience.
While these quick wins can steer you in the right direction, you can’t expect to shoot to the top of Google overnight. Search engine optimization takes time and consistent effort. The tips above barely scratch the surface when it comes to search engine optimization, as there are seemingly infinite ways to improve SEO for your website. For a more detailed look at Search Engine Optimization, check out our blog on 6 Vital Website Ranking Factors.
Did you know you can increase organic traffic by as much as 106% by simply refreshing and recycling old blog posts with new content and images? Time for some updates!
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