SEO stands for search engine optimization. It is a term used to describe methods taken by a website to increase the likelihood of targeted and high volume traffic to your site for organic (non-paid) search results. It is a topic websites are built around and books are written about.
I can talk about SEO for hours and not even touch the surface of its meaning and relevance. If you’ve my read article, 30 Online Business Tips… you will have seen I give a lot of emphasis to search engine optimization to getting website traffic and ranking.
But how important is SEO… really?
Let’s put it this way, how important is search engine optimization in comparison to creating great content for your website? I know this is comparing apples to oranges, but stick with me here.
I’ve always had the mindset that you should write for your readers first and optimize second. Creating great content is what’s going to keep your visitors on your site and better yet, keep them coming back.
However (you knew this was coming), you can create the most amazing content that is informative and engaging, but if people can’t find you, then what is the point?
The reverse holds true as well. You can take all the necessary steps to optimize your site and even get ranked on the first page of Google, but if your content is boring, uninformative, horribly written and doesn’t flow well, I can pretty much guarantee you your visitor will be jumping ship rather quickly.
But let’s get back to the top at hand and answer the question first posed, why is SEO important?
Here are several reasons:
- It allows people to find your website with your selected keywords
- It tells search engines what your site is all about
- Allows you to drive targeted visitors to your site using your selective keywords
How do you write for your readers and still effectively incorporate SEO?
One of the methods I’ve used is to first decide on the topic I would like to cover and the decide on the related keywords associated with this topic. For instance, let’s use this post as an example.
The topic I wanted to discuss was about search engine optimization. The terms SEO and search engine optimization by itself are both very well searched terms according to Google Ads Keyword Planner, so I really didn’t have to think much about incorporating these terms into my post.
All I had to do was write the post as I wanted, discussing all that I wanted to cover and in the process mention the terms SEO and search engine optimization throughout the post. As you can probably see, I do it throughout this article.
However, the keywords flow naturally within the conversation. It is not forced or even strategically placed, it’s just the natural flow of my conversation in words.
What is the end result of including keywords in my articles and how is it relevant to SEO?
When search engines crawl my site, they see that I’ve mentioned the term search engine optimization quite a bit, so this post must be about that topic. Therefore, if someone were to type in search terms such as SEO or search engine optimization, there’s a good chance my site would show up in the results, aka SERP’s (search engine results pages). Make sense?
I just want to point out that SEO is only a piece of the puzzle of having an successful online business. There are many factors involved that can help you grow your business, from utilizing social media marketing, providing great customer service, guest blogging, fulfilling a need to your target market, pricing strategies, and much more.
Ever heard the term, don’t put all your eggs in one basket? Well the say applies to your online business. Don’t focus solely on SEO, or content generation, or social media. Think of your online business as a mutual fund, end goal is to make money, but you are using many vehicles to do so.
What’s your take on SEO and it’s importance?