A Brief Guide to What SEO Is

If your business has been looking into marketing options then you will no doubt have run across the term SEO, and probably been completely at a loss as to what it means. The internet is awash with articles and expert statements telling you that you must invest in SEO, but if you haven’t a clue what it is then you are more than likely not going to wish to invest in it.

The truth is that SEO is important and it should form a key part of your company’s global marketing strategy, which is why we wanted to write a very simple piece on understanding just what SEO is all about, at a basic level. Without further ado then, let’s go in.

SEO

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and the overall goal is for your company’s website to reach the top of the search engine rankings for particular keywords. Let’s assume that you have a company that sells coffee machines, when people type in the words ‘coffee maker with grinder‘ into a search engine, the idea is that your business features on the first page, or at worst the second page. This process will be repeated for many more keywords which pertain to your company and what it does.

Importance

Now that you know what the goal of SEO is, we need to look at exactly why it is so important that the search engines recognize your business and rank you highly on their search results. The first point to mention here is that people have less and less patience in the modern world and when they search for something they want instant results. What these means is that the majority of people will not look beyond the first page or two of the search engines. If you are on page 3 or beyond then someone who is looking for a coffee maker will have already seen what they like, before they even get near you.

SEO is not only good for grabbing customers through organic search, it can also help a great deal in brand building and creating a better reputation for your business online. Remember that brand building is about planting seeds, and that is what your presence will do.

How it Works

We could really blind you with science here but we said we’d give a basic explanation so that is what we’ll do. The way in which search engines rank companies and their websites is based on a unique algorithm which they have created. The idea of the search engines is to deliver the very best result for its users, so they will use the trust which other websites have, the feedback around engagement from the website and from social media, as well as the quality of content on your website. There is a little more that goes into this but ultimately this is how they rank your site and the keywords. What a digital marketing company can do is to play up to the algorithm so that your website ranks higher for your chosen keywords.

SEO is important and it will help you to move to the next level, any more questions about it feel free to ask away in the comments section.