There’s a reason search engine optimization has been on the lips of many website owners in the last decade. That reason is the fact that for your website to do half the work you built it for, it needs to be optimized for search engines and users.
It is so important today that your website would get lost without it in the sea of other websites being churned out every hour. For context, although different sources may have varying figures, according to available records, there are over 1.8 billion websites existing on the internet today. You can learn more about this here. Out of this number, it is believed that the number of active ones is under 400 million.
But even if only 100 million were active, it won’t be easy for a site to be visible especially since there are thousands of others like yours. Staying afloat and visible requires SEO. But while this concept is no longer new to the website building industry, there are website owners who are yet to understand what it is and why they absolutely can’t do without it. In this article, we’ll try to fill these gaps.
What is SEO?
In simple terms, it is the ongoing practice of improving the quality and quantity of traffic coming into a site. Unlike other methods used to generate traffic, SEO is built on the backbone of organic search. What this means is that with this approach, you don’t have to spend money on ads and other promotions to generate traffic.
Whenever the term is mentioned, many people think of it mostly as making a website attractive to search engines. However, search engine optimization serves everyone including the site’s owner and its users. Think about it. Google, for example, ranks sites based on several factors like location, keyword optimization, user interaction, and so on.
Let’s zoom in on user interaction. If Google notices that fewer and fewer people interact with a site, such a site becomes less valuable to it and vice versa. This often leaves people asking questions about bounce rate and whether it affects rankings. So, what is bounce rate?
It is the percentage of visitors that land on a site and leave immediately or without taking any other action. These other actions could be clicking on a link, viewing another page, filling out a form, and so on. Will a high bounce rate affect site ranking? Not directly; at least not Google’s since the company’s own John Mueller confirmed that bounce rate isn’t a ranking factor.
However, other SEO experts believe it does indirectly affect other Google ranking factors like poor mobile optimization, low-quality site design, slow page speed, and so on. Now, let’s zoom back out to SEO serving everyone. When you work on your site’s SEO, you’re basically making it better for users and search engines love sites that users interact with a lot. So, they reward such websites with better rankings and visibility. Everyone wins!
You can learn more about this subject here: https://www.youtube.com/.
What are the Benefits of SEO?
The following are some of the benefits of search engine optimization:
Visibility
From the figures we gave earlier about the number of websites that exist today, one can see that the internet is a little bit saturated. For consumers, this is a great thing as they have different options to choose from. For website owners, however, this is not good news.
What this means is that for one website focused on, say, pets and pet food, there probably exist a few thousand others focused on the same niche. With so many other sites serving the same function as yours, it must stand out if you must get business and generate revenue with your online presence.
So, how can you stand out and make your website more visible? If you guessed SEO, you’re already grasping the concept of search engine optimization.
Improved Website Traffic
Done right, you should see an improvement in the quality and quantity of organic traffic coming into your digital real estate. You see, what SEO does is drive people who are genuinely interested in what you do to your website. Because you’ve been optimized to rank for keywords relevant to your business, you’ll only show up on SERPs when such keywords are searched. As a result, traffic quality improves. Click this link to learn more about SERPs.
As for traffic quantity, making it to the first page of search results is key. Since other businesses are probably improving their site’s SEO, only those doing a great job at it will be ranked higher. However, if you can get yours to rank on the first page, increased website traffic is almost guaranteed. This is because studies have shown that about 94% of all Google clicks come from the first result page. In simple terms, it means most users never go beyond the first page.
Can Be Done on a Budget
Compared to other efforts to grow brand awareness and generate website traffic, search engine optimization is relatively cheaper. One doesn’t have to break the bank to have one’s site optimized. Most of what you’ll spend would be the upfront payment of hiring an expert or an agency.
Are SEO Agencies any Help?
The answer is yes and no, depending on the quality of the agency you’ve chosen. There are tons of agencies out there claiming to be experts in this field with only a few capable of getting the job done. While this is the sad truth, getting SEO right is difficult and most people need the services of these agencies. Check out Iias SEO to learn more.
Final Thoughts
Business owners must be cautious when hiring an agency. A lot of due diligence is required to ensure that one doesn’t hire the wrong agency and there are several steps that one can take to avoid making this mistake.
When looking for an agency to hire, ensure you look at reviews past clients have left online. By doing so, you get to learn a lot about the type and quality of service the agency offers. You also want to look out for what people are saying about their customer service experience.