A Beginner’s Guide To Understanding SEO

When starting a business there are so many different variables that you have to think about. Your company name, what your company structure will look like, the services or products you will provide, your ideal customer, what prices you need to be offering, office space, equipment, the list goes on and on! One thing that sometimes falls to the backburner is what efforts you want to make for your business in the digital marketing space. With so many moving parts that fall under digital marketing, where should you focus your energy when you’re starting out? At Nick the Marketer, a company that specializes in SEO in Birmingham, AL we recommend doing as much as you can to help your SEO efforts. In the beginning, thinking about different ways to improve your SEO might be intimidating so it’s good to first understand what SEO is, how it works, and the different areas that we focus on for our clients when helping them start to turn clicks into customers!

What is SEO?

Before you can start ranking on Google, you need a basic understanding of what SEO is. According to the Wikipedia definition SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the process of growing the quality and quantity of your website traffic by increasing the visibility of your website or web page to users of a web search engine.

Why is it important?

Millions of people are using Google every day to search for products, services, recommendations, etc. About 65% of those people are more than likely going to click on the links on page 1 to find what they are looking for instead of spending hours upon hours searching through all the pages that come up with their result. This means that the more you’re found on page 1, the more traffic you’re going to get to your website. This is where SEO comes in! With the right use of SEO, your website can start to show up on page 1 of more and more searches which will drive that high intent traffic to your website. 

There are so many different aspects of SEO that can take years of practice to hone in on but, if you’re just getting started it’s a great idea to familiarize yourself with different areas of SEO and what you can do to start seeing your site rank through local SEO, mobile SEO, and organic SEO.

Local SEO

At Nick the Marketer, we believe that the most important place for your business to show up on Google Search is in the map 3-pack! The stats agree as well. When a local search is performed, over 70% of the clicks come from within the map 3-pack as users are more likely to choose a business ranked in the map 3 pack as they perceive these businesses to have more credibility and relevance. Gaining one of these coveted 3-pack positions can be a big task but if you have some technical ability, you can get the job done! If not, it might be best to hire a professional.

Mobile SEO

We bet that there’s a good chance that you’re currently reading this on a mobile device like your cell phone or tablet. As of February 2020, Google has transitioned and fully embraced mobile-first indexing as the future of digital search which is great considering that over 52% of global internet traffic occurred on mobile decides in 2019. This means that you’re going to want to make sure that your SEO is accurately optimized for mobile search.  Two important things we focus on when we help our clients with their Mobile SEO in Birmingham are having a mobile-first designed website and page speed. Mobile-first website design is important because while your website could look beautiful on desktop if it’s not mobile responsive, you’re going to lose the attention of your audience fast. The page speed of your website is everything when it comes to mobile users. When we are working on page speed for mobile devices, we focus on optimizing images, minimizing code, leveraging browser caching, and reducing redirects.

Organic SEO

Organic SEO requires a full, systematic approach but for basic understanding, it can be broken down into two separate categories: on-site and off-site SEO. Before you get started with organic SEO though, it’s important to research both your competition and the keywords you want to rank in. Researching your competitors correctly can help you learn from their mistakes and also see what they’re doing right. Understanding the keywords you’re wanting to focus on allows you to go in and focus on those keywords across all of the content on your page. Now that you’ve done your research you can begin the on-page and off-page optimization!

• On-Site

During on-page optimization, you’ll begin optimizing your website’s individual web pages so that you can begin ranking higher on Google. From rewriting content to include your keywords, correcting or updating your URL structure, adding meta titles and descriptions, alt tags, and the correct headings. This step is important for rankings so that Google knows exactly how to crawl your site and to be able to show users your content properly.

• Off-Site

The second part of organic SEO is off-site optimization! This includes everything that is done off of your web page. Some important things to focus on include directory listings, citations, and posting to social media. It’s also a great idea to write off-site/guest blogs to publish to different sites like niche-specific blogs, relevant news websites, forums, professional associations, and more!

We have simply just scratched the surface of everything that goes into optimizing your business’s SEO. Need help doing a deep dive into your business’s digital footprint? We can help! Our formulaic approach to SEO at Nick the Marketer ensures that your business generates traffic and turns your clicks into customers.