Are you an SEO sceptic
What does SEO mean and does it leave you wondering what all this sorcery is?
SEO = Search Engine Optimisation
It is the process of constantly improving your website so that both search engines and users of search engines can understand it more easily.
Everyone with a website can benefit from SEO regardless of the size of your business, big or small SEO is highly beneficial. It is vital to remember that while you are improving your website for search engines to read it better you are also doing it for people.
Once your website has a great strategy it can end up at the top of the results that relate to your products and services.
It is organic
Many people confuse SEO with Google Ads. They are two completely different beasts and when you look at the search results in Google one has Ad next to it and one does not. Google Ads is paid advertising whereas SEO is purely the earning of more visibility in the search results.
Many SEO companies combine Google Ads with SEO and I believe this is what has led to the confusion.
Gaining an organic result can be far more beneficial longterm as people know that ads are paid to get the results. Whereas the organic result is Google providing the searcher with the answer to their question. That said, Google Ads or PPC can have benefits and can complement your SEO strategy.
SEO tactics
Not a day goes by that I don’t receive an email or a call offering me SEO services. These tend to be companies that have no idea that I offer SEO services and they have not done any research, in other words, they are SPAM. Companies like this give the industry as a whole a bad name and add to the scepticism around SEO.
Have you heard the terms Black Hat and White Hat SEO?
Black Hat – These tactics will hurt rather than help your SEO. They can give you long term damage to your rankings and online reputation. They include:
- Keyword stuffing
- Hidden text like white text on a white background
- Buying links from other websites or link farms
- Many more bad techniques
White Hat – These tactics will benefit your website and allow you to rank in the relevant search results as they stick to best practice as recommended by Google.
- Readable content that people want to see
- Ensure that your backend information is up to date and relevant
- Maintain usability of the website
- Add or recommend fresh content
- Avoidance of any black hat techniques
- Ensure you have the right usage of terms on and in your website
- Many more great techniques
SEO is not just keywords
Back in the day you could create a list of 10 or 20 keywords and aim to target your website to those. You could say I want to rank number one for XYZ. Googles search engine results pages (SERPs) work in many ways. They give results based on location, previous searches, what you type into the search bar and more. It is a complicated series of algorithms which constantly run and are constantly updating. This is why SEO is recommended as an ongoing service rather than a one-off or a set and forget.
Do you exist
If you are not appearing in the search results – do you even exist! We all shop differently these days. Research is done online using our phones, laptops or desktops. From this, we read reviews, ask questions, search for products and services and statistics show that more than half of us find a new company or product when we search.
Search engines are critical to the path to purchase – so if you are not in the results you are missing out. SEO makes searchers aware of your business. Awareness then can translate into sales for your business.
Great SEO provides your business with online staying power to keep up appearances in the search results.
Patience
Depending on your industry it can take time for the results to show. Your website and the age of your website is an additional factor. Any previous techniques used or abused in another. SEO is not an overnight solution to your rankings, it takes time and an ongoing commitment.
SEO is worthy of the wait
It ensures that your brand name is in front of the people that matter. Awareness online for your business and for consumers to choose.
SEO professionals evolve
A professional SEO provider will be updating their knowledge daily so they can stay on top of everything search engines are working on. For example, Google has the main intention to improve its users’ experience. If you want your business to appear in the results of this experience you need to work on it. SEO is an active way to stay at the forefront of these changes.
Are you ready to use SEO in your business?
Contact Kelly @ My Sassy Business for an obligation free consultation about how SEO can help your business.
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