Let’s start out with the simplest aspect of the question, What is SEO and why is it important?
“SEO” means Search Engine Optimization.
SEO is a bit of a buzzword but what it comes down to is that SEO is a score that search engines (Google, Yahoo, and Bing) give your website.
If someone searches for “lawyers in Chicago” it takes your websites relevancy for that term and then takes all relevants website for that term and arranges them based on their SEO (aka, authority) score.
The higher your score, the higher up on the results lists you will become.
We in biz call this “organic search results”
Ok, so now you want to know what your score is, right?
I know I do, and I also want to know the score of my competitors so that I can beat them.
Yup, those are the competitive juices flowing.
Go here and download this AWESOME free toolbar that will show you every websites SEO score, this is important info people!
If this SEO stuff is interesting, then I suggest you read on. SEO is game that we play against Google, and it can be extremely lucrative if played right
So how do you get a high organic SEO score?
This is a very deep and complicated answer that involves backend configuration of things like sitemaps and meta tags but for our purposes let’s keep it simple and high level.
What Google asks for is that your site is modern, loads quick, was built correctly, works on smart phones and provides useful content that your visitors interact with.
Google’s algorithms changes quite often but the high level needs of the website visitors is what Google is trying to quantify.
Here are some things that always help your score:
- Lot’s of visitors
- Proper keywords so Google knows what your pages are about
- Links to and from your pages
- Traffic that sticks around
- Fresh and Unique content
Building a high organic score takes time and concerted effort and when done correctly can garner a whole lot of repeatable traffic to your site. Having a high organic SEO score is like having a storefront in an area with a whole bunch of foot traffic.
The other option for elevating your website to the top of people’s search lists is through paid online advertising.
You will notice that for certain products and services Google will put “Sponsored” or “Ad” items to the top of the page. To become one of those Ads you pay the search engines for the keywords you want to target and then Google fits your Ads in when the search terms are applicable.
Paid online advertising can be quite expense because depending on the competitiveness of a term you may have to outbid your competitors (i.e., “lawyer in Chicago” would be more expensive than “milliner in Elgin” because more people are bidding on that term).
It takes skill to now only build a website that garners organic traffic but it is also takes a lot of skill to get ROI from your online ads.
When it comes to ads, you need to pick the right keywords, develop the right budget and perfect your messaging.
So now that you understand SEO and why one website would rank higher than another the question becomes, is it that important to have a high ranking, high performing SEO score for your website.
The answer is, of course it’s important, now ask me a better question or I’m leaving…
Ok, “Why is it important Jerk!”
That’s a better question but is still pretty obvious
A mechanic whose website is the number 1 result for “engine repair” is going to get way more business for engine repair than a mechanic who is on page 2 for that search term (or who doesn’t show up at all)
The key is to get the right traffic and then achieve a high conversion rates on that traffic.
Have pages dedicated to lucrative keywords and then focus those pages on the user experience and how to get them to take the next step in the sales funnel
LME and other online marketing companies achieve a high conversion rate by creating a sales funnel that incorporates affordable and strategic advertising, a high organic search score and a website that is built to convert your visitors into phone numbers, email addresses and checkouts.
When you have a system in place that creates sales, generates leads and updates information without needing your participation, you have sales system that can grow your business on auto-pilot.
So what is SEO and why is it important? SEO is a score given to your website that, when high enough, will increase your online traffic and generate a repeatable foundation of convert-able traffic.
If this content was the bomb-diggity and you would like some more info about SEO and Online Advertising check out this blog posts:
