I like to say if your website is the party, SEO is the directions to the party. Nobody is going to show up to your party if you don’t give them directions. Maybe that’s a bad analogy but it makes sense if you think about it. Search Engine Optimization is the process of optimizing your website to enable better search engine results allowing you to attract more visitors and more opportunities to convert them into customers or followers. Without SEO, your site will flounder out there in a sea of other websites, hoping that someone will finally click on your link. It’s a sad prospect really, but it’s a fact. You must constantly perform SEO on your site or it will never reach its fullest potential.
In all searches conducted on the internet, 70% of users click on organic results, 53% of the organic search clicks go to the first link, and most importantly, 75% of users never click past the first page. Basically, you have to be on the first page or you’re scrapping for the leftover 25% of users. Organic traffic refers to clicks your site receives based on the relevant content within your site. For example, let’s say you sell sunglasses. Your site has a lot of really good reviews and in depth information about sunglasses. That in depth content will net you some organic traffic and as long as the architecture of your site is sound, you will move up the search engine results pages or SERP’s.
I hope I didn’t give the impression that SEO is easy. It’s a very time consuming and detail oriented process that requires a lot of research and constant attention. Google’s search engine algorithm changes the way they rank websites and pages often. Staying up to date with procedures is half the battle to ensure you are not being penalized in the rankings for how your site is built or how it is worded. If you do not know what you are doing when it comes to these critical tasks do not attempt to alter your site your self. You can hurt yourself in the long run or simply just waste your time and still not get any results. A good web designer or developer will build your site with SEO at the forefront of priorities, along with accessibility and functionality, making it easier for you page to get ranked. Because, frankly, what good is a beautifully designed website if no one finds it?
