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Have you ever heard the term SEO but often wonder what it actually is or what it can do for your business? You’re not alone in this. This process can seem confusing and overwhelming at first, which is why we’re going to demystify and break down SEO so you can increase your Google ranking and grow your business!
WHAT IS SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization which is the process of strategically using concepts like keywords, content creation, and backlinks in order to increase the organic traffic that goes to your website via search engines like Google. The ultimate goal of optimizing your website is to create a better user experience for visitors, which in the end, will help increase the website conversions rate!
Since there are almost 2 billion websites that currently exist, this means that throwing a site together without using strategic tools or following search engine guidelines will not allow your site to appear on the 1st or realistically even the 5th page. The better you understand how search engines rank websites and content, the better you’ll be able to optimize your site for better search results.
HOW DOES SEO WORK?
Search engines crawl for content that helps to answer people’s questions. That information is then indexed, meaning that web pages are added so they appear on Google Search, and then those pages are ranked by what sites best answer those queries, have fresh content, high page authority, and a number of other determining factors.
Since SEO is an ongoing process so there are several steps you can take to increase your search engine ranking.
One of the most essential tools for improving your SEO is through the use of short and long-tail keywords. Keywords are specific words or phrases that describe your web content so Google understands what your site is about. By strategically using keywords throughout your site, you will be able to increase your ranking over time. An important rule of thumb to remember is to use short-tail keywords for your website copy and long-tail keywords for blog posts (more on that in a bit!).
But before you run off to your website and start adding the keywords you think should be there, it’s necessary to do keyword research first and figure out what people are searching for and incorporate that naturally into your website copy! The better you’re able to answer a searcher’s query through your copy, the better Google will be able to crawl for your site’s information and show that site to others.
Fortunately, you don’t have to figure out what those keywords are on your own! Here are a list of sites that help determine the keyword’s search volume and difficulty level.
Keyword Research Sites:
The most important rule to remember for using keywords is to never “keyword stuff” your website copy. This means avoiding the overuse of keywords only with the intention of increasing your ranking versus using keywords adequately in order to provide helpful information for a better user experience. Not only will Google penalize you for keyword stuffing, but you are also showing website visitors that it is more important to your business to have a high ranking instead of how, as a business, you can solve their problem or provide them with what they need.
KEEPING YOUR SITE UP TO DATE:
An easy way to optimize your site is by making sure your site and the information is up to date. Sites that are rarely updated versus sites that have updated content tend to perform better and are viewed as having higher authority because of this. While Google’s algorithm is incredibly complex, this aspect is very logical. Think of it this way: if you visited a site where the most current information dated back to 2017, would you trust it? Or would you trust a site that had information for the current year AND if you visited it multiple times within a couple months after that, it was clear there were updates? As we live in a world that rapidly evolves, it’s important to remember that your website is not an exception to that and if you want to organically build trust with your website visitors and Google, you must set aside time to keep your website current. An easy way to remember to do this is by scheduling time in your calendar at least once a quarter -- by making those updates in smaller chunks of time, but more frequently, it will be a lot more manageable to keep your site up to date!
CREATING FRESH CONTENT:
Writing blog posts are a great way to create fresh, updated content and organically bring traffic to your site. Blog posts are also one of the most effective ways for improving your ranking as they give you the opportunity to target keywords, answer specific queries, and provide more information for website visitors which helps build up their trust.
In the same way you research short-tail keywords for your website copy, you can use the same technique to research long-tail keywords for your blog!
When coming up with topic ideas, think of ways you can help solve problems for website visitors, provide educational content so they’re more informed and able to make better decisions about their purchases or which service that you offer will work best for you, and creating content that is related to your overall mission.
Now that you have a better understanding of how SEO works and what steps you can take to optimize your website, you’re ready to get started!
Still looking for some further guidance on how to increase your rankings? If you are a Wix website user, we have just the thing! NR Media has created a Wix SEO Guide and Workbook takes an even deeper dive into SEO so you can level up your site even more!