What Is SEO? And Why Is It So Important?
What’s the first thing you do when you want to learn about a product, service, or topic? If you’re like most people, you Google it. Why? Because Google typically does an outstanding job of showing results that are relevant to your search and offer quality content. After all, there’s a whole lot of junky content on the internet. If Google didn’t evaluate and rank the content for us, the internet would be virtually unusable.
That said, we humans tend to be pretty lazy, and we rarely look beyond the first page of search results. So if your website doesn’t show up on the first page of related search results, you’re probably missing out on new business—potentially a LOT of business.
That’s why search engine optimization (SEO) is so crucial to the vast majority of businesses—local, national, and global. By implementing SEO strategies, you can improve your website’s visibility and rankings on Google and other search engines, which can lead to more traffic, leads, and sales.
What is SEO?
SEO is the practice of improving your website’s visibility and rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs). It includes a whole range of tactics and strategies, which can include keyword research, on-page optimization, technical SEO, link-building, content creation, social media, and more. The goal of SEO is to make it easier for search engines to crawl, index, and understand your website’s content—and to make it more helpful to users—so you get more traffic to your site.
Benefits of SEO
The power of SEO can be truly transformative for businesses of all sizes and industries—particularly financial services and healthcare. By optimizing your website and its content, you can enhance your online presence and visibility in search engine rankings, opening up a wealth of short- and long-term benefits.
Increased website traffic: The most immediate benefit of effective SEO is the potential for increased traffic to your website. The higher a website ranks for relevant keywords in the SERPs, the more visibility it has. This increased visibility often correlates with more clicks, which results in more website traffic. Additionally, SEO focuses on creating informative and keyword-relevant title tags and meta descriptions, which show up on the result pages. Well-crafted descriptions not only help to increase click-through rates but also promote higher-quality web traffic (i.e., website visits from actual prospects instead of people looking for something entirely different from what you offer).
More cost-effective marketing: Compared to other forms of advertising, SEO is incredibly cost-effective. It helps you capture organic (free) searches, meaning you’re not paying for ads. Also, SEO targets users who are actively searching for information related to your business. This means that with SEO, you're reaching consumers at the exact moment they're looking for what you offer—reducing wasted advertising spend.
Higher conversion rates: By attracting the right prospects with the right content, you’ll drive more site visitors to take the action you want them to take—such as calling you, filling out a form, or making a purchase.
Enhanced user experience: SEO isn’t just about search engines. It’s also about the user. Elements like mobile-friendliness, website speed, and easy-to-read content are some of the factors that can contribute to a superior user experience, leading to higher engagement, more conversions, and more return visits.
Improved brand visibility and credibility: Ranking highly on Google and other search engines lends credibility to your business. Users tend to trust a brand that appears at or near the top of search results compared to brands that don’t. By continuously applying SEO strategies, you can build your brand’s reputation and increase the visibility of your business online—24/7.
Lasting benefits. The results from SEO are long-lasting. Once your website begins to rank well in search engine listings, it can often maintain its position for an extended period.
SEO best practices
How can you use SEO to boost your website’s rankings on Google and other search engines? There are a lot of factors that can affect your website’s rankings, but we’ll focus on some of the most important ones:
Keyword research: Before you can optimize your website for search engines, you need to know what keywords your potential customers use to search for what you sell. Conducting keyword research can help you identify the most relevant and valuable keywords for your business. Google’s keyword planner is a good place to start.
On-page optimization: On-page optimization refers to the optimization of individual pages on your website to improve their relevance and visibility to search engines. This can include optimizing your page titles, meta descriptions, headers, and content for your target keywords, as well as ensuring your website is mobile-friendly, fast-loading, and easy to navigate.
Technical SEO: Technical SEO refers to the optimization of your website’s technical infrastructure to make it easier for search engines to crawl and index your website. This can include optimizing your website’s XML sitemap, robots.txt file, and schema markup. You’ll also want to make sure your website is secure, has clean code, and is free of technical errors.
Link-building: Link-building is the practice of acquiring high-quality, relevant links from other websites to your own. This can improve your website’s authority, relevance, and visibility to search engines—helping you rank higher in search results.
Content creation: Content creation is a critical part of any SEO strategy. As we mentioned earlier, Google wants to offer the best quality results for every search. So Google’s algorithm looks for well-written, targeted, and helpful content. Google also wants up-to-date content, and it rewards sites that post new content regularly by ranking those sites higher in SERPs. By regularly adding good content to your website, you can attract and engage potential customers, build your brand authority, and improve your website’s relevance and visibility to search engines.
SEO takes time—but the rewards are worth it
SEO isn’t an overnight, quick-fix endeavor. (If you want instant results, Google Ads can deliver.) Improving your site’s ranking on search engines can take weeks to months. And maintaining high rankings requires ongoing SEO work.
But the money you spend on SEO can lead to significantly more organic (free) clicks to your site. This reduces your need for paid advertising, introduces more prospects to your business, and ultimately helps you to bring in more (and more profitable) new customers.
We can help
Want to learn more about SEO for your business? Contact us today to set up a free consultation.
