What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimisation is a digital service that optimises your website to ensure that it’s discoverable by search engines so as to increase the quantity and quality of organic traffic to your website.
When users type keywords into search engines like Google or Bing, websites with well optimised and relevant SEO content will be appear at the top of the search results. At least that’s the theory of how it is supposed to work.
How it actually works is a little more involved than that because whilst optimising your website for the most relevant keywords hasn’t changed, the way we actually go about doing this has done. Dramatically so.
How SEO Has Evolved.
But in 2020 SEO is more than just optimising your website for specific keywords, because as Google has evolved so too has their understanding of what is semantically relevant and what provides the additional value that users (searchers) are looking for in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)
You may be surprised to learn that sites like Google and Bing don’t use live internet searches when looking for answers to your question or search. They access their own index, a complex system that prioritises results based on multiple criterias. Keyword density, backlinks and meta tags are ranked by the search engine to determine which pages have the most authority so they can bring the user the most accurate information.
And it doesn’t stop there because Google understands the value of engagement and rewards websites accordingly.
Having a functioning website is one thing, but without SEO your website will only be discoverable to customers who enter your exact company name or domain. This means you are losing almost 100% of search opportunities to your competitors. And that’s not even taking into consideration how much SEO improves your sites engagement and conversion metrics, two huge SEO ranking factors in 2020.
The Benefits of SEO
Optimising your website for the Search Engines and ensuring your content is SEO friendly helps you rank higher in the SERPs, sure. But there’s a whole lot more value SEO brings that makes it one of the most profitable marketing channels you can invest in. Let’s look at the top 5 reasons why your business needs to invest in SEO in 2020.
Why Your Business Needs SEO in 2020
Think of SEO as a tool to create warm leads. Users who are specifically searching for your services being pointed in your direction. In turn this will generate more emails, visits, sales and brand awareness for your company. The great thing about SEO is that once it is working efficiently, it will gain traction as your site gains traction. The more high-value your content, the more sites will link to your pages, as your site traffic rises, so does your SEO rank. This increases your authority and credibility which also improves your website ranking.
Here’s 5 direct and instantly measurable reasons why you need to ensure SEO forms the backbone of your multi channel marketing strategy in 2020:
1: Increase organic rank and share of voice over the competition
2: Improve onsite engagement (increases value across all channels)
3: Increase brand sentiment and general awareness
4: Increase conversions across all parts of your marketing funnel, now matter how complex it is
5: Improve relevance (quality score) and therefore reduce spend across any paid media channels.
SEO is one of those channels that has a positive impact across all other channels, helping to deliver improved ROI and ROAS across the board.
How Do I Optimise My Website SEO? (Quick Guide)
There are a few basic things you can do to optimise your website’s SEO, however, using an SEO professional or multi channel agency like Atlas to optimise your website is the best investment. Creating keywords and linking to your site from other sites may seem like an easy thing to do for company, however, there is complex research and strategy behind the use of keywords, meta tags and website links.
Below are our top 6 tips that you can do to best optimise your SEO.
- Engagement is Queen. This one goes first because it is one of the most important ranking factors for SEO in 2020. Google understands that engagement means relevance. If noone is clicking, reading, sharing, or generall engaging with your content then it’s clearly not relevant. This makes it super important so while it is important that you follow all the tips on this list, it is more important that you keep user engagement in mind at all stages.
- Update your website information regularly Relevant content on your site means that your site is active and responsive. Advertising events that have already passed or products that are no longer available will lose your relevance with search engines and make your site less accurate.
- Blogs and Articles Having relative blogs and articles featured on your website will not only give you a platform to utilise keywords but it will also give you content for other sites to share. Most active SEO sites will update their blogs as frequently as possible to stay relevant. Remember, the more SEO friendly keywords used, the higher your ranking!
- Build your database The bigger your database of customers and clients the bigger the reach your blogs and articles will have. Including a pop up to capture users information when visiting your site is a great way to build your database.
- Build your social media presence Linking your website, blogs, video content, articles and new arrivals to your social media will link your followers back to your website.
- Call to Action Encouraging your social media following to tag friends, co workers or family in your posts will drive traffic to your site. The more share worthy your content is, the more interactive your social media will be. It is worth hiring a brand specific copywriter to convey your message and tone of voice.
At Atlas we cover all your SEO needs. We specialise in social media strategy and content, SEO friendly copy, website SEO and of course Search Engine Optimisation. Fill the form the below to register for your SEO audit today.
