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Search Engine Optimization Explained

When you run a business, driving traffic to your website can help you experience growth as customers learn what you do and see that you are an expert in your field or offer a superior product. Many businesses set up paid ad campaigns using Google AdWords, where a banner is displayed at the top of the search results page. These campaigns cost money since Google charges a fee for every click, and users are able to tell it’s an ad before they click on it. While this strategy has its uses, the key to online success for your business is good search engine optimization, also known as SEO.

SEO Explained

In order for your website to be found, you’ll want to rely on strategies other than just paid search ads. To do this, you will need to optimize your website so it shows up as close to the top result as possible when users do searches related to your business. When your website is optimized for search engine results, you get organic web traffic that is completely free.

This not only gives your website more exposure without having to pay for ads, but you also gain more meaningful interactions with your website. Consumers these days hate blatant ads more than any previous generation. Many potential consumers automatically put their guard up when faced with an ad, which can be a roadblock to creating conversions. When your website strategically targets your audience through effective SEO, people who are interested in your area of business are the ones who end up on your web pages. This effectively means warm leads are getting exposure to what your business has to offer, increasing your chances of gaining conversions.

Using Keywords to Increase SEO

Various aspects of your website can work together to boost your SEO. One of the most important SEO strategies to implement in your website is keywords. There are many ways to research effective SEO keywords that will yield the best result for your target audience. If you are a small business that only serves your local area, your SEO keywords should include your location and service area. No matter the scope of your service area, you will need to include keywords and phrases that people are using when conducting research relevant to your business.

These keywords should be strategically placed throughout any written content found on your website. A good copywriter will be able to integrate these keywords into the text in a way that keeps the content engaging and enjoyable to read.

Another area to place keywords is in your title, both your public title and the title that gets embedded into the page code. This allows you to make a title that may be a little keyword-heavy (the title embedded into the page code), and one that doesn’t sound clunky from being stuffed with keywords (public title).

You also have the opportunity to make a keyword heavy meta description that users will get a glimpse of when they click on the search engine result. Your meta description should be kept under 160 characters and include plenty of keywords while being punchy and creative enough to grab the attention of your readers.

Link Building

Adding links on your pages that lead to other pages on your website is another great SEO strategy known as link building. Most search engines rank websites higher when users are clicking on links to get there, so making it easy for readers to click to other parts of your website through hypertext can improve your rankings.

As your reputation grows as a trusted source, you can also expect other websites to start using pages from your website for their links, which are called backlinks, further building your web domain authority and your search rankings.

Growth is most likely the goal for your business, and using good SEO strategies is a crucial step to getting there. For more strategies to increase your company’s visibility and customer base, contact UniMedia at (843) 278-2433.