For 61% of marketers, improving SEO and a company's organic presence falls within their top inbound marketing priorities.
Even still, only 63% of small businesses actively invest in SEO. Which is a bit surprising considering the benefits of search engine optimization are well-documented, with 70% of business owners confirming that SEO generates more sales in comparison to PPC.
So, our question is, "Why aren't people paying attention?"
In today's digital age, there’s really no excuse not to invest in SEO for your local or eCom business. So, if you’re interested in learning about the ins and outs of what SEO can offer your company, keep reading below!
See Related: What Is Organic Traffic And Why Does It Matter?
SEO stands for search engine optimization which incorporates digital strategies that seek to expand a company's visibility across Google search results. That visibility then translates to increased organic search traffic, conversions, and, ultimately, revenue.
While search engine optimization seems straightforward, there is no one singular SEO strategy out there. In fact, a comprehensive SEO strategy involves multiple SEO strategies combined into one.
These strategies involve everything from link-building to producing high-quality content, from optimizing website pages on mobile devices to tracking performance in Google Search Console.
But it should be noted that SEO is the opposite of paid search traffic. Unlike paid search, search engine optimization focuses on organic strategies that boost site rankings in a more sustainable fashion.
Take our SEO company, for example.
From 2020-2021, we managed to 35x one luxury beauty company's organic visitor growth, resulting in 605 unique organic sales in 10 months and ranking them for 6,500 keywords in Google's Top 100 results.
Not only did this particular beauty company see significant gains in its digital marketing strategies. But they also managed to profit from those strategies through tangible sales.
If you're a business owner looking to see gains just like these, then you'll want to work with the right SEO team of experts to help you realize your goals.
To increase your chances of rising through search engine rankings, search engine optimization focuses on these three facets of your digital marketing strategy:
On-page SEO elements range from title tags to a meta description, subheadings to internal links - basically, anything that is already on your website that you can influence.
Optimizing these on-page SEO factors can deeply impact where your website shows up on any given search engine results page. In fact, embedding relevant keywords through a blog post or anywhere else on your site can do wonders for on-page optimization.
Furthermore, pages with URLs that contain a keyword have a 45% higher CTR.
That's some pretty impressive search engine marketing! That's because you're leveraging your keyword research and embedding relevant SEO keywords into your website's pages, which tells search engines that you're an authority on the subject at hand.
Off-page SEO occurs outside of your website but can deeply impact your on-page SEO efforts. Off-page elements include anything from link building to guest posts, all of which are meant to signal to search engines like Google that you are trustworthy and credible.
A recent study found that the number of unique referring domains linking to a page was the highest-correlating factor to rankings in search engine results.
In short, this means that when other websites link back to you, search engines acknowledge this as a positive sign. You become a leading authority on the subject, effectively boosting your search engine ranking while popping up in the search results of your target audience and other relevant searches.
But be careful. When you build off-page SEO links, or even optimize on-page elements for that matter, you must always be weary of keyword stuffing. This is one of the most common reasons why websites receive a penalty from Google.
Content marketing is an extremely lucrative avenue, especially when it comes to SEO digital marketing. Blog posts and other forms of content allow you to implement SEO best practices while allowing you to rank higher among search engine pages.
In fact, 79% of content marketers use content marketing to generate high-quality leads.
Suffice it to say that an SEO marketing strategy isn't just about engagement. Instead, search marketing is actually about conversions and sales just as much as it's about appeasing search engines through eCom and local SEO.
But it's important to remember that content marketing is for both the search engines and the humans who interact with said content. So, if you really want to perfect your digital marketing strategy, you need to make sure the user experience remains the top priority of the optimization tactics you plan to implement.
Search rankings don't just happen on their own. In fact, search engines employ a rigorous process that scours the entire Internet just to see all the pieces of content available, then ranks them accordingly.
Crawling the Internet is exactly what it sounds like - Google is literally crawling through every single web page that exists.
Google's website crawlers have indexed hundreds of billions of web pages.
They do this by looking through the code of each web page they find while attempting to make sense of the content on the page. This is why SEO works just as hard to optimize metadata.
Once each page has been crawled, the search engine begins to index those pages, storing and organizing the content found during the crawling process. Only after a page has been indexed will it begin to appear on the search engine results pages.
The size of the Google index is between 30 to 50 billion pages.
This is yet another reason why SEO works so hard - there are literally billions of pages to compete with. But with the right SEO tips and practices, people find their indexed page on the first page of Google.
After indexing all Internet pages, search engines then rank the pages according to the searcher's query. Most of the time, users are looking for quick answers.
So, Google is going to reward pages that provide those quick answers while still offering valuable content overall. But that's not the only ranking factor involved.
Google uses over 200 factors in its algorithm for ranking websites.
Again, that's a ton of data for search engines to have to sift through. But if you can leverage your SEO strategies to overshadow other websites through these ranking factors, then you're sure to land on the first page of Google.
Bonus: 8 Benefits Organic Social Media Can Offer You
Ranking on Google seems like a popularity contest. But this contest offers so many more rewards than you can imagine as a business owner.
Obviously, you want people to discover your eCom business. But that can only happen sustainably when you start to funnel in a significant amount of unpaid traffic.
Organic traffic is responsible for 53% of all website traffic.
This means that the majority of users finding your website are coming from seeing your URL in Google's search result pages. Once on your website, users should be able to easily find information on your products or services.
Or, maybe they'll be intrigued by the well-written content you publish through your blog. Either way, getting users on your site is the first step toward getting them to convert.
People using search engines are already seeking out something in particular. And by optimizing your site through SEO, you can make sure your product or service shows up as the answer they're looking for.
The average website conversion rate is 2.35% but the best websites have conversion rates of 11% or more.
Suffice it to say that there is a significant gap between a well-optimized website and a not-so-well-optimized website. But when you have an active audience ready to engage with a product or service that will solve their issues, then it's up to you as a business owner to do everything you can to make the user experience as easy as possible.
In today's digital age, buyers want to know that they can trust a business. And a great way to demonstrate your trustworthiness is through your digital footprint.
Nobody is keen to give their business to a website that houses spammy links or doesn't load within the first couple of seconds. Instead, users want to know that a brand is current, well-versed in digital strategies, and ready to offer up the best customer service possible.
Brands that rank well in search results are likely to experience up to 30% improvement in their brand reputation.
And if you're a business owner, then you know just how important brand reputation is. Both positive and negative reputations can spread like wildfire through word-of-mouth marketing.
But with the right SEO strategies, you can set your eCom business up with a long-term strategy that knows how to sustainably rank you throughout the search engine results.
SEO is constantly evolving, which is why it's important to work with an SEO company that keeps its finger on the pulse. That way, you can focus on taking charge of your business without getting lost in all the busy work.
Keep Reading: How To Write Blogs That Are SEO-Friendly In 2023
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Up Inc. eCommerce Agency is a digital marketing agency based in Los Angeles, CA. Founded in 2021, Up Inc. specializes in eCommerce, generating growth for brands by focusing on visibility, customer loyalty, and digital revenue. For more SEO tips and industry insights, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
