What Is SEO? How to Amplify your Site Traffic

If you’re a business owner you’ll have heard the term but we’re guessing you’ve heard a lot of conflicting advice?

Let’s demystify SEO, starting with what SEO means and the huge difference it can make to your online marketing.

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What is SEO?

SEO stands for search engine optimization, the process of optimising websites and digital content so search engines like Google, Bing and Yandex can understand what they are and index them for users to visit and experience. Once indexed the content appears in search engine results pages (SERP’s)

It also represents a position within digital marketing, i.e. an SEO, someone who optimises digital content for search engines.

SEO can be described as a way of increasing the site’s visibility in the search results. Let’s break it down. Search engines scan your website as they look for content elements that will help it determine if it is user-friendly. 

If the search engines love your site design and content, it will put it among the top results. This process is also known as crawling. It helps the search engine to present useful results to the users.

By improving your site to be SEO friendly, it means that you are working hard to make things easy for the engines to understand your content indexing. 

The better the design and content quality of your site, the higher the chances of the search engine loving it and thus increased chances of getting ranked top.

What is SEO Marketing?

SEO marketing relates to a marketing strategy that aims to insure your website is at the top of a SERP for many different search queries.

Doing so will allow more people to visit your site organically (not through paid ads) and experience your content, look at your products and services and hopefully lead to more conversions.

SEO marketing is a long term marketing process that is now essential for many businesses due to the power of search engines and the fact that millions of people use them everyday to search for information as well as the best products and services to suit their needs.

What is SEO for Business Owners?

Some of the basic SEO terms to familiarize yourself with include:

SERP – (Search Engine Results Page)

This acronym stands for Search Engine Results page. This is the primary reason why the SEO marketing campaigns are made. It can also be referred to as the result page. 

SEO marketing campaign aims to secure a spot for your site on the SERP. This is achieved through the use of high-quality content and using a particular set of keywords.

On-Page SEO

This refers to the measures or procedures that you take directly into your website to improve its ranking. 

Examples of on-page SEO steps include improving the quality of your content and working on the required keywords, title and Meta descriptions. 

The aim of on-page SEO is to make page indexing easier for the search engines. 

The goal is to make the site relevant and easy to navigate which will make people stick to it and this is an excellent signal to the search engine that your website is trustworthy.

Off-Page SEO

These are the steps that you take outside your website to improve it for SEO ranking. Off-page means that whatever you do is not done directly on your site. 

A perfect example of off-page SEO is the use of external links. If you provide good content, other site owners might love it and link their site to yours such that when people click on the link, it leads them to your page. 

Also, if you want to connect your site to another company’s website, you must ensure that you are connecting it to a trustworthy and well-ranked site. 

If more people are linking their site to yours, it shows that your website is credible and the search engines will rank it higher.

Meta Descriptions

You have probably come across meta descriptions but you had no idea of what it is. This is a summary or a short description below the title. 

It gives a general overview of what you are about to read. Meta descriptions are an essential element of SEO. 

If you use the right keywords, it increases the chances of being ranked top. It aims at helping readers to decide if what they are about to read is relevant regarding what they are looking for or not. 

A good Meta description should be at least 150 characters.

Keyword Research and Target Keywords

Keyword research is the process of identifying the frequently searched words by users regarding your products. 

For example, if you sell health products, the frequently searched keywords could be health. In this case, you will have to conduct online research to know which keywords match your business.

Target keywords, on the other hand, are what you come up with after conducting keyword research using a search tool. These will be the frequently used keywords on your website.

Linking and Link Building

This is a crucial part of SEO. There are two types of links structure; internal and external. 

An internal link building is a link that connects one page of your site to the other especially the landing page. 

As the readers view a particular page and come across an internal link, they are supposed to click it so that it can redirect them to another page on the same website.

External link building, on the other hand, is also known as backlinking. 

This directs the readers to another website where they can get more information concerning the same services or products that you are offering. 

Again, you have to ensure that you link your site to a trustworthy site if you want the search engines to rank you high.

Benefits of SEO to Business

So, what’s in for you and your business after you optimize your site to be friendly to the search engine? Let’s look at some of the benefits of this process.

Increased sales

This goes without saying. Increased traffic means increased chances of sales. Whenever an individual is looking for a product related to yours, your site will appear at the top, and most people love clicking on the first link. The bottom line is increased traffic thus maximum sales.

Increased conversion rate

If your site is optimized, it means that it is user-friendly. It is easy to navigate and the content used is high quality. This includes the videos and images used. 

If so, the readers will get impressed, and chances are, they will end up wanting to try your products. The rate of conversion will be higher, unlike the ‘un-optimized’ sites.

It is Cost Effective

SEO search engine optimisation is the most cost-effective marketing campaign. It does not cost you much, and it only targets people that are actively looking for your products. 

You do not have to set up a high budget to attract prospects. All you need is to work on your site. Make it friendly to both the users and the search engines and leave the rest for the search engines to handle. 

Also, since SEO targets people who are actively looking for your products or services online, the results are likely to be more effective than other marketing campaigns.

Enhanced Site Usability

As you try to improve your site and make it easy for navigation by the search engines, SEO makes your site more navigable and easy to use for users. 

SEO entails rearranging your site’s design and links to make the pages and content on the site easy to find.

What are the Phases of an SEO Campaign?

Search engine optimization keeps changing as the search engines reorganize their algorithm criteria as they try to offer users with useful information. 

You need to understand the basics of a good SEO campaign to get great results. Some of the essential aspects involved in the SEO campaign.

Improving the Website Content

Content is everything. Although the SEO algorithms make a lot of changes to enhance your site, one thing remains intact, your original content. 

If your site has good content, it increases its credibility as the search engines find it as a reliable source of information. This is paramount for a successful SEO campaign. Ensure that the content is original and unique if you want it to be ranked top on the SERPs.

The search engine bots crawl throughout the site as they search for original content related to the specific keywords and if they find your site to be one, it will help generate more traffic for you. 

Also, the content must be relevant. Ensure that what you offer the readers is connected to the specific sector or products and that it is useful to them. 

This establishes your website as reliable for the particular topic thus letting the search engines rank your top.

Lastly, the content should be shareable. This allows the readers to share it if they love it. Also, you can share it to other social media platforms as this helps in drawing more traffic to your page.

Backlinks

As mentioned earlier, backlinks are an essential element of an SEO campaign. However, you need to understand that link building should not be done just for the sake of it. 

It is not about the number of links built. Instead, it is about the quality and trustworthiness of the links you decide to create on your site. 

Ensure that the links come from relevant sites, websites that are authoritative in that specific sector or niche and should be ranked high on the SERPs.

The other aspects include keywords, title tags, and Meta descriptions.

A specialist like ProfileTree can help make the SEO changes that matter using the very latest expertise. 

You can also access our huge online archive of clear, Quick Read guides to essential business and digital marketing subjects.