Chances are you have heard of SEO somewhere along the line, whether you own your own business or have experienced the success of a larger one. The context usually is that SEO is beneficial to their online presence, but do you know the reasons why and how SEO works? The purpose of SEO is to improve your website’s overall searchability and visibility, but what makes SEO so important? Here you will learn about why businesses need SEO to help their brand reach new heights.
Think of SEO as the foundation of your website. It’s not as aesthetic but, if done correctly, can make that website easily discoverable in vast searches. It builds credibility for your business by achieving authority amongst all of the competition that is also trying to reach the top ranks in search results.
Before getting lost in the world of SEO it is important that you understand some fundamentals of how sites work. To start with, we must recognize that search engines, whether Google, Bing, Yahoo, Baidu, Yandex, or DuckDuckGo, must rank websites somehow. Otherwise, search results will come back as an unholy mess that doesn’t make sense to you or your clients. These search engines use algorithms like Google’s PageRank to determine how to order the search results. They will rank sites based on factors like quality and engaging content, internal links, backlinks, keyword selections, site speed, device optimization, etc. SEO works by figuring out how the algorithms rank the sites and finding ways to stay at the top of the pile.
Visibility and searchability are the stuff that make up brand recognition. This is primarily because organic searches are the number one source of site traffic for many businesses. Clients often know what they want and jot it down on a search query to preserve their interest. Results will be presented to them based on factors like geographical location, user ratings, and more. All of these factors play into your business’ SEO position on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). So, it pays to be highly visible and only high-quality SEO services and maintenance will guarantee this.
SEO will work for any business that wants to be favored on the SERP. Some techniques would work for a YouTube channel, an Airbnb property, and other types of business. But even with that, some rules cut across sectors, and any business that implements it will be SEO-ready and start reaping the benefits.
This being said, SEO can’t generate the type of reputation for your business that you want to achieve all at once. The process takes time, bulking up your online physique slowly but surely. These strategies work in tandem with a quality product or service, for the more awareness that is generated for your brand, the greater number of times it is searched for. Simply put, the whole system builds on itself.
Lastly (but not least-ly?), the way that the world of Search Engine Optimization works requires a rather consistent re-evaluation of your online presence that is being enhanced. This means that SEO is not a short-term solution for your digital marketing needs. Standards are always changing, and best practices that are praised in one quarter are growing skepticism the next.
So, if you want to achieve the first-page rank of relevant search terms, you need to invest in your SEO. There are no two ways about it, and when you decide to buckle down and take a ride with us, anticipate that the journey will be ongoing. The results will come to fruition soon enough and will need to be maintained to keep them. Don’t worry, we make a lot of stops for all of the celebrating along the way.
So, how does SEO work? For more SEO tips and tricks or to hire an entire team of professionals to optimize and increase your website rankings, give OCGnow a call today at (904) 600-3600 and schedule an online presence evaluation.
This post was originally published on 6/23/2020 and updated on 8/3/2021 for accuracy and a larger scope of information.
