SEO is often blamed when your website isn’t getting you the results you expect and doesn’t get enough credit when things are going right.

Here’s a look as the vital questions you need to be asking about your SEO strategy.

4 keys to success in SEO:

1. Understanding SEO and what it actually does for your site
2. Knowing the value of SEO in your marketing budget
3. SEO research is key to putting your strategy on the right path
4. Understand how the three core components of SEO work to get your site ranked

What is SEO and why does it matter? 

First let’s define it. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of increasing the quantity and quality of a website’s non-paid (organic) search engine traffic by increasing the website’s search engine visibility.

SEO matters because if done well, it will be the largest traffic driver to your web experience.

It’s not just about increasing traffic, its also about not missing out on valuable customer conversion opportunities. Search engines are one of the primary ways users explore the internet, and if you aren’t optimizing your site for the highest possible search visibility, you could be missing out!

Here are some statistics that show how much SEO matters:

93% of all online sessions begin with a search engine.
Source: https://techjury.net/stats-about/seo/

75% of users never scroll past the first page of search results.
Source: https://www.imforza.com/blog/8-seo-stats-that-are-hard-to-ignore/

97% of search engine clicks are on organic search results.
Source: https://sparktoro.com/blog/seo-opportunity-growing-shrinking/

What is the value of SEO?

Here’s a quick example looking at a paid vs organic traffic ratio.

Let’s say Website A is spending $15,000 a month on a dedicated search campaign.

If their average cost-per-click (CPC) is $3.00, they are receiving approximately 5,000 clicks a month to their website. If paid traffic is 3% of total traffic on average, this means the entire site receives approximately 160,000 clicks per month.

If Website A deployed a paid campaign to generate the same amount of SEO traffic, the monthly cost campaign cost would balloon to $480,000 per month!

Investing fractionally in your SEO can return significant results.

What should I be doing for SEO research?

1. Keyword research – discover the terms that are most searched and produce the most clicks
2. Topic research – identify key topics that  user find useful in order  to optimize and develop
3. Competitor research- find out where your  competitors rank and  where you stand

There is an endless array of tools you can use to deep dive into these three research categories. Some of the tools we use are:

SEMrush (also offers free certifications SEO)
Google Analytics
Google Search Console
Screaming Frog

What are the three components of SEO?

1. On-Page SEO

2. Off-Page SEO

3. Technical SEO

These fundamental keys will help your SEO program find success.

It’s important to know that algorithms and updates happen frequently behind the scenes and these updates can impact some industries more than others.

SEO isn’t a one-time implementation that should be launched and forgotten, it must be continually reviewed and optimized to stay competitive in your space.

If you would like a free web health assessment of your site’s SEO, simply fill out the form below!