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If you run a business and still don’t know what SEO is, you’ve very likely to be missing out on a massive opportunity. But don’t beat yourself up, it’s tough being a business owner and keeping up to date with everything. So, we’ll help you out and give you the break down on what SEO is and how Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) can help your business grow.
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimisation is, in a nutshell, the practice of making websites more visible in search results – visible to the people looking for your services or products. SEO specialists, often employed by digital marketing agencies such as ours, use a number of online tactics to boost your website to the top of the search results page, helping you outrank your competitors.
Why is this important? Well, searchers shouldn’t have to rake through the first few pages that pop up in Google search results to find you. In fact, as much as 75% of searches won’t look beyond the 1st page of search results, which means the pressure’s on, and you need to start paying attention to your rankings or get a specialist to do this for you.
How Do SEO Specialists Get Your Website to Appear?
The main focus for an SEO specialist is on the keywords. These are the search terms that potential clients or customers will use when looking for your products or services. A lot of time goes into finding the keywords that most people will be searching for and that have a chance of beating your competition.
Once the specialist finds the right keyword, they will assign it to a specific page of your website, and that page will pop up when users search that keyword. So, all pages of your website should have a unique keyword assigned to them.
Beyond keyword research, and working keywords into web or blog copy, SEO experts will use techniques that involve improving your page speed, building up the number of links pointing to your site, and restructuring website pages in accordance with SEO best practices. This is in no way a comprehensive list, but it gives you a basic idea of what they do to increase your ‘SEO’ score and chance of improving your rankings.
How Search Engine Optimisation Can Help Your Business Grow
Let’s take a look at some stats to set the scene:
- In 2020 alone, Google received 2.3 trillion searches, 67.60% of clicks were on the first 5 websites on the Google search results page.
- 70-80% of users ignore paid ads and look straight at organic results (non-paid).
- 76% of people who use their mobile devices to search for a business nearby, will visit a business within a day and 28% of those searches will result in a conversion (a purchase or enlisting your services).
Considering the above stats, it’s clear that if you don’t enlist the help of an SEO expert, you’re most certainly missing out on the opportunities listed above and on being found by potential customers. Think of it this way: You’re like a fisherman, casting a wider net to bring in more fish. The wider you make your net, the more chance you have of catching fish. SEO specialists simply help increase the size of your net.
So, there you have it! SEO is one of the easiest ways to help your business grow or increase that ROI. If you’re still a little unsure and would like more information on SEO, speak to us – we’ve brought clients who weren’t even ranking to showing up in the first place, on the first page of search results 😉
