Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is the care and feeding of content on your website so Google trusts it, and ranks it as high as possible in Search Engine Results Pages, or SERPs. Google uses up to 200 factors in their algorithm to rank websites, some more important than others depending on the nature of the query, but it all boils down to the Google E.A.T. Principle – your website has to have expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. You can spend a large amount of money on a great-looking website and if left to fend for itself, without E.A.T. it will not perform for you the way you want it to. And as time goes by it will continue to fall in SERP rankings. Just like a brick-and-mortar store, your online storefront will require some monthly overhead to keep the lights on.
Currently, Google search results are the holy grail of search results. If you are not showing up in Google searches it will become more difficult for you to do business online. Anything past page one of a Google search result might as well be on Pluto – and Pluto isn’t even a planet anymore. There are many search engines out there, but Google gets 91.45% of searches per Jan. 2021 data1. So what does Google want from your website? They want speed, ease of use on both desktop and mobile, security, and content that is trustworthy and updated frequently. Bottom line, they want the best possible experience for users. Those that achieve that will rank higher in SERPs. Thus, the higher you rank, the more clicks you get. It is a symbiotic relationship that works for both Google and you.
Now, you might be asking yourself if you can do SEO for yourself. And you might be able to, if you can understand the data that drives the changes you need to make to rank higher (and where that data comes from) and have the ability to create content. It takes dedicated time each month to complete the necessary optimizations on an average sized website. That isn’t accounting for the regular reading and research that goes into the newest trends in SEO and how Google is changing the algorithm. The SEO of 2017 is not the SEO of 2021.
If you have decided you might not be able to do it on your own, you are going to need to find someone who can do all the things we listed above, and break it down monthly to you so that you can see how the SEO is affecting your results in Google. While completely the monthly SEO tasks for your website we focus on a handful of keywords, generally 5, 10, or 15 keywords, that will most likely drive business to your website. We then optimize your website and content to boost those specific keywords. As an SEO client – if your keywords are doing ok, and trending upwards over time, then the necessities of SEO are be covered and you should begin to see your website move up in SERPs.
Bear in mind that SEO is a slow process. Signing up for SEO services does not equal immediately ranking number one. The industry standard is that you should begin seeing results in about 6 months. That’s right, begin. But over time, you will have a robust website that Google trusts, which will make your website perform optimally to drive business. Having that SEO foundation is invaluable because it will improve the user experience, increase your credibility and have your website fine tuned for conversion.
Some interesting stats and facts that might help you understand how important a fully optimized website and SEO can be:
- 99.22% of clicks on Google happen on page one of search results2 – you HAVE to be on page one to see the best results.
- 90% of pages on the internet get no organic traffic from the Google search engine3 – in other words, Google does not recognize their existence likely because someone thought it was a crockpot (set it and forget it) and not a grill (watch it like a hawk).
- 46% of all Google searches relate to location4 – in other words, users are searching for a string that contains “near me” or the city/town they are in. It’s important for your website to include your location to optimize for this search habit.
- Video is overtaking blogs and infographics as the most powerful content5 – Google is slowly showing preference to video in their algorithms and a video on your homepage can double your chances of hitting page one of search results6 so if you have the budget for video – spend it!
- 81% of people research a product online before they buy7 – by having a blog you could be a trusted authority on your product or service and get ranked.
- Pages that load quickly rank higher than pages that don’t8 – part of SEO is to optimize your website to be as fast as possible. A loading time of longer than 3 seconds sends people to the next Google search result.
- The new wave is voice search through Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant. 50% of all searches were voice activated in 20209. Websites are going to need to post their content as question and answer where appropriate to rank in voice search. This might apply more to some types of business than others, but is definitely something to be cognizant of.
- There’s significant things you should do off page for your rankings – claim your Google My Business, and having a Facebook presence can drastically improve your rankings – the good news is that Vervocity can do both for you!
Make no mistake about it, SEO is marketing, and a very important piece of the puzzle. You wouldn’t build a new shop and not put a sign outside or make the experience inside frustrating and time consuming for your potential customer. You wouldn’t make them wait outside the door looking inside, because the new shop was built to only slowly let people in. You wouldn’t put products on the shelves with no organization or logic. You would label aisles and make the whole process as easy and fast as possible, right? That’s what search engine optimization can do for your website.
Clients have reached out to us with brand new, beautiful websites that are delivering the results they expected. On the backend of those websites were errors piled on top of errors, slow page load speeds, titles and content on pages that are not optimized to boost keywords and no new content or activity. After fixing the errors, optimizing the website for keywords, speeding up the page load time of the website and beginning to post new content on a regular basis, these clients begin showing progress and ranking higher is SERPs.
It’s kind of a no brainer – if you want to take your business to the next level online, SEO is a must. At Vervocity in Quincy, IL, SEO services are used to get your website moving up in SERPs. Get started today by contacting us with your needs and goals for your website. We will research keywords and provide you with a strategy to start seeing results. We look forward to hearing from you!
