Understanding the Basics of SEO and Link Building ??
As the internet continues to expand, it is more difficult than ever to appear on the top of search engines. Even on Google and Bing, your website will be lucky to rank amongst the first five to ten pages. With a little help from SEO and Link Building, you will see major improvements in your online visibility.
What is SEO?
SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the process of increasing the quality and quantity of your website traffic. As a marketing strategy, SEO generates organic traffic without the use of paid media. This makes it not only a cost-effective method of attracting customers but a necessary component of any successful business.
First, You Must EAT
E-A-T, a term created by Google, has become commonplace in the SEO world. Used to describe the quality of a website, EAT looks at three metrics:
Utilizing EAT is a crucial concept to learn in order to fulfill the needs and wants of website visitors. Thankfully, the days of keyword jamming are behind us. Now, Google is prioritizing these three aspects to better focus on the user. Make sure you understand these terms to deliver quality content on your next website.
The Importance of SEO
Whilst other forms of paid media and marketing can generate website traffic, the bulk of online traffic is directed by search engines. Organic search is wider spread, offers greater credibility, and drives far more clicks. But make sure your SEO strategy ranks you on the first page - the top five results account for 67.6% of all clicks.
SEO, unlike paid advertising, also tends to pay dividends over time. Providing a valuable piece of content that is continually relevant will generate positive traffic for years. This evergreen content requires minimal updating from the author and is free of advertising costs - a win-win situation.
How to Implement SEO Into Your Business
In order to rank highly on a search engine, you must first develop an effective SEO strategy. Here are a few tips on how to do so:
领英推荐
What is Link Building?
Link building is all about directing traffic from other websites to your website through hyperlinks. When someone links a blog, article, or piece of content on their website, visitors can click on these hyperlinks and they will be sent directly to your site.
Although someone may not deliberately want to read your content, link building is a great way to improve long-term SEO. The more backlinks a page has, the higher it will rank on a search engine. Google in particular values backlinks as a metric of credibility in their EAT concept. If you want to experience greater organic traffic through SEO, make sure to create quality content that other sites will rant about.
While external link building is a strong SEO strategy, internal link building is another way to bring traffic to your site. An internal link is a hyperlink from one page on your website to a different page on your website. Here, users will find it easier to navigate to the content they want to read. Not only does internal linking improve your SEO efforts, but it shortens the customer journey from being aware to being a loyal consumer.
SEO in the Online Retail Industry
Large online retailers have been using paid media for years to convert website users into customers. However, for retailers with smaller marketing budgets, SEO is a far stronger option. With an effective SEO strategy, small online retailers can influence users at different stages of the marketing funnel, build their brand awareness, and experience long-term dividends.
Lets use the running shoe industry as our example. If users are interesting in new running shoes, sites with strong SEO will rank among the top 5 or 10 links. A higher ranking will indicate that the brand is an industry leader and further strengthen their awareness in the running community. If the user is set on a particular brand, providing backlinks within a site will direct users to the shoe they desire. Maintaining content that continually refers users to more products or information will only increase their loyalty with that brand.
Over time, these users will have consumed so much content from this site that they will find it hard to purchase shoes from another brand. In the end, a solid SEO strategy will have earned this small running shoe retailer a life-long customer who self-promotes the brand - something your business should always strive to achieve.
References