Why is SEO Important?
You have most likely heard of the philosophical question, “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” The answer to that question is the subject of lively debate in philosophy. However, let’s look at a simpler question; if a business exists and no one knows where it is, does it make a profit? The answer to this question is a much less complicated no.
Of course, this is pretty intuitive. How can you engage with customers if they don’t know where you are or how to do business with you? In a nutshell, this is what marketing is. While the tools and approaches have evolved over time, the general goal is the same.
In the modern era, one of the most fundamental ways to do this is through Search Engine Optimization or SEO. SEO is a common buzzword in marketing but what exactly is it and what makes it important?
When most people try to find a business that fits their needs, they usually use a search engine such as Google. Again, this is quite intuitive. When was the last time you looked up a business in the phone book versus looking it up online or asking a smart device? In fact, I would be willing to bet that you looked up at least one thing using a search engine today!
One thing that every search engine has in common is that they rank websites according to their own proprietary algorithms to see what results are the most relevant to what you are searching. As an example, one common variable is geography. If you search for “restaurants near me” and you get restaurants on the other side of the world, that may be interesting to learn about but it certainly won’t help you out with your dinner plans that evening!
While search engines can do some things automatically, there are certain steps that one can take to enhance the possibility of your website being viewed more favorably by search engines and thereby getting seen by more potential customers. This is important because the better ranked by search engines a website is, the more likely it is to be seen. When was the last time you clicked on the second results of a Google search?
In addition to some general best practices like making sure that your content is useful and relevant, there are other things that you can add to your website to ensure that it is optimized for search engines. These include meta tags, keywords, inbound links, image optimization, and much more. To be honest, the amount of stuff that can be done to optimize a search engine is very large and can actually be the subject of a blog post on it’s own (look out for that in the future!).
The important takeaway though is that Search Engine Optimization allows us to spread our message and story to others and lets us be discovered by prospective customers. If we can’t be found, how can we engage with customers? By making sure that our sites are friendly for search engines to index, we can ensure that our solutions are shared with our potential customers and maximize our business’ reach.
With so many narrow details to focus on as a part of Search Engine Optimization, it can be helpful to outsource that so you can focus on the parts of your business that only you can do. We offer ongoing and fixed SEO services that work for a variety of clients and budgets.
Have you tried your hand at SEO before? What did you like or dislike about it? Reach out and let us know!