SEO is a three-letter enigma that every modern-day marketer is still trying to solve.

You’ve probably heard this acronym circulating all around the marketing space. If you’re overwhelmed by the amount of information out there about SEO, you’re not alone. In fact, when you search for “SEO tactics” on Google, you’ll be bombarded with over 18 million results.

Optimizing your content is something that shouldn’t be overlooked. And despite its low cost and high-reward nature, many business owners neglect this in the beginning stages of building their brands. 

To help you gain an understanding of SEO -- the proclaimed magic pill that drives website traffic -- we will touch on the basics in this article.

What is SEO?

First things first: SEO stands for search engine optimization. But SEO is as much about your audience as it is about the search engines themselves. For your target market, it’s about knowing the keywords they’re using, the answers they’re seeking, and the content they’re searching for.

Simply put, SEO is a combination of strategic activities that help search engines find you and present your content in a digestible way. It involves optimizing and structuring content on a webpage to improve its organic ranking on search engine rankings pages (SERPs). The higher your website is ranked, the more likely it is to gain traffic.

How Do Search Engines Determine Where Your Business Ranks?

Search engines are getting smarter -- so smart, that among trillions of indexed pages, they can pull the one that answers your question in a matter of seconds. 

To determine the order they rank websites, search engines use a variety of algorithms focused on evaluating your website content. You’ll need to focus on building authority on key topics related to your business if you want to appear higher up in search queries. 

There are two main categories of SEO that search engines look at when determining a site’s ranking:

• On-Page SEO looks at what your website or webpage is about. You can control the factors that comprise on-page SEO, including title tags, headings, page content, page loading speed, and internal linking.

• Off-Page SEO looks at how authoritative and popular your site is. This form of SEO includes factors like domain authority, high-caliber content marketing, social media shares, and earning inbound links from other authoritative websites.

On-page and off-page SEO work hand-in-hand to improve your search engine ranking, so it’s not about choosing one or the other. Balancing the two will ensure your website is rewarded with a higher ranking.

Why Do I Need SEO?

When you are seeking an instantaneous answer, what do you do?

Most likely, you look to a search engine. Did you know that 93% of online activities start with search engines?

On top of that, a majority of Internet users don’t navigate past the first search engine results page. The highest ranked result has a 33% chance of getting clicked, so earning that coveted position is a very important milestone in any company’s marketing strategy.

Below, we will discuss seven of the key reasons investing in SEO is an important step for you business.

1. Everyone Uses Search Engines

Internet users rely on search engines to get answers to mundane questions, solve complex problems, and find relevant products and services. 

In addition, organic search is the leading generator of traffic. 60% of all website traffic originates from a Google search -- an even larger number when you factor in other search engines like Bing, Yahoo, Baidu, and DuckDuckGo.

Not to mention, there are a million searches each day, which means there are a million chances someone could stumble upon your business in a search query. Google has even identified so-called “micro-moments”, which refer to critical moments that drive consumers to use a search engine:

• I-want-to-know moments

• I-want-to-go moments

• I-want-to-do moments

• I-want-to-buy moments

The “I-want-to-buy” moments are particularly important because they involve people using searches to make purchases. With smartphones and mobile compatible websites, using a search engine to find products and make purchases has become the norm. In fact, 18% of local smartphone searches led to a purchase within a day.

2. You Gain Qualified (Free) Leads

The point of SEO is just about as straightforward as any other marketing tactic: to get your content seen by qualified eyeballs and potential customers.

Search engines bring you organic search results, which are natural results that rank 100% based on merit. In other words, there’s no way to pay Google or other search engines to earn a higher ranking. That being said, the leads you generate from SEO are extremely relevant because they are often interested in your business offering. With paid advertisements, this is not always a guarantee -- even with smart targeting techniques. 

SEO is not a paid form of advertising, but this is not to say it is free -- it is an investment rather than a cost. In addition, activities related to inbound lead generation including social media management, blogging, and referrals generally require a low cost to maintain.

3. It’s More Effective Than Traditional Advertising

While many marketing techniques are outbound, SEO is an inbound marketing strategy -- also referred to as pull marketing. While traditional advertisements intend to rapidly spread the word about a business, product, or service, inbound marketing strategies like SEO are designed to draw customers in through content marketing.

Outbound marketing involves reaching out to consumers whether they like it or not. It is a one-way conversation that typically focuses on the product and the reasons someone should buy it, rather than on high-quality content that adds value for the consumer.

4. You Enhance Your Credibility 

When you perform a Google search, what drives you to click on the first link?

Usually, it’s the simple fact that out of billions of indexed pages, that was the one that appeared first. And chances are, it’ll most likely be the answer you were looking for.

Ranking high in Google not only drives clicks to your website, but it boosts your trustworthiness. Over 65% of people are more likely to click on the top 5 suggestions on SERPs.

You can also enhance your credibility through other tactics, including the use of outbound links. Using these links ensures any data claims are backed up by referencing links to trustworthy and authoritative sources.

5. You Can Gain Market Share

When you rank higher in search engine results, you have a higher probability of being found by Internet users. These people that click on your website are more likely to make a purchase, sign up for a membership, or subscribe to a newsletter. And in turn, your conversion rate generally increases.

SEO can also help your publicity efforts, mostly in the form of link building. Earning links from reputable websites builds your credibility in your industry. This could mean getting your content published on industry blogs, news publications, and other relevant sites.

6. It Improves User Experience

User experience is an extremely vital component to any successful website. UXmote states that every $1 invested in UX can have a return of up to $100 for your business.

Search engines have some of the most advanced data mining operations in the world. This means they are extremely intelligent when determining website ranks. They assess factors including your site’s loading speed, web design, high-quality content marketing, mobile-friendliness, and site structure. Using these factors, Google and other search engines gauge the overall user experience (UX) to determine if your website is the best result to show.

There are various ways you can leverage SEO to build authority for your website:

• Quality backlink profiles

• Optimized photos and on-page elements

• Headlines

• Meta description tags

Google is ingenious and knows how to differentiate a favorable user experience from an unfavorable one. People are time-poor and desire information quickly and efficiently, so it’s no surprise that 40% of visitors will abandon websites if the page takes longer than three seconds to load.

7. It is a Long-Term Marketing Strategy

It can take 6-12 months to see optimal rankings and earn a return on investment, but once your website ranks in the top positions, it rarely moves down. When a search engine deems your content worthy, it can continue to attract traffic for months or even years without the maintenance costs that traditional advertising requires.

How Can I Improve My SEO?

There are many ways to go about improving your website’s SEO, and some cost more time and money than others. We will touch on three of the most fundamental ways you can take advantage of.

1. Use Keyword Phrases

Identify specific keyword phrases for each page of your website. This will help your consumers find your website when they search for terms that pertain to them. For example, keyword phrases for this article could include “benefits of SEO” and “what is SEO.” 

It also helps to repeat your keyword phrase throughout your webpage -- once or twice in the opening and closing paragraphs, and two to four times throughout the other content in between.

There are several ways to narrow down relevant, popular keywords for your SEO strategy. Try looking into Google’s related search terms, making a list of niche topics related to your industry, and using the Google Keyword Planner Tool. 

2. Improve Layout and Formatting

A user-friendly layout improves your website’s usability by making your content easier to read. 

Using headings is one of the most popular ways to do so. Header tags break up your content into sections that allow readers to better scan through and digest your content. In addition, search engines rate header tags more heavily, so including relevant words in your headings will help boost your SEO.

Here are some other factors that can improve your formatting:

• Font size and typography

• Bold type and colors to call out important information

• Use short paragraphs and ample line spacing

• Use bulleted and numbered lists 

3. Write Click-Worthy Titles and Meta Descriptions

When it comes to writing titles for search engines, there’s one key thing you should know: you only have 65 characters to write your headline. Search engines will cut off anything longer than that.

In addition, people will only typically scan the first two words of a headline. For this reason, you should front-load your headlines with your most critical keywords.

The second most important thing to optimize after a headline is the meta description. This is the short snippet of copy that appears on search engine results pages below the headline. You’ll also want to front-load keywords that are relevant to your webpage in the description. Most importantly, keep it short -- Google limits meta descriptions to 160 characters or fewer.

Conclusion

Simply put, SEO is the best way to improve your online visibility and reach consumers in their purchasing journey. It outperforms many other digital marketing tactics in that it has a high conversion rate, a low cost to implement, and the capability to enhance your brand’s credibility. As the digital landscape grows more and more competitive, SEO is a crucial element in making your content searchable and convenient.