Over 3.5 billion searches are done every single day across the world. Each Google page displays between 10 – 15 results. These numbers illustrate just how few chances you have to appear in front of your target demographic. Sure, you can pay for advertisements, but even that isn’t a results-guaranteed approach.
The best way to get your company popping up within those 10 – 15 search results is through an integrated process called search engine optimization, or SEO. Search engine optimization is an often-misunderstood tactic used by digital marketers globally to bring a company’s website up in results listings.
Using SEO can make or break your digital marketing. Used properly, you can rake in customers for very little investment. Failure to use it correctly, or ignoring it altogether, is guaranteed to cost you time and sales.
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What Is Search Engine Optimization?
To understand search engine optimization, you need to recognize how search engines work. Google, Bing, and other commonly used search engines scour data on the web for key phrases and words which fit someone’s search.
As an example, if someone searched dog sitters, they’d likely get results for what a dog sitter is, how to become a dog sitter, and local dog sitters near the searcher’s location. These results would be so widespread because the search isn’t very specific. If the searcher had entered a dog sitter near me open on Sunday, they would get a much different set of results.
The search engine takes the phrase or keyword the searcher entered and tries to match it to relevant sites, which is what shows up in the results. The more specific keywords or phrases a website used organically on their domain increases the likelihood their site will show up on top. Writing your web content to include these keywords is known as search engine optimization because it optimizes your website for a search engine’s data scouring.
Why Your Site Needs To Be Search Engine Optimized
You may be asking yourself: what’s the big deal with being optimized for a search engine’s algorithm? If you have a gorgeous site design and expect that to be enough of a pull for new customers, we’ve got some bad news. With how many sites are online nowadays, a good design just isn’t enough to beat out all your competitors.
No one will find your website if it doesn’t show up in search results; most people don’t make it to the second page of search results, let alone the third! You have to be top for your keywords if you want to lure customers. The more times you organically integrate keywords to your site content, the more likely you’ll show up on top of your competitors. It’s simple: show up more, get more clicks. Get more clicks, get more customers.
The True Cost of Ignoring Search Engine Optimization
A website professional hired to integrate your site with high-ranking keywords will usually run you a few hundred dollars (although we highly recommend getting a customized quote from a Success City Online expert). The cost of ignoring search engine optimization and hoping your site’s design will do all the heavy lifting is great. If you fail to use keywords or phrases in your site’s content, all the hard work you’ve done on the design is useless.
You can’t get exposure to new clients without search engine optimization. Your competitors who do use keywords will end up snagging all the business, even if they have a worse product or worse design. You can lose tremendous sales, time, and any work you put into digital marketing if you don’t have a good SEO foundation. Your business will suffer instantly. The short of it is: don’t ignore search engine optimization.
For more common digital marketing and other related topics, please contact Success City Online.