People conduct more than 3.5 billion searches every day on Google. How do you make sure they see your business? The secret is search engine optimization (otherwise known as SEO)
SEO is about getting your website seen on search engines like Google. Good search rankings are important because consumers see the top results as the most trustworthy, and it boosts your credibility. Studies show that the first five search results on Google get nearly 70% of all clicks and a whopping 75% of local mobile searches result in a store visit within 24 hours. If you aren’t showing up at the top, you’re missing out.
Why is SEO Important?
While paid advertising, social media, and other online platforms can generate traffic to websites, the majority of online traffic is driven by search engines or organic searches. Less than 10% of people click on digital ads for all US-based inquiries, so more than 90% of all searches are organic. Your website needs to stand out to potential customers and search engines alike. Search engines are constantly improving, but they still need your help to optimize your website to be there for the right people at the right time. (Read more about SEO)
What can you do to optimize your website for SEO?
- Make sure your website is mobile friendly and loads fast
- Provide info on your website that is relevant to your customers. Keep your content fresh and up-to-date, using keywords to increase your SEO ranking.
- Ensure your Google My Business page is claimed and verified
- Create and promote a blog on your site that offers helpful content to customers.
SEO management doesn’t have to cost you anything, except the time and energy spent updating content to stay fresh and relevant. To make the most of your SEO efforts, allocate some of your time to reviewing the content on higher ranking sites within your niche, and aim to write content that’s better than theirs. Then, share your content on your social platforms.
How is your website performing?
Google Search Console is available to track the performance of your website easily. Gain valuable insights with an account to see what part of your website needs work and attention. This can be a technical part of your website, such as increasing crawl errors that need fixing. This can also be giving a specific keyword more attention because the rankings or impressions are decreasing.
Besides seeing this kind of data, you’ll get mail notifications when Google Search Console notices new errors. Because of these notifications, you’re quickly aware of issues you need to fix. That’s why everyone with a website should learn how to use it!
Improve your SEO with these vital features of Google Search Console:
- Improve rankings for underperforming keywords
- Optimize pages with high keyword rankings, but low click-through rates
- Fix sitemap issues
- Learn which content types and topics get the most backlinks
- Find pages that need more internal links or to be pruned
- Update pages that are losing organic traffic
Google Search Console is a powerful free tool that shows a lot of data and insights about your website, but SEO isn’t a single-player game; it’s multiplayer. Ranking in Google means competing against other websites for the top spot. If you don’t understand the competitive landscape, there’s no way of knowing where you fall short or what you should do to improve rankings.
Start your SEO strategy today and stop hiding from your customers. Our team at Cight Solutions is here to kick off the New Year with fresh rankings, resulting in more site visits and interaction with consumers.
