What The Heck is SEO?

Rankings, keywords, backlinks, oh my! SEO can feel like a super daunting experience and can even be confusing. But, let’s face it, you have a website with awesome content, so you want it to be found, right? Well, have no fear, SEO will save the day.

What is SEO?

Sure, you are probably saying yes, I have heard of SEO, but what the heck is it? SEO or search engine optimization is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page to improve the chances that it will be found by search engines like Google, Bing or Yahoo. Essentially, SEO improves your engagement with internet users and search engines and attracts customers to your site.

Let me put it this way, if you have a website offering Halloween costumes, you would target the keywords “Halloween costumes.” But, if these keywords get thousands of searches on Google, you will need to make sure that your website is optimized to show up on the top of search results.

Why does your business need SEO?

SEO is an excellent marketing tool that can bring your business new leads and customers. It has even been shown to be more targeted and have a greater ROI than traditional forms of advertising. By optimizing your website for search engines, you can appear higher in search results.

SEO provides your business with credibility and helps users trust your site. If you are showing up for many keyword searches, you instill confidence in the minds of searchers that your site is relevant. SEO also helps you market to customers that are already looking for the products or services that you provide. Additionally, SEO helps you understand your traffic or customers further with the help of analytics to provide you with insight on what they are searching for, the technology they are using to search, locations and even times of day that searches are done. All of this information is helpful for you to make informed decisions regarding your business and marketing strategies.

SEO factors for your site

SEO involves many aspects to create a great user experience and communicate to search engines that it should recommend your website. Some of the best and most important factors are listed below:

• Fill your website with unique and relevant content
• Research, analyze and choose the appropriate keywords for your site
• Include keywords in titles, descriptions, content and on images
• Revise and refresh content often
• Make your URLs search-engine-friendly
• Use social media to distribute content, but make sure to link back to yourself
• Obtain links to others websites by developing relationships with other sites
• Get your business listed on many directories and make sure your contact information is matching on all of them
• Monitor, monitor, monitor and monitor your efforts some more

SEO is a large group of factors, not just one aspect will make you rank higher than your competitors, you need all factors. SEO allows you to optimize your website in order to target and drive customers to your website. It has higher ROI than traditional adverting and helps to provide credibility to your website. Strong SEO requires a lot of monitoring, but it is worth every minute of the effort!

If you would like to take your website to the next level with a killer SEO campaign, contact the experts at Utah SEO Pros today!

Sources
Edwards, V. (2013, December 31). SEO Basics: 8 Essentials When Optimizing Your Site. Retrieved from Search Engine Watch: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2259693/SEO-Basics-8-Essentials-When-Optimizing-Your-Site

Male, B. (2010, January 13). 10 Basic SEO Tips To Get You Started. Retrieved from Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/10-basic-seo-tips-everyone-should-know-2010-1?op=1

Shropshire, D. (2014, October 11). Why SEO is Important for Businesses. Retrieved from Firstview Online: http://firstviewonline.com/why-seo-is-important-for-businesses/