As seasoned digital marketers, we’ve heard “Explain it to me like I’m five” more than once.
This is particularly true of search engine optimization (SEO), which is often presented to be way more confusing than it needs to be. Yes, there are complexities. But the basics are actually quite simple.
If you’re looking for a beginner’s guide to SEO for your business, we’re going to try to deliver one as simply as we possibly can — without oversimplifying.
It all starts with your website
Every business has a website now. Hopefully, you have a clear understanding of how it can actually help your business. Are you using it to generate leads? Do you have an online store that sells products? Does your website exist to build and promote your brand? In any case, you need to generate traffic, which means getting people to come to your website.
SEO accomplishes this by tapping into the power of organic, or unpaid, search. Billions of people use search engines every day, so if your website is at the top of the right searches it can result in huge volumes of traffic that can be converted into sales, leads or even just an audience who is interested in your brand.
All without actually paying for a listing or advertisement.
Who do you want to visit your website?
A true beginner’s guide to SEO should be people focused and not technology focused. That’s why there’s not a lot about algorithms, meta tags and keyword density.
Before you worry about any of that, if you’re new to SEO, you need to think about the people who are doing the searches that you’re actually optimizing for. You can do everything right from an SEO perspective, but if you’re targeting the wrong people, they’re not going to be interested in what you’re offering.
How can search engines get people to your website?
Search engines like Google use computers to basically take a snapshot of the entire internet. Then they use a long list of instructions, called an algorithm, to give each page on the internet a score every time anyone performs a search.
If your page has a high score, you’ll appear higher in the results and more people will see your listing and click on your site. SEO is the practice of understanding how the big search engines calculate this score and how to make your website score higher. There are hundreds of individual ranking factors to contend with, including keyword relevance, inbound links, outbound links, site speed and mobile performance, just to name a few.
While the basics of SEO are simple, it should be seen as a long-term and ongoing project for your organization. This is why so many businesses seek out the assistance of dedicated digital marketing professionals.
Burg & Co. can help
At Burg & Co. Marketing, we’re passionate about combining expertise with a focus on people to help our partners achieve their digital goals. Our experts have a deep understanding of SEO and how it integrates with other channels to create a balanced and holistic strategy.
We’ll work closely with you to understand your business, brand and audience so we can improve your website’s performance and create relevant and useful content.
Ready to learn more? Contact us today to learn about scheduling a free marketing consultation.
