SEO for Business: Why is it so important to use SEO?

 

 Optimizing your site for the search engines can dramatically increase sales and new leads for small business owners.

Many business owners have their own website, but just having one is not enough these days.

First, the site should get traffic and only then you can attract new customers. Nowadays there are many channels to advertise yourself on the Internet and receive orders. These include SEO optimization, which should be used by everyone who has their own business.

Search engines like Google and Yandex are great vehicles to advertise your site and enable customers to find you online.

This is what SEO is responsible for, and if in very simple terms, then in the process of SEO work, the site is optimized by increasing its relevance and fame to increase the traffic that the site receives from search engines. It is a profitable marketing strategy to get new customers and attract attention.

Why SEO is important for small businesses

You've probably heard about SEO before, but didn't quite understand why you should waste your time and money as a small business owner that is mainly focused on one specific region. Indeed, even if you have a local business and most of the orders come directly, you should take into account the fact that many of your customers are looking for a product or service on the Internet.

1. Search - traffic channel # 1

Search engines (such as Google ) tend to drive 500% more traffic than social media pages and this is foolish to ignore. What's more, Smart Insights conducted research and found that 34% of search traffic comes from e-commerce sites.For young businesses and startups that no one knows yet, this traffic acquisition option is very effective, since there is an equal chance to compete for traffic with brands that have long established themselves.

2. Users are lazy

How often do you go to the second page of search results?

Most likely not often. Indeed, research from HubSpot shows that 75% of users will never go beyond the first page of search results.

Instead, they choose a site from the top ten that meets their request. Therefore, if your site is outside of it in the search results for a given keyword or phrase, then a huge part of the traffic will not reach you.

It should be noted that the publication of mediocre content to imitate resource activity will not bring a positive result. If you want to compete and stand out among thousands of other sites in the search, as well as get into the TOP of the search results, be prepared to generate only high-quality and interesting content.

The search engine will definitely pay attention to this (high-quality content) and will show your site to people who are looking for your product or service by keywords.

How to do it? You need to start doing the following:

• Choose keywords with a low level of competition to make it easier to break into the TOP at the initial stage.

• Do not use black methods of SEO promotion - search engines nowadays have very clever algorithms and can easily calculate cheating or cheating by imposing serious sanctions on a resource.

• Publish quality and useful content! Think about what your audience wants, what it will be interested in.

3. SEO will increase sales

Traditional advertising methods are no longer receiving high response from consumers. Direct mail and print ads have an average 

of 1.7% , while SEO leads are converting to a whopping 14.6%.

4. Regional SEO is important

Due to the fact that Yandex takes into account the regionality when forming the search results, and Google uses the "Possum" algorithm , it is the regional sites that are in priority. This means that when a user searches for something, search engines try to show him results that are in the immediate vicinity or in a specific region.

Therefore, if someone is looking for shoes, the search engine will show the nearest shoe stores on the map.

This suggests that SEO not only allows you to reach a wider audience from around the world, but also increases your chances of getting a local order.

5. Most people use search

According to Google, 4 out of 5 users use Google to find business data. They use search engines to find addresses, opening hours, and reviews.

If your business does not have good positions in the search, you are missing out on a huge number of people who are actively looking for companies like yours and are ready to place an order.

Outcome

Whether you're using the services of a professional or promoting yourself, SEO can have a very significant impact on sales and customer growth

SEO (SEO)why do you need search engine optimization and website promotion in the SERP,

 SEO (search engine optimization) is search engine optimization. This concept hides the complex development of the site and its promotion to rise to one of the top positions in the search engine results. SEO-website promotion can be defined in another way, namely as a channel for attracting traffic to the site and a tool for influencing search robots in order to achieve leadership in search results. The question arises why it is so important to be in the top lines of the search results. The answer is given by the statistics of search engines for commercial queries, that is, for queries reflecting the desire of users to purchase something. Of the total volume of traffic, 95% falls on the first page of search results, and from 60% to 80% - on the 1-3rd lines. Any businessman will be happy to draw such attention to his company (brand, product),

SEO components

There are various options for attracting new customers via the Internet. These are targeting in social networks, contextual advertising, collaboration with bloggers and much more. All these methods work well if there are no financial problems and you need to attract the first customers (buyers) as soon as possible. But you have to face a serious drawback. The desired effect lasts only for the period as long as you pay for the use of one or another instrument. As soon as the account runs out of funds, advertising stops. Modern SEO optimization is no longer limited to typing keywords and acquiring links as it did ten years ago. Now this work has become much more painstaking and delicate.

Today SEO-promotion includes such basic elements as:

• constant monitoring of changes in algorithms used by search engines for ranking, and making appropriate adjustments;

• monitoring the relevance of search queries. It is necessary to timely track when the keywords and phrases used on your site are losing popularity among search engine users, and change the direction of optimization work;

• creation of a semantic core and regular expansion due to relevant queries;

• internal optimization, within which the website code and navigation are improved, the quality of the content is increased and the loading is accelerated;

• external optimization, that is, providing the site with citation. For this purpose, links to the resource are bought on various popular sites in order to increase interest in it from search engines;

• tracking the actions of site visitors and timely response to all negative manifestations;

• analysis of work results and their use to revise the strategy for further promotion.

We have to admit that SEO-specialists do not know exactly what formulas search engines use when determining the places of resources in the search results list. But they understand the key factors and fundamentals. Usability (user-friendliness of the interface), availability and quality of the mobile version, loading speed and user behavior - these are the indicators that directly affect the place of the site in the search results. It is worth highlighting the optimization of the site for smartphones and other mobile devices, since desktop traffic is now more and more inferior to mobile. By optimizing the site in the indicated directions, the publisher can bring it to the top of the search engine results. This takes into account about 800 parameters.

SEO development history

If we trace the evolution of this promotion technique, we can note how it gradually transformed from a clumsy weapon into a high-tech instrument of point impact. In its development, SEO optimization has gone through the following main stages:

• until 1998 - the initial stage. Then the site was promoted using spam keys. Today, against the background of modern promotion technologies, this technique looks "dirty". For the issuance of search engines such clumsy phrases as "buy a teapot in Saratov" or "buy a refrigerator Moscow" were considered the norm. Now this is no longer to meet;

• 1998-2009 is the time of PageRank. Google has implemented this algorithm to determine a site's ranking based on the number of links to it on the web. The instrument was also not completely clean. The one who spent more on buying links got to the top of search engines;

• Since 2009, SEO has required a lot more attention. Search engines declare war on links and introduce ranking factors. Due to the algorithm update, it is no longer enough to buy links and get leads. There was a need for high-quality content and the creation of a well-thought-out site structure;

• 2016 was the year the leading search engines launched a package of ranking algorithms. It became finally clear to the webmasters that they need to constantly determine which keys are most relevant, make the site more convenient, fill it with high-quality content, work on optimizing the code and improving the design.

The high speed of transformations in SEO allows us to conclude that it is necessary to track the latest news in the field of search engine promotion. This is the only way to count on high promotion efficiency.

How SEO works

As mentioned, SEO has two main components: internal and external. It is important that both are given sufficient attention, otherwise effective promotion cannot be achieved.

Internal optimization

As part of the implementation of this component of SEO, the condition of the site improves, and as a result, it moves up in the search engine results. For internal optimization, it is necessary to carry out the following work:

• select keywords that are suitable for the promotion of your resource and compose a semantic core from them;

• fix technical errors, including in the code, increase loading speed and get rid of broken pages;

• optimize images placed on the site so that pages load faster;

• improve the usability of the resource (usability). Webmasters tend to undeservedly ignore this aspect of optimization. But today it is not enough to hastily prepare a landing page; attention is required to the visitor's comfort and design. So, for example, it is better to make the buttons not angular, but rounded. As the research results show, users click on them many times more often, and this is an important conversion factor;

• optimize the structure of the site (make its map);

• to carry out linking (using reciprocal links to link the pages of the resource);

• work on description, title and headings in H1 – H6 format.

There is a little secret. Images for placement on the site can be optimized using Photoshop tools. Select "Save for web" from the menu, and this will save you two problems at once:

• the volume and weight of the image will decrease;

• the color scheme will be corrected and the display on the monitor will be improved.

External (link) optimization

Ten years ago, such optimization consisted only in the accumulation of links, but now much more careful and delicate work is needed with the use of new tools that meet the requirements of search engines. Only the goal has not changed - to gain link mass. As part of external optimization, the following works are carried out:

• content is prepared and posted that can interest users. They will spread information and thereby increase the number of links on the Internet;

• the site is registered in specialized directories. When choosing such sites, you should give preference to those that are not too spammed and relevant in the subject;

• links are posted in web 2.0 media. We are talking about platforms on which users can post their content, usually created by themselves. These are, for example, Yandex.Zen, Wikipedia, TZ and vc.ru;

• the resource is actively popularized through thematic blogs and forums.

Taking these measures, it is possible to analyze in parallel how competing resources are untwisted. It's worth doing this on a monthly basis.

SEO optimization techniques

In the process of search engine optimization, white, gray and black methods can be used. This is a rather conditional qualification, since if you abuse the white technique, search engines can recognize your behavior as black optimization and punish it for it. Any deception is suppressed, which is why conscientious SEO specialists and marketers prefer to follow the prescriptions of search engines. They choose honest methods of building the "right" sites and do not break the established rules.

White optimization

It includes improving the site: its design, usability, content quality. Optimization by mentioning the resource in various press releases and reviews is also considered white. An important direction of honest promotion is also the adaptation of the resource for mobile devices, since today there is an intensive redistribution between desktop and mobile search traffic in favor of the latter. The listed actions have nothing to do with the algorithms of the search engines, and the average user does not notice them. He sees only a site filled with high-quality content that is convenient to use, and when he hits it, there is no feeling of rejection.

Gray optimization

In this case, SEOs are already using some tricks. The texts posted on the site include specially selected keywords, which can be searched by potential clients. Such requests may not look very natural, so the copywriter should try to write the most organic text that can interest the reader. In this case, you must adhere to strict rules regarding the relationship between keys and the total size of the text. Such techniques are used as entering keywords in alt, H1, meta description, title, etc. This is not welcomed by search engines, but there is practically no punishment for such actions, so there is no need to fear. The main thing is not to overuse gray-scale optimization. Those who want to master such techniques can be given a few tips:

• choose the right keywords. It is important that they are medium and low frequency (up to 10 thousand per month);

• make sure that the copywriter has prepared high-quality texts and at the same time the necessary ratio between keywords and the total volume is observed, the content is unique and with a low level of academic nausea;

• do not let the texts turn into a disjointed set of keywords with constant repetitions. Search bots will immediately notice the catch. Phrases like “buy a microwave for Peter” that are found throughout the text sound clumsy and signal that you have cheated.

Black optimization

This kind of SEO is completely illegal and punished by search engines. An example of black promotion is the creation of doorway sites that are optimized for one request in order to become the leaders in search results. Another technique is cloaking, the essence of which is to show the robot one resource, and the user another, with completely different content. Unauthorized parasitism on someone else's popular resource is especially destructive and dangerous. They hack him and place numerous links to their site. Creation of satellites is also a method of black optimization. These are many small sites with links to the resource that is being promoted.

The practical side of SEO

We figured out the theory in general terms, and now it's time to move on to practice. Next, we will consider where to order search engine optimization for your site, how to properly control the work of SEO specialists and what tricks you can use.

SEO selection

When you are looking for someone to entrust the promotion of your site, the main thing is to remember that this work should be done by a good team or specialist. There are several ways to find them and arrange cooperation. Some people prefer to open a SEO vacancy and take him to the state. This option is chosen, as a rule, by managers who think narrowly and do not see the overall picture of the company's work. Their main argument is that the full-time specialist will work exclusively on the project of his employer. But there are a number of negative consequences of such a decision.

• You need to spend a lot of money on the maintenance of SEO. In Moscow, the average salary of such a specialist is 100 thousand rubles. If you work in another city, you will have to pay less, but there is a risk of losing a specialist who may find a job in the capital or decide to work remotely. Having such a position, he can afford to give up office work.

• Contributions to the Pension Fund, compulsory health insurance, etc. add about 30% to expenses.

• A full-time employee needs to equip a workplace, provide an opportunity to work out in a gym, provide food and a lot of other "rugs".

• If the SEO works in the state, he is entitled to paid leave and sick leave.

All of the above allows us to conclude that hiring an SEO specialist can only be beneficial to a reputable company, for which the costs of maintaining it will not become an unbearable burden. If you have a small-scale business, it is better to choose one of these options. To solve simple tasks, you can use the services of a freelancer. He will quite cope with the selection of requests that are suitable in frequency and will prepare texts by entering keys in them. If you need comprehensive highly qualified assistance, it is better to contact the agency. In most cases, they are engaged in SEO-promotion in a complex, and the package of services costs several times less than the content of a SEO in the state. Costs for ordering high-quality search engine promotion in Moscow are from 45 thousand rubles. monthly,

Optimization process control

Having determined the amount of work needed and choosing a SEO, you need to let him know that the solution to the tasks set will be controlled. Specify the frequency of submission of reports on the work done (once a week or a month) and be sure to analyze them. To control the SEO to be really effective, we recommend following these recommendations:

• watch for changes in the position of site pages for key queries from the semantic core. They may not immediately reach the top, but the promotion should be clear;

• with proper optimization, the role of traffic coming from organic search results grows;

• watch your link building build. It's good if you have access to your personal account on the exchange where the links were bought. In it you can make sure that the purchased links are there and they are permanent;

• it is also important to control the visibility of the resource in search engines, to estimate the number of search queries, in response to which your site is displayed in the search results. You can use Rush Analytics or Serpstat for this.

For the listed indicators, you can ask for reports from the SEO specialist whom you entrusted with the campaign. If your website is optimized by an agency, reporting issues are specified in the contract.

To make it easier for you to control your contractors, we will decipher some of the professional terms used by SEOs. You should keep an eye on metrics such as academic nausea, originality, and keyword ratios, so these are the terms that will be discussed later.

• Academic nausea is the level of richness of your text with keys. This indicator reflects the naturalness of the content and optimization for key queries. To check it, you can visit the website advego.ru. Nausea should not be higher than 9%.

• Originality. Its percentage demonstrates how unique your content is. The optimal indicator is not less than 90%.

• Key ratio. The words that are used most often should not exceed the specified number (the maximum rate is 5%). To determine the percentage of this ratio, you need to divide the number of repeated words by the total number of words in the text and multiply by 100%.

And one more tip: control the absence of errors in the texts (spelling, grammatical and semantic). There are tools for this on text.ru.

Bonus - SEO tricks

Concluding the story about SEO, one cannot but recall some of the tricks of professional SEO. Not everyone is familiar with these techniques, so you won't have much competition.

• Islands with content. When difficulties arise with the promotion of a site in search engines, you can use other opportunities to become the leader of the issue. Create a YouTube channel or social media group. Search engines index them on a par with sites, and there is a good chance of getting to the top. The fact is that when starting a search, they try to show the user at least one link to a social network.

• Extend your domain to 3 years. This will increase the trust of search engines to your resource.

• Mark your company location on search engine maps. Search engines promote their services, and this should be used.

• Include a search term on your site. Ideal if the URL will be your main target request.

• Post a privacy policy on the site. Its presence demonstrates your concern for user rights.

There are a lot of such tricks. Some of them can play an important role in the promotion, while others will be ineffective. Monitor search engine recommendations for updates and consult with your experts.