How to Better Understand the Importance of SEO
No matter which industry you’re in, chances are good you’ve at least heard of search engine optimization, more commonly known as SEO. Even though SEO has been around for a while, it’s still just as essential to a company’s marketing and advertising strategy now as it was when it first emerged. If you have yet to put SEO to good use for your company, here’s a solid introduction to help familiarize you.
Make Your Business Easily Visible
The main objective of SEO is to make your company as visible as possible to your target audience, which is done by positioning you near the top of search engine results. There are more businesses that offer the same products or services as yours, and you need every advantage you can get to set yourself in front of the eyes of your customers. Not only that, but you’ve got to maneuver yourself in a way that’s unobtrusive so users don’t find your presence more annoying than they do helpful. SEO offers you an effective and cost-efficient way to accomplish that task and much more.
Know Who You Want to See You
No matter how you choose to go about your SEO campaign, you’ve got to always proceed with your audience in mind. Knowing who your target customer is helps you decide which keywords and key-phrases will attract that customer. Do some research to truly connect with your audience and know not only what they want right now, but what they’re likely to want in the future as well. That way, you’re always acting rather than reacting, which goes a long way in saving you time.
Know Your Story
Something else to think about when optimizing your site is what story you want to tell. It’s the story that sets your company apart from others in your business sector, and it’s your story that makes your company truly human and not just another business brand. What need did you set out to meet when you originally launched your business? How have your customers and employees helped shape your business? What’s next on the agenda for your business? It’s the answers to these questions that help guide your marketing and advertising efforts and do so in a way that’s truly authentic.
Break That Story Down
To make the story of your business easily digestible, you’ve got to break it down into chapters, or pages, in this case, since we’re talking about your business website. Your story should carry on throughout each page of your site, from the unique features of your products or services and customer testimonials to your business philosophy and the benefits your product provides. Know that it’s okay for you to go back every now and then and revise chapters you’ve already written. Unlike writers of actual books, you do have the option of making changes once your site has been published and made available to the public.
Keep Things Structured
Just like no story can truly satisfy without some type of structure, the same is true of your company’s SEO strategy. It’s the research you’ve put into getting to know your audience better that will guide you in your quest to find that structure. Let those specific keywords and phrases decide what the focus of each chapter/page will be. One thing to bear in mind is that it’s important you do not stuff as many keywords as possible throughout your site. While this might seem like a good idea to quickly raise your commercial site to the top of search engine results, doing so does you more harm than good, mainly because search engines are likely to penalize you if they think your site is almost nothing but a domain of keywords. You’re much better off using keyword variations instead.
Because SEO doesn’t seem to show any signs of fading anytime soon, you might as well get as much use out of it for your business as you can. Know that getting the hang of optimization is easier than ever thanks to the many resources available, it doesn’t matter what your industry might be or the overall size of your company. Start easing your way into it now to see how much easier it can be to realize your brand’s full potential.