When looking up digital marketing strategies, you have most probably come across a term called “SEO’. It’s the kind of term you nod along to, telling yourself that it’s something you have to Google later but never do.
You’d be lying if you say you’ve never been there before.
People, and admittedly, us, are always going on about SEO and how important it is for your business. Well, you’ve come to the right place because we’re breaking it down!
What is SEO and How it Works
SEO is short for search engine optimization. Great, so you know what it stands for but what on earth does that mean?
You know when you Google a phrase like, “Best Hotels in Marrakech”, and almost instantly, Google pulls ups lists and lists of results? That’s because of SEO!
Moz describes SEO as the process of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results. It allows for the right people to be directed to your website through what they’re searching.
And that’s exactly why it’s vital for your website to make use of this tool! You want to be right on top of Google’s list as an answer to your customers’ searches. By linking what phrases or keywords, people are searching for that are related to your offering, your website will be more visible to answer their queries and your possibility for new leads grows!
Are you still with us? Good!
To give you more of an understanding about SEO, let’s get into how it works. Search engines, like Google, work off of algorithms that strive to match your search item with the data available.
When you type in a phrase and hit search, a bunch of crawlers go out and sift through the available content on the internet. What comes back is what is related to the original query.
The way that SEO and the way that the rankings are calculated is forever changing and that is why it is our job to keep up with these trends!
How Do You Use SEO?
It is important that your website constantly grows, develops and redefines its SEO content in order to stay relevant.
Your Google rankings and search results will be improved by analyzing the keywords relating to the content, formatting your website correctly and by creating backlinks.
What are backlinks? Backlinks are created when an external site links your website.
For example:
Do you see how we linked in the Social Media Examiner? This is a reputable site which is why we cited their work. By being sharable, reputable and having a strong brand name, people will be more willing to link your website as a reference or a source of inspiration.
Think of it this way, backlinks are to search engines as your peers or best friend’s recommendation are to you. You would trust someone’s recommendation of a restaurant because it came from someone you know and from someone you trust. Because of that trust, that recommendation would probably sway you to give the restaurant a go, right?
The more you hear about that restaurant and the better the restaurant will seem. The same is for your website!
The more backlinks or recommendations your website has, the more search engines will see your website as legitimate and will consider your website to be more accurate to people’s queries than the rest.
Creating backlinks will take time and some investment but there are some easier steps you can take to ensure that your website is SEO friendly.
For starters, the most simple of steps would be to do your keyword research. Keywords are words and phrases relating to your main concept.
Let’s take “Istanbul”, for example, as your main concept and we want to see what people are searching in relation to this concept. You will find things like “Istanbul Hotels”, “Istanbul Map”, and “Istanbul Things to Do” will pop up as related terms. These are terms that you should look at including in blog posts or your website design.
Next, take a look at how your website and blog posts are formatted. Google or your search engine provider will scan through your heading settings for content relating to the search phrase. This is why it is vital to ensure that your headings are set up correctly.
The more legitimate and more SEO friendly your website becomes, the more you will be visible on search engines and therefore your potential for leads will grow!
Must-Have SEO Tools
We’ve spoken a bit about keywords and finding phrases that will increase your page rankings. But how in the world are you supposed to find out what these keywords are? Never fear, there are apps for that!
Here are some of our favorites:
This is a great tool to have! It’s a simple extension that you can load onto your Google Chrome and it will immediately show you words relating to your searched item and other keywords people search for.
And what’s better? It’s completely free!
Another great, FREE, tool to use for finding out what questions people are searching for relating to your term.
You are able to search popular keywords on Google, Bing, YouTube, Instagram and more!
If you’re looking to take this whole SEO thing seriously, we would highly recommend using Ahrefs. This paid tool is rich in information that can become a real asset to your website.
Ahrefs allows you to search keywords, competitors’ keyword strengths, and monitor your rank tracking.
Did you know that SEO is one of the services that we provide? Don’t spend time stressing about the number of backlinks you’ve generated, the number of keywords that are in your blog post or about how your website has been mapped out. Let us take care of that and you can just sit back and reap the benefits!
We will handle it all, from start to finish!