SEO, it probably is not a term that is googled nearly as much as “COVID-19 symptoms”, but SEO – which stands for search engine optimization – is most certainly a very relevant, current, and important subject. Any business with a website and who wants to attract more business will find it is a subject worthy of further investigation. SEO, in short, is the process of creating website content that provides for an effective user experience while delivering desirable ranking results within the search engines. SEO content development is an involved process. Content that maximizes results for both your audience AND the search engines, in turn, will improve a site’s ranking with search engines.
Why is it important to have good SEO content on your website?
The content on your site and how it is written determines how well you are found by the search engines and how well your site is ranked. Search engines, including Google, do routine sweeps of the entire world wide web to analyze and rank all the sites and content they find. This means that composing good content for your site is essential for success and this involves two key components: that your content satisfies the needs of your visitors as well as satisfying the needs of the search engines.
According to Google, its mission is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.“ Add to that a desire to “deliver the most relevant and reliable information available.” So the better your website helps Google achieve its goals, the better it is for your website’s ranking and, ultimately, for it being found by your desired users.
To get down to it, it’s all about the content.
Site content should focus on a good user experience.
The most important quality of website content is making sure the user is getting what they are looking for when they visit your site and that it is easy to find. Making your website user-focused with a good visitor experience is critical. Content should be easy-to-read, to the point, and helpful. In other words, content should be conversational and engaging while pointing the user to what they are looking for on your website. Ultimately, the goal is having a satisfied user who could achieve their transaction on your site, whether it be a purchase, obtaining information, contracting services, or contacting your business.
Site content should also satisfy the search engines.
While it is most important to address your user when composing a site’s content, the need to satisfy the search engines doesn’t come far behind. Merging these two goals is possible but should be done in a holistic way. What does that “holistic” talk mean? It means while addressing the needs of the user, weaving in the elements the search engines need, which includes components like keywords that users will enter when looking for sites like yours. Going about this in a holistic manner means not stuffing the content with keyword repetition. Know what criteria the search engines look at and make sure the user-centered content takes those things into account.
Focus on how to put good SEO content together.
As previously noted, the best content for your website involves good context, good structure, and good readability, while holistically including the search terms that your users would use to find you. This means, not only should your content be of interest to your users – it should be formatted and structured in a way that makes it accessible and easy to navigate. You should have clear site headers, tagged as H1, H2, H3, and so on – this helps the search engines know how the content is organized (and that it IS in fact organized). Having good titles and alt tags on your images allows both search engines, and readers with accessibility issues, the ability to understand how those images fit into the context of your text.
Well written, high-quality content equates to being a good source of valuable information that your audience is going to enjoy reading, will like, and understand. Using analytics, search engines can analyze user behavior. They can use site statistics to see how successful your site is at giving the user what they need. Great websites convert; they convert to sales and return visitors.
It’s all about having an SEO strategy for your content.
A site built using an SEO strategy is more likely to see ranking and site traffic success than a site that does not. Set your site up for success by using good SEO practices. But be aware that once you implement a strategy, the search engine rankings will not improve instantly overnight. It may take a series of web crawls by the search engines to make your way up the search result rankings. But implementing content improvements and changes will help your site make headway toward the top of the search results.
Implementing improvements including long term link building strategy, constant optimization, and keyword tracking get your site making its journey upward. If it were easy and quick to rank better, everyone would be able to see overnight results. We sometimes see results in a month or two, but generally 6 months is about when we can see some good results. Having a good SEO plan is a great way to set your business up for long-term, lasting success.
Who can help make sure your site uses the best SEO practices?
At Sievers Creative, we help our clients improve their site rankings by using SEO. As a business that uses SEO ourselves, we know the struggles that businesses face when competing in such a dense market and how important it is for potential customers to find your site. That’s why we take a look at your content, structure, and user experience while integrating thorough keyword research, website audit, and on-page optimization. We can give you a strategy that will bring your site improved rankings and more traffic. We are passionate about SEO and helping local businesses grow—in helping you achieve your goals.
