Search engine optimization or SEO is a digital marketing tool that helps you improve your ranking in search results and increase traffic to your website. It can be complex and ever-changing practice, but even having a handle on the basics of SEO can make a big difference in driving traffic to your website. Depending on your business or brand, your website is a major marketing tool that your customers interact with. If you don’t have a physical retail space, it’s the literal face of your company. It’s likely where they go to purchase your products and services, learn about your brand, or gather more information about your industry. And depending on the goal for your website, optimizing your site for usability, relevancy, and readability is important for it to be successful.
So why is search engine optimization important? Well, it does just that. It’s a series of techniques and tools that optimize your website for usability, relevancy, and readability. When someone types in a search query into Google, they quickly scan all of the websites and pages they’ve indexed to find information that matches that query. They then organize those websites in the search results by what is seemingly most relevant and the searcher will find most useful. If a searcher is looking for information on products or services similar to yours, you want to make sure you pull out all of the stops when it comes to being at the top or near to it in that list of search results. SEO can help get you there.
But if you’re feeling overwhelmed by the thought of it, don’t! A lot of website hosting services have plugins or integrations for SEO tools. These can help you when you’re reviewing your website and any new content that you’re sharing to ensure you have your bases covered when it comes to optimization. This involves reviewing the SEO titles for each page, as well as the description of each page. These two pieces are what shows up in the search results, so you want to make sure it’s clear, accurate, and relevant. When a searcher is evaluating their search results, it’s important that when they click on one, they’re taken to a site that matches that description.
In order for your site to rank well, it needs to be easily indexed by the search engines, identified as relevant to the search query, and found to be useful by users who have been there in the past when searching for a similar query. In the end, it’s all about focusing on the user and their journey. And if that user is searching for a product or service similar to yours, you want your website to be a part of that journey.