The Reasons why Search Engine Optimisation is such an Essential Element of Digital Marketing

We live in a competitive world where businesses have to redefine their strategy to sustain and achieve success. Thanks to the internet, people have more information and make choices after carefully evaluating brands.

The established and known brands still have a margin as people are familiar with them and buy the products or services. However, small and startup companies need a stellar marketing strategy to impress potential customers and grow sales.

What is Search Engine Optimisation?

As a startup business owner, you may have goals to increase potential audience, improve sales, look for long-term brand awareness, and grow revenue. The one tool that can make it all happen is none other than ‘Search Engine Optimisation, also popularly known as SEO.

In recent times, most people look to search for a product or service online before buying it. A credible and high-quality brand is one that ranks high on the search engine results.

Digital Marketing has several elements, which include content marketing, web design, email marketing, PPC (Pay per Click), Advertising, and SEO is also an integral part.

SEO aims to define, develop, and implement strategies to help your brand’s website become visible online and rank high on search results. According to research, almost 75% of online users only look at the first page and do not scroll down and click on other pages.

As an entrepreneur, you can have wonderful products on offer and the most stunning website design. However, if the website does not rank on the first page, potential customers may never find it. Even if you have limited marketing budget, then do not worry as Fire-Up Design is one web agency offering expert and affordable search engine optimisation service.

If the website ranks high on SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages), there will be a higher chance of people finding your brand and business. All over the world, people are doing thousands of searches at any given minute, which makes ‘SEO’ one of the primary functions of digital marketing.

The online search people make is often used to determine the digital traffic of brands, and those having bigger reach, better visibility, and high ranking are sure to find success than their competitors.

For example, your brand develops and sells skin care products primarily to reduce wrinkles and improve skin. You offer the products on the website and publish content such as blogs on skincare. By applying useful SEO practices, a person searching for a keyword ‘how to reduce wrinkles’ may get a chance to find the blog and your brand and even become a valuable customer.  

How can a Site be Optimized for Search Engines?

The most crucial aspect of managing tour brand in this digital age is ‘how to improve a website’s rank on SERPs.’

There are not one but dozens of search engine optimisation techniques to ensure high visibility and ranking of the website, such as

• Develop top-notch content that can answer the search queries of potential online customers
• Redesign the website to improve UX (User Experience) and allow easy site navigation
• Use backlinks so users can explore relatable content

Business owners need to know that SEO is a long-term strategy, and it will take time, but the results will be fruitful.

The Google ranking services use automated bots that review or crawl web pages and visit several websites to collect data and put it in an index. In simple terms, an index is like a big library, and it displays the web page with the information you are looking for. Apart from the bots, several algorithms help analyze pages in an index. The algorithms keep changing with advancements in technology and trends and determine which page needs to rank high for a particular search query.

The bots collect data to determine how significant or valuable a website is in giving exact results the online users are searching for. Unfortunately, one cannot pay search engines to get a higher ranking, so the SEO experts have to formulate certain plans to get website a higher ranking.  

• Developing and Publishing Quality Content

The pivotal factor that eventually leads to the top ranking on SERPs is original, trendy, and intriguing content. You may have heard the phrase ‘Content is King’, which truly holds firm when planning a SEO strategy.

The SEO team needs to highlight keywords that the potential audience will likely search. The goal is to publish content that can drive traffic and increase user interaction. The key is to determine how an online user may search for particular information, be it a product or service.

The standard practice is the single keyword for one webpage or multiple keywords that sound similar. However, completely different multiple keywords require a separate webpage each. Once keywords are decided, the next step is to use them in URL, page title, headings, sub-headings, or body of content. It is better to repeat the keyword twice and highlight it, but keywords should look fluent with the information written.

• Updating the Content Regularly

The one factor determining the relevance and authenticity of a website is how regularly the content gets updated. Several valuable online tools help audit the content and even suggest relevant changes to make content trendy and noteworthy from customers’ perspectives. The SEO team can ask the content team to write blogs that include potential keywords, and SEO experts can interlink the web pages.

• Using Metadata and Alt tags

Another vital part of the SEO process is taking maximum advantage of ‘Metadata,’ which displays the precise information of the query a person search for. The website’s web pages each have a certain space to put the metadata or information about the content on the page. The ‘Title Metadata’ displays the page titles and becomes noticeable on search results. The page title with keyword phrases ranks easily.

People today mostly look for images and video rather than reading elaborate content, which is why it is necessary to use ‘Alt Tags’ to describe media, whether it’s image or video. The Alt tags and alternative description enable the crawlers to locate a website page and index it.

• Attract Useful Links

Developing web pages that deliver notable and relevant information to online users can attract links from other websites, which can also improve the SEO of your website. Most amateurs tend to use ‘Click Here‘ banners which does not deliver results. Always try to use descriptive links and phrases that users are more inclined to search and read.

How to Set Up Search Engine Optimisation

Every business is different and will want to develop a marketing strategy relevant to its objectives and goals. The SEO strategy also differs from one business company to another. Numerous elements can be included or ignored when formulating an SEO strategy, but the two most crucial elements for success are ‘content quality’ and ‘keyword research.’

When we talk about ‘content,’ then it includes various elements such as

• Webpage Content
• Blogs
• Infographics
• Videos
• Social Media Posts
• Guides
• Podcasts

The SEO optimisation services help a brand develop content that is well-crafted, informational, relevant, and one that the reader feels connected to and can share online. On the other hand, keywords have always been the central part of SEO; however, today, the keywords need to be well-researched and suitable for relevant content that will be developed.

People mostly use keywords or phrases when searching online for particular products or services. Choosing the correct keywords will help potential customers know about your brand and its offerings. The SEO experts know they have to

• Use keywords that have a high search rate
• Include both short and long-tail keywords
• Add keywords based on location

The complete SEO process consists of certain activities that can be divided into

• Technical SEO

The first step does not involve content but focuses on technical details and configuration of web page settings, making it easier for bots to index the web pages. Without proper crawling and indexing, it will be difficult for the website to get high search rankings.

• On-Page SEO

The second step is ‘On-Page or On-site SEO’ and deals with the web page’s content. The goal is to integrate content and keywords to make the webpage more SEO-friendly. The crawlers do not read like we do and instead look for patterns such as website architectural structure, keyword placements, and internal links when analyzing the Seo-worthiness of particular webpage.

• Off-Page SEO

The third step, called ‘Off-Page SEO,’ emphasizes finding and implementing ways to promote the website and webpage content to get a high-ranking in the search results. One can determine the rank of the webpage in search results with the help of ‘backlinks. If the links come from a reliable and top-ranked websites, then it can help improve ranking. Some of the practices that under Off-Page SEO are guest blogging and publishing unique and interesting content that will get maximum shares from online users.

The Correct way to Place Keywords for Search Engine Optimisation

The algorithms of search engine platforms keep on changing, so the SEO practices delivering results two years ago might not be feasible today. The changes in algorithms call for organic SEO services that can help generate traffic and keep online users on particular web pages rather than driving them away.

An optimized website has the right ingredients to make it visible and rank higher. Also, the metrics or indicators support an optimized website, such as time spent by a user on-page and bounce rate.

One measure that your brand’s website is in the right direction is when the organic traffic and rankings increase. However, the common questions that most startup and small business owners ask is how to research and put keywords and develop content for the website.

As discussed earlier, the focus should be on one keyword per webpage that will be optimized. You can always complement the focus keyword with supported keywords. The list of places where the focus keywords need to be placed are

• Website’s URL
  • Title and Metadata
  • H1 Heading and Sub-headings
  • Alt tags and Image SEO
  • Content

The secondary or supported keywords can also be inserted in the Sub-headings, content, and alternative text. The SEO team should manage a ‘Spreadsheet’ to keep track of the keywords. Properly placing the keywords makes it easier for a web page to get the desired ranking when users search-relevant keywords.

Final Thoughts

SEO is an indispensable part of the holistic digital marketing strategy that helps a business get value and success amid a sea of online competitors. If you are an aspiring entrepreneur looking to focus on your core skills, you can allow an agency such as Fire-Up Design to develop and manage the SEO strategy.

Our SEO experts will develop a custom strategy purposeful for your brand’s website requirements. We have the secret formula when it comes to SEO and guarantee more conversions of visitors into loyal customers. Our skillful team will easily determine your website requirements and implement an articulate plan for your marketing campaigns, either organic or paid, and across all your social media platforms.