Particularly within this challenging macroeconomic setting, today’s consumers rely on search engines to help find everything from restaurant recommendations to B2B software. Without search engine optimisation (SEO), your website will struggle to get the website traffic your business needs to grow.
According to a recent report by Statista, a staggering 4.57 billion people were active internet users as of July 2020, encompassing 59% of the global population.
SEO should be a fundamental part of any digital strategy, especially when you consider success online hinges upon the ability to rank in top search engine results pages for keywords and phrases that relevant to your business’s products and services.
However, there is so much more to SEO than just appearing well for search results. Following SEO best practice can also help businesses to develop brand awareness, forge relationships with prospects, and position yourself as an authoritative and trustworthy expert in your field.
In this post, we take an in-depth look at some key components in search engine tools, why they’re so important, and how they can be utilised to increase your online visibility.
Organic search
Organic search is a huge part of a business’s website performance, as well as a critical component of the buyer funnel. Increasing organic traffic and earning top rankings takes time, persistence, and dedication but it’s worth it. If you’re not convinced, then take a look at the following stats:
- 53% of all website traffic comes from organic search (Bright Edge Research).
- On average, organic search leads have a 14.6% close rate, compared to 1.7% for outbound marketing leads (Impact).
- 49% of marketers report that organic search has the best ROI of any marketing channel (Search Engine Journal).
Google, being the most visited website in the world, dominates the search engine industry, maintaining an 86% market share whilst using over 200 factors in their algorithm for ranking websites. So, it’s vital that your business optimises for Google and follows their guidelines.
For more information on search engine optimisation head to Accelerate and download our ‘SEO -The Beginner’s Guide.
SEO targets quality traffic
Today, customers have access to a wide range of materials online to conduct thorough research, that’s one of the biggest advantages of the internet from a buyer perspective. As a result, your SEO needs to work harder for your business as part of your inbound marketing strategy.
You’ll need to understand what your audience is searching for along with intent to create an effective inbound marketing strategy, therefore keyword research is a must to uncover opportunities that can guide you.
When you aren’t sure what content to create for your inbound strategy, use tools such as SEMRush’s Keyword Magic Tool, Moz, or Google Keyword Checker as a starting block, these free tools will help you determine current search terms and trends.
SEO builds trust and credibility
According to Edelman, 65% of people see online search as the most trusted source of information about people and companies.
In the early days of SEO, websites could rank by taking shortcuts such as buying links and engaging in Blackhat techniques (keyword stuffing, cloaking, and using private link networks). But today, it isn’t as easy as that, as algorithms have advanced. Instead, you will find your rankings improving as you build trust and authority, by creating valuable, content that supports the customers, building relative links with authoritative figures and including testimonials and reviews.
SEO improves user experience
User experience is all about creating easy to navigate websites.
There is a misconception that SEO just focuses on search engines and algorithms, but if your website is not user-friendly, your site’s SEO will suffer. An excellent SEO strategy incorporates user experience by making the website easy to navigate with fresh, up-to-date content, that is highly relevant.
SEO gives your business a competitive advantage
If your website is ranking in the top position, you’ll be receiving a click-through rate of around 30%, the further down the page the less the click-through rate, dropping substantially to less than 2% in positions 9-10 (Smart Insights).
Improving your position with Google will make a substantial difference in how much traffic you are receiving on your site. If you want to stay ahead of competitors, you need to be constantly fighting for those top positions.
Build relevant traffic with local SEO
If your business services a local area, optimising your website for local SEO is a must! As mobile and voice searches continue to rise, users are actively looking for businesses within their local area.
Optimising for local search involves choosing local keywords such as specific towns and areas. The great thing about optimising for these keywords is that they tend to be less competitive, making it easier for you to start ranking in your area. Using Google My Business, your business can feature in searches with a description, opening hours, photos, location map, and relevant information.
Measurable results
It’s reasonably easy to measure and evaluate your results to improve your strategy and ensure a high return on investment. This data not only provides key learnings for improving your SEO but also a better understanding of your audience.
Using tools such as Google Search Console, or Google Analytics allows you to see data such as search terms, page performance, mobile issues, and indexability, as well as data about your audience location, what devices they use, what content performed well, and more. This data makes it easy to see exactly how SEO is facilitating your business growth.
Don’t forget to make use of the resources available to you
To help get you started with your own search engine optimisation strategy, we have created an SEO Beginner’s Guide. The guide can be accessed via the Gamma Portal >> Help & Support >> Gamma Accelerate >> Collateral and search ‘Search Engine Optimisation – The Beginner’s Guide.’
Every Gamma Channel Partner has free access to Accelerate, our online partner marketing portal; a simple and secure platform that’s designed to make it easy for you to customise white-label marketing material, generate new leads and engage with prospects and customers.
To access Accelerate go to the Gamma Portal >> Help and Support >> Gamma Accelerate
