These days being online is not an option; it is a compulsion for people and businesses as millions of people can see your brand, and it increases the chances of product sale and business growth at upper level. Among various digital marketing methods, SEO is a pivotal one. In this blog, we will dig deeper into what is the importance of SEO for your company.
What is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing, also known as online marketing, is a practice where business promotes their brand, product, and/or service through organic and paid campaigns. Digital marketing is devoted to increasing brand awareness, sales, engagement, leads, and revenue. Digital marketing includes Pay-per-Click (PPC), Social Media Marketing (SMM), Content Marketing, Email Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Marketing Analytics, Affiliate Marketing, and Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is the art, science, and process used to optimize a website to get a better rank in search engines such as Google. In SEO, both the quantity and quality of web traffic to be received are taken seriously.
Those companies who are embarking on their digital marketing journey must understand that it is crucial to focus on having SEO for your company.
SEO Facts 2023
- There are approximately 3.5 billion searches on Google each day.
- In terms of organic traffic, SEO drives 1,000%+ more traffic than social media.
- SEO leads have a 14.6% close rate.
- 94.74% of keywords get 10 monthly searches or fewer.
- 61% of Google searches are done using mobile devices.
- 42% of SEO professionals give an equal amount of time to building internal and external links.
- Search engines bring 10 X more traffic to eCommerce sites than social media.
[The statistics are sourced from various trusted sources.]
SEO strategies
On-page SEO strategy
On-page SEO (on-site SEO) is about optimizing parts of web pages so that they can get more search engine traffic and eventually improve their position in the search rankings. On-page SEO covers optimising meta description, meta title, keyword density and uploading high-quality, relevant images and content, webpage’s HTML, and internal links.
Off-page SEO strategy
“Off-page SEO” (also called “off-site SEO”) includes SEO activities that are done beyond the website. It usually includes acquiring natural backlinks, making a business listing, and blog submissions to other sites.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO is mainly devoted to the website’s technical elements, such as site speed, mobile friendliness, site structure, etc.
Technical SEO also checks if a website is suitable for search engines to crawl and index; crawling and indexing are needed for search engines to rank a site in the first place.
SEO Techniques
White-Hat SEO
White hat SEO is legal, approved, moral, and Google-approved SEO practice done to get better rankings in search engines. In white hat SEO techniques, original, relevant, high-quality content is published, keyword research tools are used, positive UX is provided, links are optimised, etc.
Black-Hat SEO
Black hat SEO is considered illegal, immoral, and abolished SEO practice. Content or any SEO activities done with Black hat SEO methods can suffer Google penalties, and worst, it may get wiped from search engines. Keyword stuffing, cloaking, and using private link networks, hidden Text or Links, negative SEO, and sneaky Redirects are some black hat SEO practices.
Gray-Hat SEO
Gray hat SEO combines SEO methods that have both White Hat SEO) and Black Hat Methods. Grey Hat SEO Techniques include creating content that doesn’t offer value, using expired domains, and paying for reviews.
How does SEO work?
Once SEO experts have optimised and uploaded the content, the actual SEO process begins. The SEO process basically includes crawling, indexing, and ranking.
Step 1: Crawling
Crawling is the first step, in this stage search engine discovers webpage and content through their web crawlers (‘spiders’ or ‘robots’) and record information on their system. Search engines crawl web pages by following through the links they discovered on the internet.
Step 2: Indexing
The second and very important stage is indexing. This is the filing stage where the search engine decides whether it will use the content or webpage that it has crawled. When a web page or piece of content is indexed, it is filed and stored in a database.
Step 3: Ranking
Ranking is known as the retrieval stage. The ranking is done when the crawling and indexing stages have been completed. Moreover, Search engines use over 200 ranking signals to sort and rank content.
Importance of SEO in digital marketing
- It helps to upgrade rankings and visibility.
Users mostly look for information available on the top ten results when searching for something online. This implies that your SEO positions in relevant keywords matter, and it is better to be on the first page (top ten results). When your website is on the first page, your organic visibility rises and shows you among potential buyers. This hence increases the chances of buyers visiting your website.
- SEO helps increase web traffic.
Getting site visitors via an organic medium is possible through SEO. To get that traffic, quality content can attract this organic traffic.
- SEO increases credibility and trustworthiness.
The better your SEO efforts, the higher your chances of getting ranked in a high position. The higher position brought by quality content increases your credibility and trustworthiness in the user’s mind.
- It doesn’t cost you much.
“SEO will cost high for businesses with small budgets”; this is certainly a big misconception. You do not have to spend thousands of dollars on SEO services. In fact, you can look for various SEO services available for different business sizes. So, even with a small investment, you can start your SEO.
- It gives companies a competitive advantage.
SEO is crucial to becoming competitive in your niche. If your competitors are investing in SEO and you are not, you are missing out on a lot. In fact, when you start your SEO, you will know where your rank is and hence helps you plan out monitoring techniques and learn new methods. This certainly helps you stay competitive.
- It can enhance user engagement rates.
User engagement is how a user interacts with a brand, primarily online. User engagement can be for both old or returning visitors and new visitors. With your content used for SEO, you can undoubtedly create and gain people’s responses. This can increase engagement, such as comments, blog shares, etc.
- You can make an Integration with other marketing channels.
SEO is considered a digital marketing medium that must be operated independently, but it can be incorporated extensively across your other marketing efforts. SEO can be integrated with other forms of marketing, namely content marketing, social media, email marketing, etc.
- SEO is great for Long-term growth.
SEO is an inevitable strategy for a business’s digital marketing. It may take time, mostly 6 months, for a website to rank in its desired keyword, but the wait is worth it. However, you must constantly update the website’s content and ensure your audience is happy with whatever content is made.
How do I get SEO services for my business?
If you want to include SEO in your digital marketing strategy you would have these following three options.
Do it Yourself?
You can do SEO for your company or product yourself. It’s not a rocket science. You can find many resources free online but you have to spend hours and weeks to learn this skill and idea to use tools properly. There may be many testing and failure. Learning SEO could be one of the best thing in your life. Think are you going to look after your business and its growth or SEO?
Hire an SEO specialist.
SEO specialist identifies SEO strategies and techniques to increase visitors to a website and obtain a high-ranking placement on search engine result pages (SERPs). To hire an SEO specialist, you can conduct an interview to check their SEO service journey. Also, you should not miss checking references.
Setup an SEO team in the Company
It simply means you make an in-house SEO team that does SEO tasks for the company as well as the clients (if applicable). In the team, you would basically need SEO specialists and content writers. You may have to think about the team size when forming an SEO team.
Outsource to SEO Agency
An SEO agency is a company that provides services devoted to improving your website’s visibility, bringing more organic traffic, sending more leads or customers to the business, and handling overall SEO tasks.
When you think of hiring an SEO Agency, you must understand the SEO agency’s history and find out about its SEO processes. You should not hesitate to ask about the transparency of their progress and time commitment.
Wrapping Up
Whatever your business is, and if you have started digital marketing, then you should not fall short of investing in SEO for your company. SEO is a long-term investment and will reap enormous benefits. However, to maintain your SEO ranking and results, continuous SEO efforts are needed, and for that, you can either do SEO by yourself, hire a specialist, build an in-house SEO department, or outsource to an SEO company. So, if you haven’t started your SEO, you should just get started.