The Importance of SEO for Online Businesses

SEO has never been more essential for an online business than it is today. The amount of competition in the cyber world is insane. And the competition is not just among the brick and mortar businesses, it had spread over to the internet based businesses. The most competitive businesses I’ve seen are the digital media agencies in Toronto

If you don't utilize the power of SEO, your business will be lost in the void of the internet. You need to use it to keep up with and eventually pass your competition.

In this article, we'll explain the basics of SEO as well as the main benefits it provides your online business. If you would like to learn how to stay ahead of your competition and dominate the online business world, then read on!

What is SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. The basic purpose of SEO is to rank up your website to appear closer to or on the first page of a SERP. (Search Engine Results Page)

Generally, businesses focus their attention on Google search results as Google holds more than 75% of all searches on a daily basis. An SEO specialist will use a combination of web design improvements and keyword application to your website to improve your SEO ranking.

Google does periodic website checks using a specific algorithm. Google bots will crawl through your website and check various aspects of your website, including the following:

1. Content Optimization (Headings, Sentence Structure, etc.)
2. Keyword Density
3. Interlinks
4. Backlinks
5. Ease of Crawlability

After checking all of these and some other factors, Google will give you a score and rank you against other sites using the same keywords. You will then be given a specific rank for each let word based on your score against your competitor's scores.

Benefits of SEO for Your Brand and Website

1. Increased Traffic to Your Main Website

The better your rank gets, the more traffic you will connect to your website. As you climb the ranks and reach pages closer to the first page with each keyword, more people are likely to find your link and connect to you website.

On top of that, the traffic that you will gain is within your target audience. Your target audience are those individuals that you expect will be interested in your products or services. Since the people clicking on your links we're searching the keywords that you are focusing on, it stands to reason that your brand should fit what they're looking for.

As you gain more traffic from your keywords, your score will improve, bringing you even closer to page 1. When you hit page 1 (meaning you're now ranked in the top 10) you get a huge boost of traffic as almost everyone who searches that keyword will at least notice your brand.

2. Improved Brand Awareness

As more people connect to your website and try out your products or services, more people will be aware of your brand name. The best thing an online business can accomplish is to reach the point where your brand awareness is so high that people tend to search specifically for the brand rather than finding you through keywords.

You will still need to utilize SEO even when this happens in order to stay on to of your competition. However, it is a huge help and unlocks even more potential customers.

3. Opportunity to Enhance Your Company's Reputation

Now that your brand is quite well-known, you have a better chance at boosting your reputation. Obviously, your products or services need to be excellent and efficient for your customers so that they'll like them.

If most of your customers appreciate your products or services, they'll be more inclined to leave positive reviews and spread the good word of your brand around the world.

Eventually, you can reach a point where your customers do most of your advertising for you! Again, you still need to stay on top of everything no matter how popular you get, but reaching this point is a great achievement!

Have You Applied SEO to Your Online Business?

If you haven't optimized your website and set up a means to obtain excellent scores on Google yet, you should do so today! There are plenty of SEO specialists out there these days.

Get out ahead of your competition today. SEO takes a long time to get you to rank 1 so don't waste any more time. Get started now!