Today’s global civilization largely depends on the internet for almost every solution, be it finding a nearby barber or looking for any information on NASA’s Mars Mission.
More importantly, the internet has become a way of conducting business for several companies. To quote a few, Amazon and eBay would make up for some of the most renowned online businesses.
Although it is quite easy to understand that the internet has helped businesses flourish on a global scale, many new entrants are still struggling to find necessary information for their online growth.
Undeniably, SEO is one such practice that helps online entities improve and flourish.
SEO- What is it?
Search engine optimization or as it is commonly known as, SEO, is the practice of modifying a website to show up in relevant search results.
A website that sells cotton t-shirts in Ohio State California, should show up in results when someone searches for ‘cotton t-shirts in Ohio’ on Google or any other search engine.
And for it to rank in such results, there are certain key factors at play that must be optimized suitable to search engine’s guidelines or master algorithm.
Well, there’s a very long list of factors that needs optimization for better search result rankings.
Google alone has over 200 signals to consider and rank any page in SERPs.
It means it would need a lot of time to check and correct all of these signals.
That being said, most of the online businesses need quick returns on their investment and certainly, they cannot wait for results to show up organically and naturally.
Thankfully, some signals hold more importance in SEO than others.
And most likely we shall be discussing them today. But before that, it is necessary to know some basics of SEO.
Fundamentals of SEO
Ranking in search results is not a walk in the park.
Unlike acquiring traffic, which is rather easier since you can use paid promotions and influencer marketing, Search Engine Optimization requires a lot more effort and that too consistently.
For better understanding, it is pivotal that you must familiarize yourself with some fundamental rules that govern the SEO industry.
Search Engine Algorithm
To begin with, search engines use crawlers or bots or spiders to learn about any website and its contents.
So, once you set up your website, a search engine crawler would go through all the contents of your website and rate it according to the master algorithm.
These crawlers depend on links to access different pages within your website. Think of these links as passages or bridges between two pieces of content on your website.
After crawling all the pages and before rating your website based on the master algorithm, the search engine would index (store) this information and use it to visit your website again, when needed.
This is the reason, marketers stress so much on optimizing internal links and including a sitemap for any website.
Keyword Optimization
During crawling and indexing, bots identify various clusters of information within your content.
Essentially, these clusters of information form up the terms that your users would use to find your website.
This is the reason, many marketers and website owners often spend a lot of time optimizing their content for the appropriate keywords.
After all, your customers are out there and they are already searching for your services and products.
So, keyword optimization is fundamental to search engine optimization.
Organic, Paid, And Referral Traffic
For any website, the most important record for performance measurement is the traffic it receives.
Of course, a website that has thousands of visitors every month is performing far better than the one that receives merely a hundred or two visitors every month.
However, not all of the traffic comes from organic searches. SEO requires several other practices to support bringing in the optimal results.
These practices usually help bring in traffic from other (inorganic) sources, as well.
The inorganic sources include PPC campaigns which bring in paid traffic, and affiliate marketing or influencer marketing, that brings in referral traffic.
Learning about the fundamentals of SEO, it is pretty much clear that its primary motive to improve organic rankings in search results.
But, this still doesn’t provide enough evidence that proves its necessity to online businesses.
Reasons That Make It So Vital For Businesses And Websites
In a broader sense, SEO is considered to be an indispensable part of online marketing.
And for any business, marketing practices are still important for generating revenue and scaling up.
However, the important question is, how does this practice help businesses in a way that conventional marketing practices cannot?
Organic Search Is The Primary Source Of Traffic
Most of the time, people visit a website through organic searches. For instance, your users would rather trust a search engine over a Facebook advertisement.
This simple fact gives enough evidence that organic searches are the primary source of traffic in most of the cases.
And since organic traffic is only received if your website could rank higher in the search results, SEO becomes vital for your business.
Improved Rankings Can Improve Brand Awareness
For successful online businesses, it all started with the SEO before they turned into huge brands that people recognize today.
For example, if you still search for cotton t-shirts on Google, most likely the very first result that you see would be an Amazon or any other e-commerce link.
So, when a company or a website begins to rank higher up in the search results, it slowly gains the reputation of a brand.
Thus, organic rankings significantly can affect your brand’s popularity.
Brand Awareness Can Increase Revenue Generation
And finally, it needs no saying that the more your customers know about your brand, the more likely are they to make purchases from your company.
In other words, what started as simply optimizing your website for better SERP rankings, is slowly transforming into the revenue that your business generates.
There’s probably no more doubts to it that if you are to set up a website for your business, you would need to invest in SEO.
After all, it not only helps with your brand’s visibility online, but also improves the revenue generation and of course, your market reputation.