Understanding Search Engine Optimization: What It Is and How It Works
Getting your business found online can be challenging, especially when your business is competing with the likes of Netflix, Twitch, and TikTok when vying for users’ attention. How are you supposed to get the word out about your business in a deluge of digital media?
The answer is SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
If you aren’t entirely sure what that is, or if the word optimization frightens you, than this is the blog post for you. Today, we’ll discuss what SEO is, how it works, and how it can help your business stand out.
What is SEO?
SEO, as we said above, stands for Search Engine Optimization. When someone types a word or phrase into a search bar (think Google, but also Bing, Yahoo, etc.), the search engine scrubs the web to bring up the most relevant results.
SEO is the practice of optimizing your content so that the search results bring your content towards the top (ideally in the top three, but hopefully at least the first page).
You optimize your website content for SEO mainly by considering keywords and keyphrases. These are the words users type in when they are searching for something specific.
By including the keywords in your headers, meta description, title, and more, you are improving the likelihood that page will turn up in search results. While all of this is important, though, the number one factor is quality content that’s relevant to the user.
Why should you care?
Now that you understand the basic concept of SEO, you may be wondering why it matters. Well, there are a lot of major benefits to ranking high in search results.
The most obvious benefit is site traffic. More traffic means more potential for conversions, which leads to more revenue. It’s really as simple as that.
SEO is also bringing your client to you, rather than the other way around. You no longer have to throw marketing money out the window and just hope that the right person sees your ads.
Instead, your ideal client comes to you because they have a specific question and Google offers up your site/business as the answer.
Who is SEO for?
While most businesses can benefit from SEO, focusing on a specific person in the sales funnel will yield the best results. With that in mind:
SEO marketing is geared toward mid-funnel customers. These are customers that are already aware they need your services and are actively seeking answers to questions.
While SEO can help with top-of-funnel lead generation, it’s a lot more difficult and harder to quantify.
I’ll give you an example. Let’s say your sink clogs and you can’t get it to drain, so you need a plumber to come take a look at it. So you type into Google “best plumbers near me” or “plumbers in Toledo.” Google will crawl websites and compile them based on those keyphrases. Now you have several options to choose from when you need a plumber.
But you still aren’t convinced you need a plumber. You think you can do it yourself if you just learn how, and Google/YouTube can teach us anything. A smart plumbing company will even have a blog post on their site titled “How to fix a clogged sink.”
That way, when you type in that keyphrase, ideally that plumber’s site pops up. You read the blog post, realize you aren’t qualified to go anywhere near a pipe, and call the plumber whose site you got the information from.
This is the potential of SEO.
SEO is a marathon, not a sprint
There is one last thing to understand. Just because you put a blog post on your site and optimize it for search doesn’t mean you will instantly rank at the top.
Google continually updates its algorithm, and it prefers companies that put out consistent high-quality content. The more you produce and the more backlinks your site receives, the higher you will rank.
While you can see results sooner, you should commit to an SEO strategy for at least 12 months before changing things up or abandoning it altogether. SEO is a marathon, meaning its far more about form and consistency than sheer force.
Create good content, follow best SEO practices, and trust the process to see the best results.
SEO is an excellent way to organically market your company and drive traffic to your site. If you still aren’t sure how SEO works for you and your business, click the button below to book a free consultation from GPS Media. Our SEO and content experts can help you develop a plan, audit your site, and give you a roadmap for success with your content marketing campaigns. Stop trying to find clients, and let them find you instead.
