Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Do You Need It?
We’ve looked at analytics in our previous article. We’ve looked at how you should choose the right colors and themes for your new website. We’ve even explored the question if you need a website at all to stay relevant in the market. All this is great if you have the answers to these important questions. But there’s yet another ingredient missing in this recipe: SEO. What is it exactly, and how does it help you?
Introduction
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is important and you need to have a great grasp of what it can do for you. SEO is simply the process of maximizing the number of people who visit your website, and ensuring that your website appears high on the list of results in search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing. In a nutshell, you want to be found by your potential customers and give yourself the best opportunities on the web.
You need SEO for your website and anyone telling otherwise is fooling themselves. It really is the best way to effectively market your brand, your product and services, all while relevant online. Remember, we exist in a time where the sea of information counts billions of websites are trying to get the attention.
What is SEO
Search Engine Optimization is about half research and creative writing. It typically starts with the research of keywords, the words, and phrases that people will type to find goods and services. The goal here is to find keywords that will make them land on your website. The constraint is your competition: other websites will also optimize their SEO strategy to rank high in search results similar to yours.
The creative part of SEO is to make sure that you still produce relevant content, valuable to your audience. “Content is king”, you might have heard. For example, a truthfully amusing and informative blog post is a great way to achieve a good balance between your SEO strategy and genuine content.
Therefore, there are certain markers one needs to fully own and understand. The first one is to make all the elements of your website optimized. First, look at your competition, know about their keywords, and fix anything preventing your site to be found. The second one is your site’s content. What will appeal to your visitors? Then, match keywords and phrases that are unique to you.
Backlinks
Next are backlinks, the links that are used to flow traffic back to you. The quality of building these links isn’t new in concept, but it’s the basis of all influences online. Using backlinks establishes authority to your website. View it as a referral system. If other websites with a good reputation refer to your website, it increases its value. In return, when you refer to others, it increases your own value. This element is the basis of search engine algorithms and has been an integral part of the success of providing quality results to queries.
Analyze and track your results
The last one is to capture the metrics and analytics of your website. Knowing who saw you, where they did, and how much time they spent on your website is crucial. Not every keyword is going to provide direct sales to you, but it is a long-term building block for your future acquisitions. Understanding them is key to a successful SEO program.
So, do you need SEO for your website? My question to you would be, do you want people to find you online and know you’ve got great services to offer? You need SEO, more than you think.
Let’s talk about how CatalystDev can make it count for you. Send us a message by clicking here.
