If you are a running a business in 2022, you have definitely come to realise that an online strategy is crucial to the success of your marketing strategy. In today’s age, if your business doesn’t have SEO, there is slim chance you can compete with all the noise online.

Research shows that 95% of people only look at the first page of search results, and half the clicks on the first page go to the first three results.

To increase your chances of being seen by your audience (before your competitors grab their attention), it’s time to implement SEO for your website.

In plain and simple terms, SEO is search engine optimisation, aiming to increase the “quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results”. Search engines such as Google, Yahoo or Bing collect information from websites, organise them into an algorithm and rank relevant pages to answer user queries.

SEO is important to businesses, as they help put forward and attract the right audience who are genuinely looking for your product or service.

When the right audience finds you, they’ll click through to your website and the more (quality) traffic driven your site the better. These visitors convert into customers or clients, delivering revenue for your business.

There are a number of SEO methodologies that are all important in their specific ways. These are not a completely different process, but they are different sub categories of the larger picture. At a top level, these can be categorised as:
- On-Page SEO
- Off-Page SEO

‍On-Page SEO
First we look at the website itself. On-Page SEO is everything you see on the different pages that make up your site to make it appeal to search engines and your readers. This essentially means quality and informative content. Content that will engage readers, will answer questions, and most importantly content that incorporates your target keywords (we’ll get to this shortly).

There are also a number of technical factors that will affect the visibility of a website on search engines. This includes optimising your robots.txt file, your sitemap.xml file, optimising site structure and URL structure, and also creating an SEO friendly web design that loads fast and is responsive so it can be viewed on a mobile and tablet, as well as a desktop.

‍Off-Page SEO
Off-Page SEO is different to On-Page SEO as it looks into ways to share and promote your website online. Off-Page SEO uses techniques to expose your website, as websites with high authority are likely to rank higher on Google than those with less authority.

Techniques such as link building, guest blogging, social media, and other brand promotion should all be used, as these signals are picked up by Google to show that people are talking about your brand online.

SEO is crucial for every business that requires an online presence. Being the number one way to find new business, search engines create an incredible opportunity to connect businesses with customers.

SEO is the way for search engines to evaluate and identify which sites must rank highly for every query registered into them. Because of SEO, search results are fairly maintained, so users will accurately find what they are looking for based on how relevant it is. The higher you rank in results, the more traffic your website will generate.

‍Is SEO important for all businesses?
If your business has a website then yes, SEO is VERY important. Some things in a business are out of your control, but with SEO, rankings can be directly managed which means you can control how your online revenue figures will turn out.

Being one of the most proven ways to advertise, SEO is also cost effective. It is important for all kinds of business to invest into SEO, purely because effective SEO strategy works in helping your business grow online, by gradually increasing conversion rates.

‍Is SEO more important for some businesses compared to others?
When it comes to SEO, each website has different needs, and competitions regarding keywords influence the challenges that every business encounters. Nonetheless, SEO is similarly important for all businesses.

Crawlability and Indexability
This refers to the search engine’s ability to discover pages of your website. Search engines have bots (aka crawlers) that find websites on the internet by crawling their content and following links. They then create an index of all the websites that have crawled that gets compiled into a big database that Google uses in its algorithm to rank.

‍Keyword Usage
Incorporating keywords into your website’s content is a crucial part of SEO. Keywords are words on your website that describe what your content is about. Google picks those up, and matches them with particular search queries that they receive.

To find these specific keywords to use, you must research your industry, find relevant topics and understand what your competitors are writing about too. There are a variety of tools online to find relevant keywords that you can incorporate into your website content. The Keyword Planner within the Google Ads dashboard is a great example.

‍Meta Titles and Meta Descriptions
Meta titles and meta descriptions are very important parts of website optimization, as they sit high on Google’s list of ranking factors. They are the title of the HTML document that is in search engine result snippets, as well as being shown in the page’s tab. Essentially, they show the title of a web page and its description.

‍Content Quality
Quality content is key for SEO. Write content on your website with the reader in mind. If you gain high quality backlinks from high authority websites, and use the right keywords your content will be quality and will generate sales or enquiries for your website.

‍Search Intent
Search intent is the purpose of the user’s online search, the main objective a user has when typing a query into a search engine. The user is trying to find exactly what they are looking for. This is important as search intent is Google’s number 1 goal: they try to match the best answer for the user’s query.

Backlinks
Backlinks are very important to SEO practices. Essentially a backlink is a link on one page to a page on another website. Not only do they improve the linked page’s authority, but it also improves your own domain authority. They are a key factor in increasing your website traffic.

Guest Blogging
To build trust and authority of your website, guest blogging definitely appeals to search engines and more importantly the eyes of readers. This is a specific content marketing and SEO technique where an author publishes a blog post on a third-party website to promote their brand.

‍Social Media
If social media is not in your digital marketing strategy in this day and age, you are missing out on an incredible opportunity. Not only does social media increase your visibility online, it also attracts traffic to your website. Social media gives your website an opportunity to increase authority, and also create brand recognition. It plays a huge role in exposure of your website, content and brand to a larger audience.

‍Social Bookmarking
A great way for search engines to realise your content is valuable is by the use of social bookmarking. Social bookmarking sites allow users to add, save and share websites that are kept either public or private. The pages that are bookmarked are noted as quality back links by search engines, which increases traffic and search rank.

‍Online Directories
Being listed on an online directory has great value for your SEO. Even though this could be considered a dated off-page SEO element, it is still worth having in your strategy. The use of directories are a source of traffic and trust. If you are listed (especially as a local business) on an online directory, it shows that you are a reputable business.

If you haven’t gotten the message yet, we’ll write it in plain English now: good SEO makes businesses stand out from their competition. There are three ways it does this.

‍Searchability: Organic Search Engine Rankings
- High rankings reflect relevance
- Top rankings equate to 24/7 promotion

‍Authoritativeness: High Quality Website Traffic
- Increased individual Ranking
- Increased referral Ranking

‍Flexibility: Mobile Friendly
- Mobile accounts hold over half of web traffic worldwide
- Your website must be easily accessible and compatible for a mobileSEO keeps businesses updatedBeing proactive with your SEO strategy helps your business stay updated and produce quality results.

‍The Basics - SEO helps you understand the World Wide Web
Understand the ins and outs of the World Wide Web, how it works, and how you can capitalise on the opportunity of being online.

‍The Process - SEO practices are always being updated
If SEO practices are always being updated, and you have updated your strategy, you will continue to stay up to date with producing consistent results.

‍The Challenges - SEO is used by competitors too
If you are not using SEO, know that your competitors are. Staying alert and monitoring how your competitors are reaching goals through SEO is important. Stay ahead of their game and continue to optimise your strategy.

‍The Outcomes - SEO updates you with measurable data
SEO offers you measurable data so that you can edit and optimise consistently; this includes great free tools such as Google Analytics. Your website can stay at the top of search engines by constantly improving your strategy.

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SEO attracts, retains and helps buyers
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Another reason why businesses need SEO is because it will help convert visitors of a website to become potential customers.

‍Dependability - Users Trust Search Engines
Create consumer recognition and brand awareness by ensuring your website is dependable and trusted by search engines. SEO is also a simple and cost-effective way to boost offline sales, as it acts as a constant promotion by having your website on the first page of a search.

‍Necessity - Local SEO Targets Local Buyers Looking for Services Like Yours
If you are one of the first businesses to come up for a local search, this significantly impacts local buyers purchasing decisions. Local SEO is a great way to create customer attribution. Customers are after necessary services or products that your website is offering. It would be a shame to miss this market.

‍Connectivity - Visitors Can Become Email Subscribers
Create a connected and interactive community through email subscribers. Customers can keep up to date with your business and receive emails of updates, product drops or sales. This essentially becomes a database that you can remarket to and interact with.

‍Affinity - Visitors Can Turn Into Social Media Followers
Consumer purchases have shifted to now stem from brand affinity. Consumers believe in brands that align with their own values. Allowing them to follow you on social media to see your brand’s story is a way to share your brand values.

‍Credibility: Optimized User Experience Leads to Repeat Visitors/Customers
Optimising your website’s user experience leads to customers. Things like website speed, and mobile integration increases click through rate and time on site that can influence a purchase.

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SEO opens doors for new opportunities

‍Integrations
SEO is influenced by online marketing activities. Integration across a number of different platforms allows for a strong presence online where you will not miss any marketing opportunities.

‍Expansions
SEO takes you to new markets. Allow your business to reach new levels and get the exposure it deserves. Expand to new markets with SEO and amplify your relevant audience reach.

‍Vacant Positions
SEO invites new talents. Creating room and a position for someone with SEO experience can increase your own level of understanding of SEO. New talent equals new skill and more results.



The smartest business investment to make

Not only is SEO a successful digital marketing tactic, but it actually has positive impacts on your business financially.

‍Significant
SEO allows you to gain Market Share. It looks at the estimated visits that a URL gets from an organic search and presents a max possible value.

‍Cost-Effective
One of the main pros about SEO is that it is extremely cost effective. It has no paid advertising and is able to begin producing results without paying big dollars.

‍Superior
In fact, SEO gives you more traffic than paid advertisers. An organic approach is more appealing to a potential customer.

‍Security
SEO forces you to protect your website. Through certain practices, there are techniques involved in SEO that creates security around your website.

‍Long Term
The positive impacts of SEO when done correctly can last for several years. SEO works as a long-term investment for consistent results.



Working on your own SEO needs

‍How can you start optimising your website?
Do keyword research to know the terms relevant for your business. Using them, regularly create and post content that will appear on search results. Speed up your website. Utilize landing pages properly. Write effective page titles.

‍How to find the right SEO agency for your business
Explore their past work and testimonials to know whether or not you can trust them 100%. Clarify their field of expertise to determine that they are the best firm for you. Choose one that offers personalized rates for SEO services specially made for your business, and stay away from any that ‘guarantee’ results, as this goes against search engine guidelines.

‍Should a business stop doing SEO once it’s successful online?
No. SEO is ever-changing. Search engines value updated content and new relevant links. If you don’t optimize your site, eventually, it will become irrelevant. If you highly rank now because of doing SEO, it’s not going to be the same forever when you stop doing so.

This guide should give you a clear answer of whether or not your business needs SEO or not. The answer will always be yes, because SEO will never lose its potential. If you are after an agency to help you kickstart your SEO strategy, feel free to contact our friendly team to answer any questions you may have.