I’m studying business management and am planning to start my own business after college. I have a plan to advertise locally, and I can create an email list and reach out on social media online. From what I’ve heard about SEO, I think I could probably do better than that, though. What are some reasons businesses need an SEO team, and what should I be focusing on?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is necessary for any business that wants to succeed online. Naturally, this is doubly true for an e-commerce shop, but even if your store is a physical location, you’ll need an online presence to draw in more attention and customers.
Businesses used to be able to get roughly equal exposure in phone books and other sources, but these days customers are finding the answers to all their questions online. If someone comes across your business, it’s probably because they found it online, and search engines don’t give everyone the same priority on their search engine result pages (SERPs). Here are some main reasons your business will need an SEO campaign.
- Boost Rankings
Improving your rankings in SERPs is the primary goal of all SEO efforts, and if you want to succeed, you simply need to appear high in the results. Most users won’t scroll past the first five results in a search, and your odds of getting clicks are hurt when you aren’t the first. Your site’s ranking largely has to do with your overall web presence, the quality of your backlinks, and the authority (trustworthiness) of your site.
If any of that seems confusing, that’s precisely why you’ll need an SEO campaign to boost you up the page.
- Organic Search
Organic search basically refers to results that are earned without payment. To earn organic links, you simply handle your own link building or work with other sites in your niche to build natural links for each other rather than directly paying for links from other sources. Organic links are important to search engines, and having high-quality ones will go a long way toward boosting your site in the SERPs.
- Build Links
Speaking of links, most SEO professionals will tell you that building high-quality links is one of the hardest parts of their jobs. Luckily, you don’t have to handle it all alone. With link building experts like LinkGraph, you can rest easy knowing that you’ll get high-quality links while you can focus on other marketing efforts.
These experts only use white-hat link building methods, meaning that they work within the rules set by search engines rather than trying to exploit them for temporary gains. With white-hat methods, you’re getting links that will be good for the long term, and there are even some methods you can try yourself.
- Outdo Competitors
One of the simplest reasons you need an SEO campaign is because your competitors have them. This means that they’re constantly crawling up the rankings, and just because you have a good one now doesn’t mean it will stay that way. Rankings fluctuate constantly, and you’ll need to keep up. One thing to keep in mind is that your site’s authority is a comparative measure of your qualifications rather than an absolute one. This means you don’t have to try and compete with the entire Internet””you just need to outdo your competitors.
- SEO is an Ongoing Asset
While paid advertisements are certainly one way to get attention for your business, it is temporary. A good SEO campaign is working for your business constantly, and these techniques aren’t going anywhere. SEO constantly evolves, and voice search is altering the landscape as it becomes more prevalent, but that’s the point. SEO strategies are adaptable, and that makes them incredibly valuable.