How Professional SEO Services Can Drive Traffic and Sales
Not too long ago, the word SEO didn’t even exist. Now, it’s an acronym that every business looking to expand is starting to understand. While most folks know SEO has something to do with ranking well on Google, not everyone sees its full ramifications.
A proper SEO strategy does so much more than increase the number of visitors to your site. It opens a floodgate for updated marketing tactics. Once you’ve landed a site visitor, you can make free offerings, educate them with your blog, and lead them to your social media empire.
SEO also maintains the efficacy of your site. A web page optimized for SEO will have a fast load time and increase time on page. All in all, professional SEO services represent a wonderful umbrella of opportunity and we’re going to lay it all out for you.
What Is SEO?
Let’s start with the “what” before the “why.” In case you’re not already familiar, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. With the right tactics, you can land your company on the first page of Google’s (or any other engine’s) search results. This is key because, when we Google something, we rarely search beyond, say, the second or third page.
If your company is buried all the way back on page 10 of the search results, you may never receive an organic visitor to your site. An organic visitor is someone who did a generic search and stumbled upon your company (as opposed to email marketing or social media outreach).
So, what are the elements of SEO? The primary element is keyword research. That is, companies need to place targeted keywords throughout their website, blog, and other content.
Let’s say you’re running an online store that sells essential oils. Before you create your website, you have to do some keyword research to understand what people are typing into Google when they’re looking for new essential oils.
Likely, it’s the actual phrase, “essential oils.” But, maybe it’s “organic essential oils” or “essential oils for anxiety.” There are plenty of free tools out there to help you pinpoint the appropriate keywords for your company.
Once you have them in hand, you can disperse them throughout your website. If possible, you should include that keyword in your URL, on your homepage, and throughout the site.
Of course, you can’t overstuff your site with the right keywords. That won’t help you rank higher on Google. Rather, Google will penalize you. But, we can talk about those details in another post.
After keyword research, proper SEO also includes a link building strategy. That is, it’s important to include internal links to your own website as well as external links to other authoritative sites.
SEO also includes the addition of images with alt-text, videos, social media marketing, page speed, mobile optimization, and a whole lot more. But, the point is, every element of SEO allows you to rank highly on search engine result pages (SERP) and drive traffic to your site. So, why might you need SEO Minneapolis services? Let’s chat, shall we?
Because Google Is King
Although SEO seems like a generic term for all search engines (and it is), the truth is, Google runs the world. In fact, Google owns an astounding 92% of the market, making it far more worthwhile to focus on Google’s demands than Yahoo!, Bing, or any other search engine out there.
So, as you beef up your SEO skills, you’re going to hear about Google’s algorithm a lot. It’s this top-secret formula that Google uses to rank worldwide websites. Part of that formula includes pertinent information such as mobile optimization.
That is, if your website isn’t optimized to run on people’s cell phones (instead of desktop versions alone), Google is going to penalize you. If you have images on your website without alt-tags that contain pertinent keywords, you may not rank as highly.
The speed at which your pages load will also influence your ranking within Google. But, you see what we mean. It’s important to play by Google’s rules, whether we like them or not. With their handbook in hand, we can aim to succeed.
SEO Brings More Visitors
Now that we’ve covered the “what,” it’s plain to see the “why.” With a clean SEO plan, you stand a better chance of being well-ranked in Google’s results for “best essential oils” or “essential oils near me.”
Once your traffic increases, there’s plenty you can do to convert those site visitors into dedicated customers. You can offer free eBooks, invite people to register for useful webinars, ask them to sign up for your newsletters (and receive coupons and other offers).
Aside from what customers see, there’s also a lot you can do behind the scenes to assist with that site traffic. You can make sure your pages load quickly. You can include great imagery, post short videos, and lead visitors to an informative blog.
SEO Increases Brand Awareness
With better brand awareness, you can grow your empire exponentially. If you consistently land on the first page of Google as people all around the world search for their next bottle of lavender essential oil, then millions of people are going to become increasingly aware of your company’s name.
Sure, you have to do the legwork once they arrive on your site with beautiful imagery and great offerings, but just a simple flash of your company name within those search results is enough to build brand awareness. Once your company is well-known, you will not only increase visitors to your site, but you can also increase the number of followers on your social media accounts.
Social media followers are largely indicative of a company’s success. With the right strategy, you can take over the social media hemisphere and become as famous as any of the other leaders in your industry. There’s a reason the term “social media influencer” keeps getting thrown around in the news.
People live their lives by the scroll of their Facebook feed and if you can garner new followers in this little corner of the world, this increase in your brand’s awareness will do wonders for your bottom line.
SEO Provides Sustainable Results
SEO isn’t just a flash in a pan; it’s not a passing fad. Google wants to make sure that the websites they’re displaying at the top of their results are providing useful information. Since they run the world, they take their business very seriously.
Presuming you never engage in any black hat SEO activities, you should continue to increase traffic to your site and convert visitors into customers. Sure, you may need to abide by Google’s rules. But, that’s okay! Generally, what they want is something your future customers want.
Not too long ago, Google started penalizing sites that weren’t optimized for mobile. So, everyone scrambled to make that happen. But, in reality, that wasn’t a harsh demand because most of us search and scroll on our phones more than our computers. Abiding by SEO standards will provide long-lasting results because you’ll remain “in the know” with what your new leads want.
SEO Opens Marketing Opportunities
We’ve already discussed how SEO works hand in hand with social media. And, without a social media presence, your company will suffer. But, how about all the other marketing opportunities that tie into SEO?
Have you looked into content marketing at all? This is a great way to get your company’s name out there. If you have a robust blog attached to your company’s website, then you stand a better chance of being organically discovered on Google.
A truly informative blog post that’s well-researched, thick on content, and adequately sprinkled with keywords may be so pleasing to the gods of Google, that they may feature you as a snippet. Not only landing on the first page of Google, but also being featured as a snippet means a major spike in traffic to your site. And content marketing is a proven marketing strategy.
Professional SEO Services for You
Professional SEO services seem like a full-time job, don’t they? Well, there are a lot of cogs in the proverbial wheel. The good news is, some of this can be learned overnight and accomplished with your own two hands! You can write a blog post this evening on your area of expertise and upload it to your blog.
But, if you’re looking to make sure that post is optimized for SEO and will one day land on the first page of Google, then it might behoove you to seek out affordable SEO services to help you manage every element of a proper SEO campaign.
If you’re looking for a Minneapolis SEO company that will cater to your local business needs, then give us a shout here at Concrete Internet Marketing.
We’ve made it our business to understand how Google continues to shapeshift in order to land our clients high up in the search engine results. And, with the right positioning, many of our clients have gone on to attract more leads and, ultimately, secure more sales.
Feel free to request a free website audit today to understand the health of your site. From there, we can discuss a marketing strategy that will allow you to outrank your competitors and take over your niche with great success.