Why SEO is the Key to Internet Marketing

Last updated on March 13th, 2022 at 07:44 pm

As someone who is working diligently to establish an internet business, there’s no doubt you’ve heard the term SEO.  SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, has been considered one of the top elements of internet marketing since… well, since search engines became a thing!

The importance of SEO

But what all is included in the umbrella term SEO.  Surely everyone wants their business to rate highly on a search engine results page (or SERP).  When your page isn’t ranking as well as you’d like it to, you might think that you’re doing something wrong.  The truth is that someone might just have a more enthusiastic SEO marketing campaign than you do.  

The secret to successful SEO is being able to address all of the moving pieces of the process.  Some might even refer to it as an art form.  

So let’s take a look at what’s included in SEO, and what all of these parts and pieces do for you and your business.

What Elements Impact SEO?

When it comes to creating a website that will delight robo-crawlers and climb search engine rankings, there’s a lot of different bits and pieces that go into the overall results.  Some of these elements rely on each other, and bounce off of each other.  Whenever you’re looking at improving your site’s ranking, make sure you’re looking at it from the perspective of each of these elements, but also as a whole.  We’ll provide some examples.

The first thing that probably comes to mind when you think of SEO is “keywords”.  For years, business owners and marketing professionals have had it drilled into their heads that the right saturation of the right keywords is the ultimate goal towards putting your site into that number-one slot in SERPs.  

Today, we realize that there’s a lot more to that key placement than just keywords, but they still matter, very much.

The keywords you use in your site can’t just be a mish-mash of every word you can find that relates to your product or services.  Instead, you must carefully research long-tail, short-tail, and local keywords. 

An example

For example, if you sell socks made from Peruvian alpaca wool, you would look at short-tail words like “socks”, or “alpaca”.  You could use long-tail phrases like “alpaca wool socks for sale” or “buy alpaca wool socks”.  You can also include the location, such as “Peruvian alpaca wool socks” or “wool socks from Peru”.

Again, you don’t want to just jump in with related terms, however.  There are many SEO keyword resources available that can help you rate and gauge all of the words and phrases you choose.  

Additionally, you don’t want to saturate your page with a nonsensical word salad of loosely gathered keywords.  We’ll discuss content in a minute, but just consider how you would react if you were to click on a website only to find long-tail and short-tail gibberish?

Off-Page SEO is another technique that can assist in the process of landing you that number one slot on the SERPs.  This technique starts with backlinks, which are links to your site from other people’s sites.  Having multiple backlinks from trusted sites lets the crawlers know that your site is reputable and has authority within your niche, and will result in a higher ranking.  

But Isn’t Content King?

Content and SEO exist both apart and together, which makes the concept a little complicated sometimes.

As we alluded to earlier, your use of keywords has to make sense.  And that means your content has to be informative and entertaining while still containing an adequate saturation of keywords.

However, don’t think you have to write a blog post that oozes keywords.  You can include these words and phrases in your page content, product descriptions, videos, infographics, social media postings, and more.

The goal is to create a fully-functioning, valid, attractive site that people want to visit.  The more visitors you have, the more of an authority your page is, and the higher the bots will rank your efforts.  Better content also attracts backlinks.

You’ll also want to make sure the UX design of your site is functional.  You want pictures that load quickly.  You want intuitive steps, with buttons and links that go exactly where people want them to go.  And eventually, a check out process that is super fast and friendly.

All of these steps will make visitors feel comfortable with your site.  You need a site that builds trust with your audience.  As a result, they’ll keep returning, and you’ll find your pages climbing the SERPs.

What SEO Can Do for Your Business

The goal of SEO is visibility.  The higher your page ranks on the SERP, the more likely you are to get clicks and traffic.  More traffic to your site increases the odds of a conversion.  And more conversions means a better likelihood of repeat customers and an higher customer lifetime value.  

Search engine optimization will lead to a higher ranking on search engine results pages, which enables searchers to find it more easily.  

Additionally, the higher you rank, the more trust and authority you’ll have with your current customers.

Another example

Imagine you’ve come across an ad for “Really Cool Looking” brand Peruvian alpaca wool socks.  They look really neat, but you don’t have the chance to really explore them right now. Later, you want to take a closer look, but you only remember that the business had “Cool” in it, and that the socks were made of alpaca.  You type “cool alpaca socks” into Google, and three pages later, you find the “Really Cool Looking” site.  

First, are you really going to take the time to search through three pages?  And are you going to feel comfortable buying from a page with such little authority?

These are the reasons why SEO matters.  You want your page at the top to attract attention and help your visitors believe in your business, your product, and you, as a merchant.

Search engine optimization can be a tricky process, but one that is absolutely necessary to gain the traffic you need to keep your business running. 

Check out our related articles for SEO programs that can help you gain firmer ground in the process, as well as how you can score quality backlinks to help you with the process of climbing to the top of the charts.