Search engine optimization (SEO) is vital to the success of businesses both large and small. It’s a tool that can boost the traffic you get from search engines. You may feel overwhelmed when you try to understand what it’s all about, but the basics of SEO are easy to understand.
What is SEO?
SEO is a method of attracting visitors to your website based on what people input into Google and other search engines. While Google is the biggest and most well-known search engine, it’s not the only one. Bing and Yahoo are other examples.
No matter which search engine is being used, their goal is to help searchers to find valuable and relevant content. In other words, search engines are looking for content that satisfies user intent.
How Do Search Engines Work?
Search engines crawl web pages and store information. When a user inputs a keyword into a search engine, the search engine decides which web page delivers the most relevant information. Those are the pages that will rank highly on search engine results pages (SERPs).
Different factors are considered in making this decision, including on-page and off-page SEO. On-page SEO refers to relevant things on the site such as keywords used and their placement on the page. Off-page SEO includes actions offsite such as backlinks. While using SEO can help you to be found, the most important thing is to deliver quality content.
Keyword Research
SEO starts with researching what search terms people are using when they’re looking for content like what you have to offer. Brainstorm topics you’d like to focus on that you hope to rank well for. There are both free and premium tools that can help you find keywords.
Your research doesn’t stop with a list of keywords. Spend some time figuring out what content is performing well for your chosen keywords. The content you create needs to satisfy user intent and it needs to surpass the content being provided by your competitors. Work on growing brand awareness by delivering quality content in the form of blog posts, videos, white papers, and infographics.
While you might not see immediate results with SEO, the results you get last long-term, unlike pay-per-click ads that lose their effectiveness if you stop investing money and time into them. It’s a long-term strategy that can draw in prospects at every stage of the buyer’s journey.
Continuing to Learn
To truly master SEO takes time, but there’s no reason you can’t get started once you know the basics. Even a small amount of knowledge about SEO can make a big difference in the results you get from organic search. SEO has the power to bring you traffic around the clock, 365 days a year.
Need some guidance in this area? At Softline Solutions, our experts can help you rise in search engine rankings using SEO. Higher ranking means more traffic and more traffic means more conversions. Let us help you grow your online presence. Get in touch with Softline Solutions today.
