You have probably heard a hundred times that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a crucial digital marketing method, but even if you have a basic understanding of what it means, you may not yet have a solid grasp of this dynamic, multifaceted creature.

SEO consists of multiple different elements, so knowing what they are and how they work is key to understanding why SEO is so important. In short, SEO is important because it makes the website more available, which means more traffic and more opportunities for customers to convert prospects.

In addition, it is also a valuable tool for brand awareness, building relationships with prospects and positioning yourself as an authoritative and respected expert in your profession. So, without further ado, here’s all you need to know about SEO and why it’s important in today’s digital world.

The Crucial Elements of SEO

Keywords

Long gone are the days when keywords were the only important SEO strategy, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t crucial yet. The difference is that keywords in your content today need to be well researched, carefully selected, and judiciously used in order to be effective. Yet exactly what are keywords? Keywords are words and phrases used by prospects to identify online content and can then be used by marketers to communicate with prospects searching their products and services.

It is important to look for keywords with high search rates and low competition and to choose short-tail keywords (such as dogs), long-tail keywords (such as terrier puppies for sale), and local keywords (such as Boston puppies for sale) to function on your material. You can also use keywords to optimize the names, URLs and other SEO-elements on the website.

Content

Content is a vital part of SEO because it’s the tool that you’re using to meet and engage the public. For example, if you owned a nursery and wanted to increase your exposure, you might be able to publish a series of blogs about gardening, selecting the right plant species, growing tips and more. When a person who wanted to learn about gardening went looking for this information, your blog would come up, and by providing valuable information, you would be able to build a relationship with that prospect. For example, when the time came for that prospect to buy a plant, you would have been the first nursery that came to mind. Content today needs to be informative, but also interesting, important, engaging and sharing. Content comes in a variety of forms, including:

• Web page content
• Videos
• Blogs
• Infographics
• Podcasts
• Whitepapers and e-books
• Social media posts
• Local Listings

Off-Page SEO

Off-page SEO requires external, rather than on-page optimization activities that happen away from your platform. The key technique used for off-page SEO is to establish backlinks, because quality backlinks from external sites to your site tell search engines that your site is important and of high quality, and this builds authority.

There are many strategies to create backlinks and some of the current best practices include blogging visitors, generating lots of highly circulated infographics and listing influencers in your content.

Local SEO

With more and more people using mobile devices to search, local SEO is becoming increasingly important. 57 percent of all searches are performed from tablets and smartphones these days, and half of those searches have a local purpose.

For example, if you owned a restaurant, local SEO would make sure that when people in your area went in search of the best restaurants in town, they would come across your site. Other best practices for local SEOs include claiming directory listings, creating location-specific pages for your site and creating business pages on Google My Business, Google+ and Google Maps.

Search Engine Marketing

SEM applies to paid marketing efforts that includes things like native ads, Google AdWords, social media ads, pay-per-click, Google shopping ads, display ads and more.

Though SEM is typically not a major component of a comprehensive SEO strategy, it has its position because it can help you reach new and highly targeted audiences.

Understanding the Importance of SEO for Modern Businesses

Visibility and Rankings

One of SEO’s most important functions is that exposure, which ensures that customers can easily find you when they are looking for something you have to say. Visibility has a direct bearing on your rating.

The higher you rate on a result page of a search engine (SERP), the more likely prospects are to see you and click your link through. The more effective your SEO efforts, the higher your ranking and the greater your visibility, which is particularly important when you realize a quarter of web users never click past the first SERP.

Web Traffic

Improved web traffic is one of SEO’s main goals and when you increase visibility and rankings, you increase traffic. Imagine this for a moment: nearly 33 percent of the clicks go to the first ranking tab, and over 75 percent of all clicks get the first five listings.

If you want more customers to find your website through a search engine, you need SEO practices to help you rank among the top five and preferably number one places.

Authority

The definition of authority in SEO is relatively new, but search engines are becoming more and more important because it is becoming more important to web users. Authority essentially means the website is trustworthy, high-quality, important and has something to offer. The more credibility your site has, the higher your score, and the more prospects your brand will be able to trust.

Creating a Better Visitor Experience

Another reason why SEO is important is that the whole time you spend on producing great content and optimizing your site with on-page SEO increases your site’s usability, providing a smooth and optimistic customer experience.

For example, if you take steps to make your site responsive, it will make it available from a laptop or desktop for all of your mobile users as well as for people who visit. Likewise, you can reduce your bounce rate by increasing your page load speed and allow visitors to spend longer on your site. Nearly 50% of customers expect a page to be loaded within two seconds, and the longer the load, the higher the bounce rate and the lower the conversion rate.

Growth

Therefore, the ultimate reason SEO is important is because it can help you achieve many of your business objectives. SEO will help you build better relationships with your audience, enhance customer experience, increase popularity, drive more people to your web, give you a lead over the competition and increase conversions, which means more sales, more loyal customers and more development for your company.

Search Engines Are Fallible

A final note worth mentioning is that SEO is necessary because search engines are not flawless, and if you do not take steps to overcome their faults, then the price will be paid by your website.

For instance, if a site does not have a proper link structure, then search engines may not properly crawl and index the site, and this may lower rankings. In addition, coding errors will completely block search engines, making it impossible for your site to rank, no matter how much time you invested in other SEO efforts. Other common areas where search engines can encounter problems are:

• Duplicate pages
• Forms
• Images, flash, audio files, video, and other non-textual content
• Language and Semantics

Final thoughts

As you can see, SEO is a dynamic endeavour involving a wide variety of techniques, methods and best practice. In addition, these best practices are always changing as habits of customers and web users evolve, as new technologies develop, and as search engines update their algorithms. That said, for any business that wants to be noticeable online, SEO is still of utmost importance, so your efforts are well worth it.

SEO can help a company accomplish a number of goals, including brand awareness, traffic, sales, customer experience, and much more, which is why it is so critical for digital marketers to have a solid understanding of what SEO is, how it can help achieve goals, and what best practices are the most cutting-edge.