SEO 101: The What, the Why & the How
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Marketing is full of acronyms… SEO, SERP, PPC, CPC… just to name a few.
Have you run across any of these and found yourself thinking “what on earth do these mean”?
Helping our clients navigate the marketing alphabet soup is one of our favorite parts of the job. In this blog we tackle Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and SERP — they are both big players in the digital marketing landscape. Whether you’re looking to get out of a website traffic rut or you’re ready to take your website to the next level, they’re something you’ll want to get comfortable with. Let’s dive into SEO 101!
What Is SEO And Why Is It Important?
SEO stands for “search engine optimization” and refers to the practice of driving traffic to your website through organic SERPs (“search engine results pages”). This is accomplished by publishing quality content on your website that is directly and clearly tied to what your desired audience is looking for.
SEO is not just about search engines but also about the actual people using those search engines. One of the greatest mistakes you can make in your early days of optimizing your site’s content is to write it for the machines and not the people. You have to think like your audience and remember that they may not be searching for your service or product in the same terms that you use to describe them.
SEO is important because the vast majority of online traffic follows pathways built by search engines and organic content. Most searches result in a user clicking on an organic result on the very first page, and many users completely bypass paid ads. Additionally, you can leverage paid ads to help signal boost your website once you have a firm grasp of which keywords people use to find you. Keep in mind that paid search and organic search can be done together or separately, but we always recommend starting with tackling your organic SEO first!
How To Make SEO Work For You
We understand that harnessing the power of SEO might seem a little daunting when you first set out. To set you on the right path, we’ve created a checklist of our top five SEO tips:
Make sure the content on your website is written for the audience that you know needs your product or service most, but keep in mind what search terms and parameters they would actually use, not what you think they should use. For instance, consider whether your target audience might search for “digital marketing firm” vs. “digital marketing company.” To make this easy to remember, we like to say “keep it colloquial” to remind ourselves that we write for the audience and not for other experts.
Create consistent content. The more you update your website with fresh and relevant content, the more likely search engines like Google are going to consider you as a qualified result to include on SERPs. Two ways to achieve this are: perform routine maintenance on your site and updating your content according to seasonal trends, or maintaining a stream of new content like a blog.
Leverage signal boosters in your content. When Google crawls a website to see if it’s a good result for a search query, it sees header formats first. Format your website’s sections to include a H1 tag in the section title—and include top keywords in the titles.
Tools exist that will help you discover which keywords users use to find you. Many website-building programs like Squarespace offer this in their analytics section. MonsterInsights is a plugin for Wordpress to consider, while MOZ is a scalable tool for all things SEO. By tracking how your audience is finding you, you’ll be able to identify which terms to use in a more robust capacity on your site.
Once you venture into paid ads, we highly recommend running tests on your ads. Create at least 3 ads per ad group and compare their results. This will help you identify positively-performing particular phrases and keyword themes.
Hopefully you are now feeling more confident in your ability to create a quality website that brings more traffic your way. With even the simplest SEO updates, you can ensure that your ideal audience finds you through their search engine queries.
We’d love to talk to you about your SEO questions or concerns. Drop us a line and let’s discuss how we can help!
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