While use of internet advertising is frequent and popular across many industries, many companies with a strong web presence are learning to leverage the “free” impact of SEO, or search engine optimization. By tracking the way that search engines index content on the internet, it is possible to use strategically placed keywords to make it more likely for your website to appear high in a given search.

SEO Affects How Prospective Visitors Find You or Not

This strategy may not require the money to place an ad, but it is valuable to have an SEO expert work with your marketing team to ensure that your website’s written copy is drawing as many people as possible in.

Customer decisions are happening online

Forbes points out that 80-90% of customers are using online reviews to help them make purchase decisions now, which means that search engines are only growing in popularity. When someone searches a keyword connected to your product, you want your website to pop up first, above even the review sites associated with you, and definitely above your competitors. SEO ensures that as more and more people become internet-savvy and desire to find quick, clear information about the products or services they desire, you are their first option.

Some web elements help SEO, others are invisible

While it is tempting to focus on keywords, since those can be so quickly checked, there are many elements that impact SEO, so it is valuable to move beyond those, especially if competition for market share is intense in your industry. For instance, not only the amount of internal and external links in your text, but also the quality of those links matters, according to Entrepreneur. Length of content, links to other pages of your own site, and an emphasis on never duplicating content all contribute to the way that SEO works, so a renewed focus on the details of how search engines crawl your site and index it as relevant and important is essential.

Even Brick-and-Mortar locations are benefiting greatly

One result of the expansion of web traffic specifically seeking reviews and information is the local market. Certainly, locals may just walk into the store to get information, but more and more people are researching online before they go to a store. For instance, HubSpot has discovered that 71% of people are now looking up businesses online before going for the first time, to confirm the location details. Making a website that is easily searchable but also contains key information like open hours, address, and current promotions will help use web traffic to drive in-person sales. If search engines give your information quickly and clearly when people are searching for your product, the web presence boosts your brick-and-mortar business.

Useful tools exist, so why not use them?

Tools like RankMath specifically keep up to date on what kinds of content are performing well in search engines, and their tool allows web content producers to quickly check their own content against the standards of what is doing well in terms of readability and SEO. Certainly, it can be difficult to initially train your team to create content that is both perfectly informative on your product but also easy and clear for search engines to index, but these days using the available tools and reaching out for assistance from long-time experts can make the process quite painless and start a culture of optimization in all areas of your business.

Even if you used SEO in the past, it constantly changes

Many companies who have had a web presence for years assume that the SEO work they did years ago can still help them generate leads. While this can be true, generally the nature of keywords and the algorithms for SEO change over time, according to Moz. What’s more, any new competitors who came into the market since you did will have the advantage of a more recently updated content marketing strategy. Checking your placement in search engines and considering how to move up those ranks using strategic keywords can help you stay on top, even if you already understand SEO.

Trying to leverage your web presence toward SEO goals? Our inbound marketing team at ThinkFlame includes experts at lead generation through great, strategically-written content. For more information, contact us.

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