Search engine optimization is more than another marketing term to add to your industry jargon. SEO is vital to your business’ success! With the rise of digital marketing, driving Internet traffic to your company’s site or social media posts is more important than ever before.

So, what even is SEO? According to this article by Red Evolution, search engine optimization is the name given to activity that attempts to improve search engine rankings.

Its aim is to increase awareness and drive traffic to your site. The goal is to have a person Google something, your site pop up and sparks their interest and boom, you’ve got a website visitor. Now obviously this is in hopes that eventually a sale will be made or something else will come from this visit.

Why is it so important? The online marketplace is fiercely competitive. You have to be noticed by customers or you will become irrelevant. With the growing use of search engines, SEO gives businesses the opportunity to show up on these search engines and get noticed. Studies show that most search engine users look at only the first five results that are shown. Be one of those top five and you can be almost certain to get results.

Given the extremely competitive market, you need to stand out from the competition. Gaining trust from users that easily find your page on search engines is a huge advantage. There’s also the growing influence from social media — and SEO increases the chances that users will share your company on social media sites.

How exactly does it work? When you use a search engine, algorithms decide the order in which the results will show. Implementing SEO gives the advantage of ranking higher than other sites, increasing the chances that someone will see you site and visit it. SEO is not cookie-cutter perfect, rather you must tailor it to your business’s specific needs.

There are two main types of SEO you can use: on-site and off-site SEO. On-site refers to the rules you apply on your own site so it can be found on a search engine. Off-site deals with the promotion of your website so it can rank higher in search engine results.

There are tons of resources that explain SEO in detail and help businesses decide the best use of SEO for them. Check out these other blogs for further information:

• https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo/how-search-engines-operate
• https://www.seoworks.com/how-seo-works/

Once you’re ready to implement SEO into your business practices, look into marketing agencies to help with your online marketing efforts.

There’s no doubt about it, SEO is an important marketing tool that all online businesses should be utilizing! Be sure to do your research and find out how you can use SEO to make your business more successful!