Did you know, on any given day, people conduct more than 2.2 million searches on Google alone, which means the number would be much higher if we consider other search engines too. Therefore, this makes it tough for your business to stand out. But you have to if you want to make your business a successful one. Therefore, showing up on the front page of Google search results would decide how visible your business is.
What does SEO even mean?
The process of optimizing web pages, and their content to be easily discoverable by users searching for terms relevant to your website is called Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).
Why do you need SEO as a business?
As mentioned earlier, there are billions of searches conducted online every single day. This means there’s an immense amount of specific, high-intent traffic.
Many people search for specific products and services with the intent to pay for those things, which is called commercial intent, meaning they’re clearly indicating with their search that they want to buy something you offer. People are searching for things, both that are directly related to your business or all kinds of things that are loosely related to your business. This gives you an opportunity to connect with your folks, and help answer their questions, solve their problems, and become a trusted resource for them.
Google is responsible for the majority of search engine traffic in the world. So, how does Google decide which pages to return in response to what people search for? Google has search quality ratings that assess this. The ratings look at
- How trustworthy and relevant your content is.
- The content quantity and quality.
- Website reputation.
- Site information including who’s responsible for the site.
There are hundreds of ranking factors that Google’s algorithm considers in response to searches, and Google is constantly updating and refining its process to ensure that it delivers the best possible user experience.
How can you top in Google’s search engine rankings?
Google gives you a clear, cut way by which you can top the search engine rankings. Three main factors to look into are:
Links – Links are a crucial SEO ranking signal because they’re what the web is built on.
Three types of links matter, when talking about search engine ranking:
Content is the second major SEO ranking factor because a Google search engine customer is happy when he finds the result that serves his needs in the best way. Google always tries to give you the best experience possible by directing you to the greatest content it can find. This means that your number one job to do well with SEO is to produce great content. So, what goes into creating such great content?
Let’s get started
- Quality - Best-quality content would make you stand out from the crowd, although it is long gone though, yet is the first step for any successful SEO effort.
- Keyword Research - Since you ideally want to include your targeted keywords in your post’s headline and throughout the article, doing your keyword research upfront is a crucial part of creating great content.
- Use of Keywords - Although using the right keywords throughout your content is important, stuffing your keywords into your text as much as possible will hurt the rankings rather than improve them.
- The novelty of content - There are plenty of things that you can do with content that you’ve already published to make it more up-to-date because posting new content is the only way to top Google’s search engine rankings.
- Direct answers - Finally, the most important thing to remember. If your content is direct, Google will recognize it as a clear answer to a particular question and it will show up directly beneath the search bar. That’s why if you want to do well, be direct.
User experience is another important factor to keep in mind if you want to top the search engine rankings. It basically means how people engage with a site, i.e., do they find the information they need and remain on the site, or do they “bounce” back to the search page and click on another link? Or do they just ignore your listing in search results altogether and never click-through? This also includes the site’s loading speed and mobile-friendliness.
Now, that we know why SEO is important and how you can top the rankings list, let’s look at some of the SEO tools that can help you optimize your website.
- Google Search Console - Google Search Console (GSC) a free tool provided by Google, is a standard tool in SEO’s tool kit, that helps provide rankings and traffic reports for top keywords and pages, and can help identify and fix on-site technical issues.
- Google Ads Keyword Planner - Keyword Planner is another free tool offered by Google which provides keyword suggestions and keyword search volume, which can be helpful when doing keyword research.
- Backlink Analysis Tools - Backlink analysis tools allow users to analyze which websites are linking to their own website, or the websites of competitors, and can be used to find new links during link building.
- SEO Platforms - SEO platforms bring together a number of tools that SEOs need to optimize sites. These platforms help with keyword research, track keyword rankings, identify on-page and off-page SEO opportunities, and many other tasks related to SEO.
- Social Media - Although, social media sites don’t have a direct impact on SEO, they can be a great tool for networking with other webmasters and building relationships that can lead to link building and guest posting opportunities.
Conclusion:
Search engine optimization done properly can have the potential to dramatically increase the amount of traffic that a website receives, but all of that search traffic won’t help grow a business unless it converts into paying customers. Just commit to getting started today as it can take you 6 months to a year to see results.
