SEO within the context of digital marketing stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is one of the most important aspects of your digital marketing strategy and plays a key role in the success of your business.
Search Engine Optimization is the practice of optimising your website and its content to be found by search engines. Through optimization, you can help your site rank higher in search results and be seen by more potential customers.
SEO is a pretty broad term that encompasses a lot of different tactics and techniques. It both supports and is supported by other areas of digital marketing such as website design and content marketing. A solid understanding of SEO can boost every aspect of your marketing efforts and help your business succeed.
What is the role of SEO?
At its core, the role of SEO is to get your business found by helping your website appear in the search results. More importantly, well-executed SEO helps your content be one of the first results users see.
Think about how often you go to page 2 or 3 of Google results. Probably not often, right? One the first page of Google, the first five results account for 67% of all clicks. Users want quick, relevant results and will usually click on the first ones they see that meet their needs.
SEO helps search engines understand what your content is about and prioritise it based on relevance. For example, if someone searches for “natural dog treats,” the first results may include companies that sell dog treats or recipes to make your own. Your website selling cat toys probably wouldn’t appear because it’s not relevant.
Search engines know this information and are able to rank websites in search results because of SEO practices. What and how you write, your headlines, your website attributes, and the user experience you deliver all work together with search engines to increase your exposure to your audience. SEO drives website traffic, impressions, and ultimately, conversions.
How to implement SEO practices
Implementing SEO in your digital marketing strategy is a dynamic process with a lot of considerations. You’ll need to examine the optimisation of both your content and the technical aspects of your website.
To properly optimise the content on your website, start with keyword research. Understand what words and phrases your customers are searching for and how you can relate to those searches. If they are searching for questions, can you answer them with a blog post? If they are searching for specific products, do your product pages contain those terms?
Once you know the keywords you are targeting, create content around those words or phrases. Make your content easy and enjoyable to read. Include supporting images or media, and share with your audience.
For the technical aspects of SEO, start with a critical evaluation of your website. Navigate it as an outside visitor. Is it easy to navigate? Do pages load quickly? Does it load and adjust to mobile screens? These all affect the user experience, which in turn affect your search result rankings.
As you identify areas for improvement, you can work to strengthen those aspects of your website. Given the technical nature of these changes, many organisations prefer to work with an agency that specialises in SEO.
For example, our team at Unified Marketing is knowledgeable and experienced enough to help with both content and technical SEO with minimal disruptions to your website. We’ve helped many of our clients improvise their search result rankings through purposeful SEO efforts.
SEO strategy and implementation can be complex and ever changing, but it’s a critical part of succeeding in today’s digital age. Proper SEO will boost your reach and help you connect with more customers than ever before. If you’re ready to focus on SEO, give us a call to get started.