Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has been around for a long time. Search engine algorithms are continually evolving, and SEO agencies are continuously trying to keep up with them. In more recent years the leading search engine, Google, has begun rolling out few significant updates in favor of many small updates. The advancements in their algorithm has made it easier for Google to require few updates, which helps SEO teams as they must scramble less to deal with the latest update changes. The advanced algorithms are also helping to keep things focused on the user experience rather than some SEO trick using keywords and math.
What we’re experiencing is a more natural progression toward natural, organic search results. Now, I’m not saying that there aren’t tricks that can be used. Rather, there are fewer tricks and focusing on the user is becoming a priority not just with search engines, but with SEO companies as well. As an SEO agency, we want to make sure that our clients are getting potential customers visiting their website and finding what they want, thus turning into a conversion.
SEO Increases Keyword Rankings
One of the main goals to search engine optimization is to improve a website’s position in the search results based on what people are searching for. These keyword positions are considered the rank of that keyword. These keyword positions (ranks) can fluctuate over time and for various reasons, so it is essential to monitor your keywords’ rankings. When our agency optimizes a website, we adjust several various on-page features such as the meta title and descriptions, which are items seen on a search result. Optimized content is also created, not just to enhance SEO, but also to be informative and helpful to potential customers.
What is the importance of keyword research?
One of the most critical pieces that we do before we start working on an SEO account is to perform a comprehensive keyword comparison. This information is invaluable as we need to research hundreds of potential keywords, narrow down the list, research the benefits and competition of those keywords, and then sort them by potential and difficulty. If we don’t perform the research, then we could be missing out on finding new keywords, better keywords, and keywords that can make a difference now while we work on the more prominent keywords later. Most companies only know a handful of keywords that they want to win while leaving a hundred or so quality keywords left unfound.
Those keywords that a company may think they want could turn out to be extremely competitive and take a very long time to see any benefit from. Finding those ‘low hanging fruit’ can help bring traffic now and perhaps lead to some valuable conversions. Without proper keyword research, we’d be severely handicapped when it comes to building a successful SEO campaign. Also, this research could prove useful to any team working on paid advertising such as pay-per-click (PPC) as they will know what additional keywords they could go after so that both an ad and the organic search results can come up.
Why track keyword positions (rankings)?
Any SEO company worth their salt will track keyword positions. It’s a fundamental aspect of the job and one in which we find beneficial. By tracking keyword positions, we can see if there are new issues, such as after a significant algorithm shift or a problem on the website. This is also a good way to measure one’s accountability with a client. If we are doing our job, then we should show that specific keywords are improving based on the improvement of the keywords. Keywords will fluctuate, as I mentioned previously; however, if you’re tracking your keywords then you can see when those keywords are shifting naturally or due to some other outside force.
What is on-page SEO?
When an SEO company talks about working on-page, they are talking about making specific adjustments to pages on your website. This includes, but is not limited to, adjusting your meta title, meta description, the content on the page, and links. On-page SEO involves properly utilizing the keywords that we’ve researched in a thoughtful and useful way. We want to make sure that the user experience is maintained and that any alterations for search engine optimization either improve that experience or at least don’t affect it.
SEO Increases Conversion Rates
The most important aspect for improving the SEO of your website is to increase your conversion rates. If you’re not familiar, conversions can be anything from phone calls, to form fill-outs, to making a purchase. Now, this isn’t something that can be guaranteed, but it should be expected if there aren’t unexpected issues with the website and proper SEO can be accomplished. In most cases, the fact that more people are finding your website from the efforts of SEO should mean that you’ll have a higher percentage of people who will convert.
How does SEO increase conversion rates?
With increased keyword rankings will come an improvement to the traffic coming to your website. Using Google analytics or other quality analytics programs, we can check out the behavior of people on your website. Through this new information, we can determine where people may be leaving your site without converting. Now, sometimes a web developer will need to work with an SEO consultant unless the agency can handle that internally. Thankfully, we have an internal web developer that we use to help us with issues that could be preventing people from converting.
A page on your site may need to have forms or calls to action that need to be fixed or added to other pages that people are exiting on without converting. We also want to make sure that we are accurately tracking phone calls. There are several call tracking options available, and we want to make sure that our SEO efforts are driving phone calls. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter how well we rank for keywords or how much effort we put into improving your SEO if you’re not getting the benefit of increased conversions.
Why Should You Care About Your SEO?
You should care because it is essential that you get your business in front of your potential customers and clients. This means that when they have a need and perform a search online, you should be there to satisfy that need. Improving your keyword rankings so that you’ll show up when someone searches and then being able to remove the ‘potential’ from those potential clients and customers is what SEO is all about. It can be said that SEO is all about, ‘Finding the Need and Filling the Need.’
Written by: Doyle Clemence