A not-so-surprising truth is that your customers consult the internet prior to any buying decisions. Whether needing clarification, conducting a product comparison, or just researching what all is available on the market, consumers rely on search engines for information and product awareness. Because of this, search engine optimization (SEO) is key to being found online and achieving long-term business success for entrepreneurs and digital marketers.
SEO has been around for over ten years and generates a large amount of traffic for successful websites.
What is SEO?
Online search engine optimization is the process of enhancing both the quality and quantity of organic traffic to your website. It may provide your business with the necessary exposure through nonpaid, relevant search engine results if done correctly.
The beauty of SEO rests in its ability to zero in on humans instead of machines. The key is understanding what people are looking for, the answers they desire, their method of search (including terminology), and their most-preferred type of content consumed (text, audio, or video). If you want to connect with your audience, make sure you can deliver on all of these parameters.
Websites that are popular with Google’s users are preferred by the search engine. As a result, get a Google recommendation and you’ll be at the top 10 results for any search query.
Why branding is essential
Before we get into the significance of SEO in digital marketing, you must establish a solid foundation. This includes your company’s name, logo, website design, and social media presence.
Branding is key to gaining trust, acquiring future customers, and boosting profit margins. A professionally designed brand can make your business more valuable by giving it a leg up in the industry.
One of the most important components of your brand is your company logo. It’s what distinguishes you from others and allows you to stand out. The more distinctive and easy-to-understand your logo, the greater it will connect with your target audience.
While some companies choose to redesign their logos every few years for updated visuals, if you create a solid logo from the beginning, then you won’t need to ever change it. There are a lot of companies whose logos have remained exactly the same since their creation, and their place in society is just as strong today as it was when they started. Apple, Chanel, Nike, Vans, Starbucks, McDonalds are all examples of brands that have stayed true to their logo and brand.
Humans are visual animals, and messages that are visually appealing are more likely to be remembered than ordinary words. With this in mind, the significance of a company logo in branding can’t be overstated, and creating a logo has become much easier with Avant8. We make sure to have in-depth conversations with our clients to get the branding and logo they envision just right.
Why does your business need SEO in its digital marketing strategy?
SEO is essential for any digital marketing strategy. It might take time and a lot of effort, but the results are worth it and offer great long-term benefits. Here are some factors that show how important SEO is in digital marketing:
1. Rankings and exposure
If you want potential customers to find your site easily, ranking in the top 10 Google results is key. And that’s where proper SEO comes in. By optimizing your website for relevant keywords, you increase your chances of appearing on the first page whenever someone searches for those terms. This not only gets you more organic traffic but also puts you right in front of potential customers who are looking for what you have to offer!
2. Increased Website Traffic
Paid advertising may be a smart strategy for gaining site visitors, but it isn’t permanent. If potential consumers can’t discover your website, your sales chances will plummet dramatically. By optimizing your website for search engines, you can increase the number of people who find your site through organic search. These visitors are more likely to be interested in what you have to offer since they found your site on their own, rather than being directed there through an advertisement. This also helps improve your website’s ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs), which can lead to increased sales and profits.
3. Credibility and trust
By improving your SEO, you not only make it more likely for people to find you through Google searches, but also gain increased visibility and credibility with potential customers. If you rank in the top five search results, users will not only find you more easily, but they will also perceive your website as being recommended by the search engine. Users understand how much work it takes to earn a first-page ranking and what quality standards a website needs to meet. Therefore, appearing on the first page increases your credibility and trustworthiness in the user’s mind.
4. User experience
A great website includes comprehensive answers to questions such as: What product is being offered? Where is the company based? How can users buy the product? Which payment methods are accepted? What are the shipping details (if applicable)? And more. When you create a site that meets the user’s needs, the search engine is able to get the right data and display it to the users if requested. If your website is difficult for users to navigate, it will be just as troublesome for search engines. In other words, aim to deliver an excellent user experience and don’t worry so much about SEO–it’ll come naturally.
5. Long-term growth
There’s no debate that SEO is a vital digital marketing strategy for business growth. The more relevant, high-volume keywords you rank for, the greater organic traffic your site will get. Although it sounds easy enough, it’s actually quite complicated.
A well-optimized website that is frequently updated and provides high-quality, useful information is more likely to attract consumers and generate sales. And if your consumers enjoy their experience with you, they may share it with their social network circles as the greatest form of word-of-mouth advertising.
SEO strategies to get you started
By using the SEO strategies below and working hard, you can make your content and website friendly to users AND search engine crawlers. If done correctly, these methods will bring you traffic from high ranking pages on search engines.
1. On-page SEO
On-page SEO deals exclusively with the optimization of what is currently on your website. This can manifest in many ways, such as adding relevant keywords, adding tags, and making sure that your headings include optimized keywords.
The goal is to produce content with high value that also incorporates keywords throughout. In addition, optimize images by adding image alt text for better on-page SEO which will result in increased traffic.
By properly optimizing every page on your website–not just blog posts–you improve your chances of ranking highly for relevant keywords when Google (or any other search engine) crawls your site.
2. Off-page SEO
This strategy is the exact inverse of the on-page strategy. You’ll generate useful backlinks to your site on other well-known and pertinent sites, and you’ll publicize your content where your users are already active – on platforms and forums.
Backlinks are like word-of-mouth recommendations, where other popular websites reference your website in their content and ask their users to visit you for information. There are lots of ways to get backlinks, but the key is to publish relevant content that other sites want to reference. In fact, a study from uSERP showed that 40.7% of SEO experts say content marketing provides the strongest passive results for building backlinks.
Besides backlinks, some other successful off-page SEO methods are answering questions on Quora and interacting with the Reddit community. The key here is being authentic— acting helpful instead of promotional. If you’re looking for a way to engage with your users, Quora is a great platform. It’s full of people asking questions and actively seeking answers. If you can provide them with valuable solutions and direct them to your website in a non-promotional way, that can help you build credibility and improve your SEO.
Conclusion
When it comes to obtaining organic traffic, SEO is more important than ever. In a time when new websites are being developed every day, remaining current and useful is critical. Users will look for information, and if you can be found when they’re searching for particular terms, you’ll have a long-term edge.
If you want your website to rank on the first page of search results, use both on-page and off-page SEO strategies. It’s also essential to be consistent with your content so that users find it helpful.
At Avant8, We provide many different SEO packages to help you rank higher with google and perfect your user experience. Contact us to learn more about what options we provide! Read more about Utah SEO.