Why Does SEO Matter for Your Website?
You’ve probably heard the term “SEO” a billion times. But what does it really mean for you and your site? Read on to learn how embracing SEO can impact and improve your website and your business.
WHY IT’S TIME TO TAKE SEO SERIOUSLY
Now, more than ever, people are shopping online. Factors like the Pandemic and work-from-home make shopping online not only convenient, but preferable. Given the prevalence of online shoppers, SEO is a must for your site.
Why is SEO so important to your business? Here are a few reasons:
SEO CAN DIRECTLY IMPROVE YOUR PROSPECTS
Organic search is one of the main driving points of online business. This term refers to any non-paid means through which people search the internet. Maybe they are looking for a great article on SEO, so they type “what is SEO.” Then, SEO will automatically affect the way the results are presented; the higher your site’s SEO rankings, the better chance your site has of being found by potential customers. If we did a good job here, our article would show at the top of the list.
SEO is especially important in regard to Google. Since Google is the most heavily visited search engine in the world, you definitely want your Google SEO rankings to be strong.
Real-time SEO research directly affects the buying cycle. Harness the power of this research to increase your brand’s profitability.
SEO HELPS CUSTOMERS TRUST YOUR BRAND
Building strong SEO results takes time. If your site has consistently present rankings, then customers know that your site–and subsequently, your brand–is trustworthy.
QUALITY SEO OFFERS A BETTER USER EXPERIENCE
Google SEO rankings are also affected by how easily a user can find intended information on your site. Therefore, an easy-to-navigate website can greatly improve SEO rankings.
LOCAL SEO IS GREAT FOR BUSINESS
Local SEO focuses on making a site easier to find for people in a particular geographic area. User reviews (from sites Yelp) are an especially big deal in this approach. Relevant regional listings are important, as well.
SEO IS AFFORDABLE AND CAN DELIVER BIG RESULTS
If you can get SEO right, you will leverage a solid investment that will benefit your business for years to come.
- Some basic SEO questions to consider are:
- What is your industry?
- Who is the target audience for your industry?
- Who are your primary competitors?
- What SEO strategies are your competitors using?
HOW SEO WORKS
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) involves making your website more appealing to Google and other search engines. As a result, they list your site higher their findings.
Google presents search results based upon the perceived quality of each website’s content. Google defines quality content as information that can easily solve users’ needs, as determined by how long they stay on your page. The fewer clicks a person makes to get to a destination, the higher Google rates the content.
BASICS OF GOOGLE SEARCH
Crawling
Googlebot, the automated software (“crawler”) that finds and indexes web pages, determines SEO rankings through many factors. Firstly, a sitemap is necessary for making your site discoverable to Google. A sitemap allows Google crawlers to learn about new and changed pages on your site. Behind-the-scenes coding and tags are also necessary to make your site findable. For more information about such coding, check out Google’s SEO Starter Guide.
Google visits newly-discovered websites to determine those sites’ search result rankings. During this process, Googlebot analyzes a site’s non-text content, text content, and site layout. The crawler then determines how understandable a site’s content is and ranks the site based on that rating.
Indexing
This step takes place after Googlebot visits a new site. It is Google’s attempt to determine the nature of a page. Googlebot checks out page images and content, as well as videos, in order to figure out what the page is about. Then, it stores the information in the Google index.
Indexing can be (potentially) improved by:
- Creating short and descriptive page titles
- Using specific page headings that accurately describe the page subject
- Using text to describe your content, including alternate text to describe images
Serving/Ranking
In turn, your site’s Google search rankings can be potentially improved by
- Creating a fast-loading page
- Making your page mobile-friendly
Improve your user experience by following Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.
LIMITS OF SEO
SEO offers many benefits, but does have some drawbacks. For one thing, SEO campaigns can take several months to produce results. Generally, you can expect your campaign to take between four months and a year to potentially deliver results.
Additionally, SEO does not always work. While SEO can be very effective and profitable, no one can guarantee that SEO will improve your business. SEO also involves a cut-throat, competitive market that is constantly changing, thus requiring constant work and investment. Finally, Google’s algorithm is always changing, and a site might be penalized if new changes required by the algorithm are not implemented.
SOME AVAILABLE SEO TOOLS
In addition to using your website as a means for improving SEO, you can also use outside software and tools.
SEMRUSH
One of the major players in the world of SEO tools is Semrush. This tool can be a game changer for your business, offering numerous features to improve SEO, content marketing, market research, advertising, and social media. SEMRush uses keyword research to help you improve your SEO rankings.
GOOGLE ANALYTICS
In a not-so-surprising turn of events, the all-mighty Google offers its own marketing analysis tool. Google Analytics uses dashboards and reports to offer you a better understanding of the way users interact with your site’s content. Additionally, Google Analytics employs machine-learning to provide you with data insight. You can then use these insights to improve profitability. Google Analytics can also be combined with Google’s full suite of marketing analysis products (such as Display & Video 360, Google Ads, AdSense, etc.) to deliver even more results.
YOUR WEB HOST CAN IMPROVE YOUR SEO SUCCESS
A web host is necessary for creating and running a website, but did you know that your host can help with implementing SEO, too? Here are some of the options that Pair offers for improving your SEO:
WordPress Plug-Ins
Pair’s Managed WordPress Hosting offers numerous plugins that can improve your SEO results. Some of these plugin options include:
WordPress vs. Traditional HTML Sites
While both static (traditional) HTML sites and WordPress sites can use SEO, a WordPress site is the easiest way to benefit from SEO. With WordPress, you are provided built-in dashboards and plugins that make managing SEO way easier. For instance, technical SEO (the ‘behind-the-scenes’ steps taken to make a site better, such as site architecture, page speed, etc.) is built into every WordPress site. If you opt for a static HTML site, you’ll have to code the technical aspects of your site from scratch.
CONSIDER WEEBLY
Weebly is another powerful site-building tool offered by Pair. One of the biggest perks of Weebly is that the tool allows you to build a website without requiring that you be a coding expert. As a drag-and-drop site builder, Weebly enables you to quickly and easily construct a website to your liking. Additionally, Weebly offers all the built-in features you need, including security and ecommerce options. Learn more about Pair’s Weebly hosting options.
WEEBLY VS. WORDPRESS
Weebly and WordPress are both great site-building options, and Pair offers both Weebly and WordPress hosting packages. Which option should you choose? Read for a few considerations.
Which Site Builder is Best for Beginners?
Weebly is more straightforward and is probably better than WordPress for beginners. WordPress requires users to pick a theme and specific plugins. Weebly is more straightforward and comes with features already installed, making it easier to build.
Customization
Both Weebly and WordPress offer a decent selection of cool themes. While Weebly offers a few dozen themes (all free), WordPress offers thousands, including both free and paid options.
SEO Tools
Weebly provides built-in SEO tools (like Weebly Promote), whereas WordPress allows users to choose specific marketing plugins. Both options are excellent; you just need to consider which choice best fits your site’s needs.
SECURITY AND SITE PERFORMANCE CAN AFFECT RANKINGS
Yep, your site performance and security can improve or tank your SEO rankings. Making your web host choice extremely important.
Users tend to leave a site that is not secure, and this can definitely affect SEO. Additionally, if a user leaves your site and returns to the search engine results, Google views this as a sign that your site was not the user’s desired result, and your site loses SEO ranking points.
SEO spam, a result of hacking, can directly lower SEO rankings. Finally, frequent hackings and downtime, outdated software, and insecure plugins and themes can all affect SEO. Your web host can directly impact and improve your SEO results by offering quality security solutions.
Get an SSL Certificate
An SSL certificate is an excellent, SEO-boosting way to show that your site is secure. Google penalizes sites that lack SSL certificates. By showing that your website is secure and that your site offers encryption. Pair web hosting packages offer SSL certificates. Check out the options that can help to improve your SEO rankings!
PAIR WEB HOSTING, SITE PERFORMANCE, AND SEO
The faster your site, the better your SEO rankings. Sure, Google states that page relevancy factors higher in SEO rankings but site speed is still a big deal.
You can check your site’s speed with these tools.
Various factors can affect site speed performance, and you can read about ways to improve your site’s speed. One way that your web host can directly hurt or help your speed s server response time.
Your Web Host and Server Response Time
Server Response Time (SRT) is basically the time between a user clicking on a link or entering a url and the server’s response to that request. Good SRT means that your site will load really quickly. Longer load times mean a poorer user experience and a lower SEO site ranking.
What can directly affect your SRT?
Your choice of web host.
Let Pair Be Your Game Changer
Pair web hosting options are optimized for speed and performance. Our content delivery network (CDN) makes traffic to your website’s images and content faster by working with other internet providers and servers. PairCDN goes a step further. By allowing users to download content from the nearest PairCDN server, Pair allows users to download content more quickly.
GIVE SEO A TRY
SEO is here to stay and offers numerous potential benefits. Like anything, SEO is not a guarantee of business success; however, with the right web host and SEO tools, you can really improve your business opportunities and results.
Looking for an outstanding web host whose service will exceed your expectations? Contact Pair today!
