Search Engine Optimization
If you aren’t using SEO techniques, you’re letting your competition pass you in the rankings.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the leading factors in search engine results page rankings. It is a tried and true method for creating and providing content geared toward your consumers or readers, and it’s a fairly simple tool to help improve your site in every way.
How Can SEO Improve My Website?
Quality content
Humans and search engines alike crave original, informative, thought-provoking content. Where search engines are involved is through the site crawling and indexing process. When your website offers high-quality content, search engines like Google will rank your site more favorably. And when it comes to humans, well, no one will read through paragraphs and pages of drivel that spams keywords or is so poorly written it’s barely decipherable.
What else happens when your website provides quality content?
- You build trust with your site visitors. By giving your consumers and followers informative content, you can become an authority on the topics and issues discussed. Users, bloggers and others in the industry can then begin to trust your information. Of course, trust cannot be built on keyword stuffing or shoddy writing.
- You increase brand awareness and brand loyalty. Let’s say you posted a thought-provoking idea on Google+ and Facebook. Your followers “like” and “+1” your post, and some even share it. The majority of their friends can see the liked and shared content, and they may feel compelled to do the same if they agree with your post. When consumers feel connected to a brand, they are more likely to continue doing business with that company.
- Site traffic may increase. There are a few ways you can increase site traffic through better content. First, search engines may rank your more favorably, making your site appear more credible and making it easier to find. Second, consumers will visit your site more often to check for updates. Third, visitors and other websites will recommend your site to friends, readers and followers, inviting them to visit your site.
Backlinking
Backlinking is what happens when a website includes a link back to your site, blog, online press release, etc. Backlinking can occur naturally when you provide content that is worth linking to from other sites, and it can be a huge factor in search engine results page rankings. When several sites link back to your site, Google sees that as a way to judge how credible your site and information are. According to Searchmetrics, backlinking continues to be one of the most important search engine optimization metrics.
Of course, the sites linking to your website should be credible as well, which is why you should never pay for backlinking. It’s doubtful that you’ll know where those links are coming from, and being associated with sites that are penalized by Google can hurt your rankings.
SEO Is Still Relevant
We’re sure you’re wondering why SEO even matters if you’re using Pay-per-click links and advertising. Business 2 Community has the answer: 70% of the links that user click on search query result pages are organic. This means that the majority of search engine users are not clicking on paid links! So, if your website isn’t appearing on the first page of Google, your company isn’t being found, and that can be the case even when you have paid links. “But surely users are heading to the second and third page of search engine results to find the right company,” we hear you say.
The truth is that 75% of searchers never go past the first page of search engine results. If you don’t have a strong SEO marketing strategy that puts you on that first page, you can kiss your consumers goodbye as they head to your competitors.
What Can Gainesville Marketing Do For Me?
At Gainesville Marketing, we want to see your company succeed and grow. That’s why we offer expert SEO advice, strategies and implementation. We can create original, quality content for your site, online press release, blog and even social media profiles. And if you have existing content, we can edit it for readability or rewrite it for a fresh take on old content. Your competitors are using SEO to improve sales and site traffic, increase their customer base and brand awareness, and build connections with their consumers and followers. Let us help you beat the competition at their own SEO game.