You have probably heard of the saying ‘Content is king’. Well, this saying is proving to be more than true in today’s era when more and more businesses are being launched. Each sector and industry is expanding, giving birth to new start-ups. But, how can all these new businesses achieve sustainability and in return profitability? The answer is simple. With the help of content, businesses are now competing to outperform each other. This is particularly true for businesses that have an online presence. Mobile devices and gadgets have empowered people to gain information at the touch of a button. All one needs to do is type their query or issue in the Google search bar and Google gives you a plethora of search results. This is where SEO comes into play. But, before we move any further let us first understand what SEO means and why are more and more businesses trying to get in touch with SEO companies to avail SEO services.
What is SEO?
SEO is an acronym for search engine optimization. Content marketing and online marketing works on the basis of SEO. It is the foundation of all online operational functions of a business. In simple terms, SEO can be defined as the practice of boosting the quality and quantity of the website traffic your business gets through appearing on the top of the search engine results. Common search engines include Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
SEO isn’t just any other practice it is a uniform set of rules, guidelines, stages, and set of controls used to lay a framework for all the content being marketed. Let us break down this term furthermore for more clarity.
How is the Framework for SEO Created?
A truly dynamic SEO works on the following factors:
Quality of the Traffic – This is the first thing affected by SEO. When a visitor Google’s your business, they see a number of results which may include your business as well. When this visitor clicks on your website to see what you offer then you get organic traffic. However, if someone Google’s for Apple products and you sell apples and other fruits then it wouldn’t count as quality traffic because no matter how fresh or organic your fruits might be the visitor never had the intent to buy fruits. Quality traffic as known as organic traffic refers to the visitors who will become potential customers and actually buy your products.
The Quantity of Traffic – This factor is pretty easy to understand. The quantity of traffic refers to the number of visitors your website gets in a month. The more visitors you get the more likely it is for you to get more customers and prospects. However, your website traffic should be organic like we mentioned earlier.
Organic Results – When you have a well-executed SEO strategy your website gets a high SERP (Search engine result pages) rating. Advertisements on Google take up a large portion of online search results. Therefore, it is important to have a high SERP rating because this will result in more organic traffic. Organic traffic can be defined as the number of visitors your site gets without advertisement or additional resources being spent. Organic results are improved and boosted thanks to SEO. This shows that all the factors of SEO must work in complete synchrony for the SEO strategy to be impactful.
How does SEO work?
Now here comes the most interesting part; the working of SEO. When you use any search engine for finding a solution for your problem you just type your query or issue in the search box and bam you see a number of search results which resolve your issue.
However, there is more going on in there than you realize. Here’s what actually happens: Every query you type on Google (or any other search engine) gets analyzed by a crawler that analyzes all the content present on the internet. This crawler then builds an index by evaluating all the content it gathers. Once an index is formed it is fed to the algorithm put in place by that specific search engine. This algorithm tries to match all the data it can find with your query to give you search results according to your specific issue. There are a number of factors which are analyzed by the search engine algorithm. These factors are grouped by experts in terms of their importance. All these factors are the SE’s (search engine), while the O (optimization) is done by the people who write and market the content on their website and on the search engines. There are a number of ways optimization can occur. It could be anything from writing relevant content or marketing it to the right demographic for maximum impact.
Understanding SEO
If you are new to the world of content writing and marketing here is a general overview which will help understand how you can use SEO to your benefit:
Creating an SEO-Friendly Site
The first step towards using SEO for your business is to create an SEO friendly site. You need to correctly map out the structure of your site and incorporate all the important SEO techniques. These include selecting the correct keywords and search terms according to your business and offerings, selecting the correct domain name for the hosting of your site, updating and maintaining a blog, correctly interlinking pages, making full use of title tags and Meta descriptions.
SEO is furthermore divided into three kinds. These include:
Technical SEO – As the name implies this kind of SEO has nothing to do with the kind of content you put. Instead, it focuses on technical aspects like configuring the settings for your site for easier crawling and indexing. This way search engine algorithms can pick your site easily.
On-Site SEO – On-site SEO deals with all the working you do on-site. These like we mentioned earlier include website structure, headings, internal links, titles, content optimization, image SEO, data markup, and other key components. On-site SEO is done so the crawler can find the purpose and meaning of the content that you post. Algorithms do not operate or read like an actual human being so you need to optimize your entire website for better usability and credibility. This gives your website a clear context, differentiating it from the other websites already operating.
Off-Site SEO – Off-Site SEO refers to the SEO that takes place apart from the one taking place on your website. But, how does Off-Site SEO works? Off-site SEO works on the basis of link building. When you promote your personal website on other authoritative sites in your niche and industry Off-Site SEO gets promoted. When search engine crawlers analyze that your website has been linked to other authoritative sources it automatically boosts your SERP rating. This is commonly known as ‘backlinking‘ where you promote your website on another similar site and get traffic back to your website in return.
Importance of SEO
Now that you have in-depth knowledge about SEO, it’s time you understand its importance as well. Here are a few reasons that highlight the importance of SEO and availing SEO services.
- People who use search engines are more likely to click on the top 5 search results. With the help of SEO, you can boost your SERP rating and rank in the top 5 search results. This will ensure better visibility for your online presence.
- With the help of SEO, you will be able to improve the user experience and usability of the visitor, giving them more reasons to choose you over your competitors.
- Users rely on search engines and if you rank in the top search results you will be seen as a trusted source.
- SEO is beneficial for the promotion of your website. When people find you in top search results they are more likely to promote your business on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc.
- Due to increased visibility people are more likely to deal with your business even if your competitor is selling the same products/services.
Conclusion
The future of content is SEO. Therefore, many businesses have already started utilizing the power of SEO. If you happen to be one of those who still haven’t considered content marketing and SEO for your business, then it’s time to reconsider your decision. You can easily get in touch with a reliable SEO agency or SEO company to avail SEO services. However, always opt for an SEO agency which has a track record of successful clients.