All About SEO
SEO = SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
But what is THAT?!
Possibly one of the most complicated topics to do with digital marketing is Search Engine Optimization or SEO. When a term is searched for in a search engine, lists of websites, images, news articles, and if relevant, videos, maps, and other types of results are generated to choose from. Let’s say you have a bug problem in your house; beetles are running rampant, so you open Google and search ‘beetles.’ How does Google decide between the millions of results for ‘beetles’ and decide to show you pet shops, pest control companies, academic information about the bugs, and even ask if you meant ‘The Beatles’? Either way, too many results have come up, and you’re only looking for someone to get rid of them, so you narrow the search by adding the words ‘pest control’ to your search. Now, Google has found a way to pull all the pest control companies in your area to consider giving your hard earned money to.
Now, lets say that you are familiar with one specific pest control company, maybe your friend recommended it to you or you drive by it all the time. So, why isn’t it showing up on the Google results when you know it exists? And why are there a dozen other pest control companies coming up that you’ve never heard of?
But maybe it doesn’t matter that the one you’re looking for didn’t come up because of the ones that did show up, a few have hundreds of five star reviews and that’s good enough for you. After reading a few reviews and checking out the companies’ websites, you’re going to pick one to call and likely give them your business.
The beetles will be eradicated, but the loser of this example is actually the company that didn’t show up on the Google search results. Even though people were familiar with the company, unless the person stopped in at the shop as they drove by it, which is very unlikely these days, they chose a different company to employ because their information was easily available when it was needed. Phone books are a relic as everyone uses the internet to find businesses these days. And as much as word of mouth marketing is still common, people still want to check out a company online before patronizing their business.
So, what can be done to make sure your business is on top of search results? Well, the first step is having a web presence! An easy to read but informative website is the foundation on which SEO is built. (Don’t have these things? Let us help!) Then, it’s about finding ways to organically drive traffic to your website. The more views your website gets the better the likelihood that your website will come up higher in the search results. Curating written content with specific keywords is very important to this endeavor as is leveraging your social media usage for SEO purposes. Paid advertisements are also a common way to boost SEO but they can sometime backfire, which is why consulting with a marketing company can actually save you money.
With how much of our lives are spent surfing the web and how many aspects of our lives have us turning to consult the internet before making decision, boosting an company’s SEO is a necessity and no longer an optional choice. Companies can’t pause in piling on the SEO.
Restaurants, retailers, medical professionals, home services, educational programs, tourism companies, clockmakers, underwater tailors, dragon slayers…it doesn’t matter what the business is! If you want to be online, you have to boost your SEO! Contact us to help you get your dragon slaying company to the top of the results page!
