SEO has been the talk of the digital marketing world for a few years now. Proper SEO practices have made a huge impact and led to the success of many small businesses and large corporations around the world. People just can’t seem to shut up about it, but why? 

First off, what is SEO?

Search engine optimization basically means increasing the amount of traffic to your website. Not only is quantity of visits increased, but the overall quality of the website is improved as well. Proper SEO ultimately leads to most exposure for your brand – it is what gets your name out there. 

But SEO is not just about the search engine as a lot of people assume. It is about researching your target audience and understanding what these people are searching for when they open the page to Google. What words are they typing into the search bar, what are they hoping to find, and what information do they find valuable? These are all vital aspects of SEO. 

Focusing on Organic Search Results

There are two main types of web searches: paid and organic. Most web traffic is conducted through what is referred to as organic searching. An organic search happens when you enter a random word or phrase into the search engine, hit enter, and see what comes up. You are in search of some sort of information, and Google will do its best to organically give you the answers you’re hoping for. 

Since most web users are searching for things organically, you should stop focusing on paid advertising and start focusing on optimizing your site for organic web searches. The best way to do this is research the words relating to your service or product that people often use to perform the search. This is called keyword research and keyword optimization. 

Why is SEO So Important?

We’ve already mentioned the significance of organic web searching, but how can SEO help? Search engines like Google are actually extremely intelligent. They use special algorithms to produce results that make sense and will actually be considered valuable to the searcher. When you properly use SEO, it is as if you are delving into the “brain” of the search engine. 

It is as if Google is the popular girl at school and you are trying to get the first invite to her party. The more you do to make Google like you, the higher you’ll be on the guest list. You’ll get Google to like you by producing valuable content, utilizing keywords properly, incorporating useful links. All of these practices fall within the concept of search engine optimization. 

How to Get Started

In all honesty, SEO can be very time consuming. If you are trying to do it yourself, you might want to reconsider. Of course you can make simple changes to your website in order to optimize it better, but things like creating content and link building (we won’t even get into that now) should be left to the professionals. 

You can start your SEO quest by contacting an agency that specializes in digital marketing – there are plenty to choose from since SEO services are in such high demand these days.