Why you need good SEO practices - the basics!
Many business owners see SEO as a “Dark Art” or even a “waste of time” – on both these comments I couldn’t disagree more! Many of the main principles of SEO are simply common sense and it is just about ensuring you spend good, quality time on your website to ensure your SEO is of a good standard and regularly maintained & optimised
To quickly mention Paid marketing – this is where as a business you spend your cash (your profits) to put your Brand and products in front of your (expected) customers – basically, SEO is the reverse of this in some respects where your customer is looking for YOU or YOU’RE products… no CPC, no daily spend budget! If you’re website is well-optimised for SEO then you can ensure that your Brand is highly visible through Google, which accounts for more than 90% of web searches in the UK
As a quick definition, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of optimizing a website or online content within a website to aim to get onto Page 1 for “Search Engine Results Pages” (SERPs).
Less than 1% of web search traffic click on Page 2 or beyond… this is quite a statistic!
Good SEO practices enables Google to see that you have a good quality, well managed and trusted website – this then provides several benefits to businesses or individuals which includes:
Increased website traffic:
By optimizing your website and content for search engines, you can improve your website's visibility on SERPs – this can lead to increased traffic. This increased traffic can help you generate leads or increase sales, and grow your business with long-term results
Improved user experience:
If you follow good SEO practices, you will create a website that is easy to navigate and use, making it more user-friendly. This improved user experience can lead to increased engagement and a lower bounce rate, which is beneficial for both users and search engines – again the end result is increased revenue
Cost-effective marketing:
SEO is a cost-effective marketing strategy compared to other digital marketing channels like paid advertising. Once you've optimized your website, you can continue to generate traffic and leads without spending more money. However, SEO isn’t just a one-off piece of work – you need to continually optimise your site, as well as adding new content on a regular basis for best results
Better brand credibility:
A website that ranks high on SERPs is seen as more trustworthy by users and more “relevant” to their search query. Good SEO practices can help you improve your website's credibility, which can lead to increased brand awareness and customer loyalty.
Competitive advantage:
You will want your website to rank higher than your competitors on Google Search results – this gives you a competitive advantage. By implementing good SEO practices, you can outperform your competitors and gain a larger market share…. And remember if your competitors implement good SEO practices, then their rankings will improve and they will take Market share from you…
Long-term benefits:
Good SEO practices provide long-term benefits to your website and business. Unlike paid advertising which stops generating traffic once the budget stops and the campaign ends, good quality & solid SEO practices will continue to drive traffic and generate revenue into the future. Being too reliant on Paid Marketing can be damaging to long-term sustainable growth… as well as become expensive!
Better understanding of your audience:
By ensuring your website is connected with Google Search Console or Merchant Centre you can analyse the data around your search results – this can provide you with valuable insights into your target audience's search behaviour and what search terms are being used to create an impression of your site, and hopefully click-through information to your website – you can utilise this information to assist you to optimise your website as well as helping you to create better content that is engaging, and also can assist with improving your overall digital marketing strategy.
In summary...
Good SEO practices are essential for Brands and businesses who are looking to improve their online presence and visibility. By following and implementing good SEO practices, you can increase website traffic, improve user experience (UX), generate increased Revenue and gain a competitive advantage.
Additionally, SEO provides long-term benefits and a better understanding of your target audience's search behaviour and provide data insights to optimise your website further making it one of the most important channels within your marketing strategy in today's digital landscape.
To learn more of how Digitally Driven Consultancy can help your business, then please contact me