I cannot think of a single marketing activity that can affect your business as quickly as Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
SEO is the practice of optimizing a website by improving internal and external aspects of the site – such as inbound links, for example – to increase the traffic a site receives from search engines.
Why is SEO so important? The online environment is becoming increasingly competitive. Those companies who understand and perform SEO well will have a decided advantage in recognition, brand awareness and visitors – all of which leads directly to increased profits.
Search is very popular. Nearly every online American and billions of people around the world use search engines – and some are looking for your business. Being listed in the first few search results is critical to your companys’ visibility. The goal should be to have your companys’ website appear within the first ten results for your targeted keywords.
Being listed within the top ten results not only provides the greatest amount of traffic to your site, but also instills trust in consumers minds as to the worthiness and relative importance of your business as a whole.
Studies have shown that the first ten results from a search receive 89.71% of all click-through traffic. The next ten results receive only 4.3% and it continues dramatically downward from there.
When we work with our clients’ on their websites, SEO is part of our process and it is baked right into the design and development process. Here are just some of the factors that we look at which will influence your SEO results:
- Global link authority of the site, which determines the quantity and quality of the site’s links;
- Keywords in the visible page text;
- One clear topic per page;
- Every page is reachable from at least one static text link;
- Clear hierarchy of content and text links;
- Appropriate, descriptive and unique page titles and ALT attributes;
- Carefully written meta description tags;
- Professionally designed and accessible pages for modern browsers;
- Provides direct, actionable information relevant to the query;
- Pages that are easy to use, navigate and understand;
- Delivers high quality, legitimate, credible content on every page
The bottom line is this: All Search Engines are looking for the very best results to any query search a user makes. Your website should be the most informative, well-written, best example they could provide in the areas where your website lives. I promise if you implement best SEO practices, you will see an immediate difference.
~Amy
