If you’ve been on any small business forums you will have heard people talking about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SEO terms like backlinks. While you’re probably in agreement that SEO is important, you might not be quite so clear on exactly why it’s important; and just what a backlink is, anyway?
Why Is SEO Important?
SEO is anything that you do to improve your pages’ ranking in Google. Most people will only look at the first page of results that are returned from a search, so if you want your site to be seen it’s imperative that you get it onto that front page and ideally in the first one or two results.
Although it takes time and sometimes money to optimize your web page it will ultimately save you money. Inbound, warm, leads like from SEO cost 61% less than outbound leads like cold calling.
A good quality website full of content that is relevant and helpful to your audience will not only build your trust with Google, leading to higher rankings, but it will build your customer base’s trust in you as well.
On- and off-page SEO
You can carry out activities both on and off your website to improve your SEO. For example, one aspect of on-page SEO means concentrating on the keywords you use. This means that when you write an article for your site, you ensure that the keywords and phrases that your customers will actually be searching for are included within the text so that your article is returned from a search before other similar articles. To do this effectively you need to try and use language that your customers would use when writing for your site, and avoid technical jargon. You can also carry out research on which keywords are being the most frequently searched for to give you inspiration about content that is likely to be popular. It’s up to you to decide which tool you use for researching keywords, but it’s worth trying SEMRush for keyword research if you have the budget.
In a similar way, the URL that you give your site is important. It is important to use a keyword that your audience will relate to.
Off-page SEO is anything you do to promote your page and improve your ranking that doesn’t directly take place on your page. For example, you might use social media to promote your page, or you might use backlinks.
What is a backlink and why are they important?
A backlink is a link to your website from another website. For example, a food blogger might include a link to a useful resource about a particular ingredient as part of an article.
You could consider hiring an agency like Click Intelligence to work on your backlinking strategy. They will carry out thorough research into your industry, and get backlinks placed on the sites that are most likely to build your authority.
Backlinks are important because they build your authority with Google. If you have multiple links from sites that are already trusted by Google, this will build up how much you are trusted by Google. Conversely, if you are mostly linked to by sites with a low authority then this can negatively impact you, so doing your research when working on backlinks is very important.
