The famous phrase, “If you build it, they will come”, does not actually work when you set up shop online by simply launching your website. The masses will not be pounding at your virtual doors, clamoring to see what revolutionary product or service you have to offer. 

Why? Because they would not know you exist. 

Without actually promoting your business website, you will be lost in a massive sea that is the Internet: crowded, tumultuous, and unforgiving. So how do you actually make your voice heard in the wild wilderness that is the world-world-wide web? The answer is SEO or Search Engine Optimization. 

What Is SEO?

SEO has been a critical component in being found in Google searches, but what exactly is it?  SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the strategy that helps a website “rank higher” on Google. 

SEO falls under “organic” ranking, meaning that you didn’t have to pay to advertise in order to appear in that space. It also involves helping (optimizing) a piece of content so that when someone conducts a search on Google, this content will automatically appear at the very top of the page. 

According to a study conducted by Netmarketshare.com, Google made up the majority of online searches at almost 70%. At the end of the day, SEO marketing serves to get as many people to see your website as possible. More exposure means more people will discover you and your products or services. From here you can focus your efforts on converting casual shoppers to actual customers. 

How Does It Work?

The way it works is that Google uses “crawlers”, also known as bots or spiders in order to collect information on the content found online. It begins with the crawler on a “known web page” and then peruses “internal links” within that web page and then also explores “external links” to web pages on other websites. 

Between the content on one page and the content it follows via links on other web pages, it informs the crawler how each of these pages is “semantically” connected to other pages within the index or the search engine’s database. 

When someone types something into the search box, the search engine uses a wide range of intricate algorithms, then generates what it believes are the most precise and valuable results for that inquiry.

These “organic” search results can feature web pages full of texts, videos, news articles, images, and other “niche” content. 

Why Is SEO Important?

When you are using effective SEO strategies to drive organic traffic results, these become “high-quality” traffic. They are featured at the very top of the results and are known as search engine results pages (SERP). If you are featured at the top of this search, that means you are only getting visitors that are sincerely interested in your product, service, or other valuable information that your website offers. 

Visitors are more likely to click on the results included at the top or near the SERP. It is considered prime real estate to have your website be included in this area of the search results. As you continue to be found in this area, you are more likely to continue to draw high-quality visitors, which can turn into successful conversions. 

Let Google Know You Exist

Now that you know that SEO is critical to being found online, let’s dive into the different tips and tricks you can use to ensure your website is featured on the SERP.

• Google Search Console: One of the strategies you can use starting today is registering your website with Google Search Console. It is considered one of the fastest methods to get your website featured in Google’s search results. With this tool, you can also identify who is linking back to your site. The higher number of high-quality links back to your website, the higher it will rank in your search results. 
• Google Business: Considered one of the first things you should do as soon as you open up shop, Google Business allows your business to appear in important geographic search results. When you set up your business profile, it allows you to take advantage of SEO, as it will appear in a couple of weeks from the time you set up your profile.
• Increase Your Page Speed: There is nothing more important for a website than its speed of loading. In order to make that happen, ensure you have fast hosting. You can also make sure that any images used on your website are small and used only if they add anything of value to your content. Consider also using external scripts to a minimum. 

With the increased use of mobile devices for web searching and shopping, it would be greatly beneficial if your website also loads at top speed on mobile devices.

• Use The Right Keywords: Keywords are specific phrases that you will want to rank high in the search results. As for your website, where you place them makes a difference. You could start by placing them on page titles, this is in the form of a headline that is clickable when it appears as a result. 

They can be featured on meta descriptions and included in headings as they guide the reader throughout the article. 

• Ask Google (for advice): There is so much more to this topic that most business owners can get overwhelmed by the amount of information on SEO strategies. If you get stuck, simply seek advice from the ones that have started it all”¦Google. Google offers its users a free guide that details how you can optimize your website for Google search. 

Get Discovered Today

Don’t get bogged down on all the complicated and sophisticated SEO strategies that exist from so-called experts. Keep it simple and follow the aforementioned tips and tricks and you will be on your way to ranking high on the Google search rankings.