What is SEO, and How Can it Help My Business?

SEO is one of those buzzwords that it seems like every company has been discussing recently.  Unfortunately, many companies aren’t sure what this means for them: or really what SEO is.  If you’re new to the term and aren’t sure how it can help your company, these are the facts you need to know about it and why it’s an asset to any company.

What is SEO?

SEO, standing for search engine optimization, is a process that ensures your company gets boosted to the top of the results of specific keyword searches.  Few people go onto the second page of a Google search. Through SEO, you ensure that your company will show up within the top five results when potential leads or customers search keywords that you intrinsically link to your company.  There are dozens of ways to make this work for any company, but it’s an awesome perk that many seek out.

Who Needs It?

Every company that wants to build an online presence, or draw more people to their website, should invest in SEO.  Even if your company is brick-and-mortar only, SEO can ensure that people in your area know about your company and can find it when they need to.  

This isn’t specifically for small or large businesses; every company can benefit from using SEO to improve its results.

Does It Increase Sales?

Short answer: yes!  Long answer- it isn’t very easy.  Search engine optimization can only go so far as bringing people to your website.  This means they can draw in potential customers and show them the value of your brand.

From here, it’s up to your company and your website to show people the value.  SEO consulting can bring people to your website, but it’s your job to seal the deal.  If your company’s site is poorly made, or you’re not set up to close sales or encourage people to buy, your sales won’t increase. 

So yes, it’ll increase sales, but you have to invest some work and time to ensure your brand gets every sale possible.

How Do I Implement It?

You can boost your company’s SEO in a large number of ways.  The most common is through link building, but you can also promote it through customer interaction, social media, and boosting your company’s presence on other local websites.  Consider your goals when it comes to what your company achieves, and then move forward from there.  

The higher on a search engine your company appears, the better, so make sure to do your due diligence and research what avenue works best for your brand.

Anything to Avoid?

When you’re building links and working on SEO, there are some things to avoid.  The largest of which is keyword stuffing.  Although you should use them sparingly in almost every article or guest blog post, you should avoid using them too much.  Spamming using keywords will result in Google seeing this as an unreliable source built to trick the system and overlook your company, or possibly shadowban it from rising through the search result ranks.