Your Web design shop has just finished building a website for your business, and now you are thinking that you are ready to take on the online realm by storm with your products or services.
But not just yet.
In order to take full advantage of the powerful tool that is your website, you need to promote it and make it more visible to potential customers. And the best way to do that is through search engine optimization or SEO. But isn’t SEO dead?
Indeed, SEO has undergone several massive changes over the years. Many experts have rung the death knell for it and yet SEO remains relevant more than ever. If you are still sitting on the fence about investing in SEO, here are some reasons why you should implement SEO tactics and strategies.
First, SEO has been proven time and again to deliver results. And from the looks of it, SEO will remain a steady fixture when it comes to generating organic website traffic. Sure, there are other ways to generate website traffic, but when you compare SEO with other tactics and strategies, you can get the best value for your money through SEO. Finally, a lot of other businesses in your industry are using SEO to gain an upper hand over other players, and if you do not invest in SEO, you are essentially compromising the competitiveness of your business.
The tactics and strategies used in SEO will always change, but the fundamentals won’t. If you are investing in SEO, it is imperative to build a solid foundation first. Here are some of the key areas to focus on when starting out.
Build the right foundation
Before promoting your website, through SEO, PPC or social media, you need to build the right foundation. That means investing in the information architecture, using the appropriate infrastructure and publishing good content.
A few do’s and don’ts
Search engines give higher rankings to websites and content based on relevancy. But how is relevancy determined? Relevancy is measured using a few factors including the website’s content, website performance (loading speed), authority and user experience.
In the same vein, search engines penalize websites that use tactics like keyword stuffing and purchased links. Your website can also perform poorly, in terms of search engine ranking, if users have a difficult time navigating it.
Keyword optimization
Keyword optimization is one of the crucial ingredients for SEO success. However, it is important to note that businesses should also use keyword optimization across other platforms including social media networks and even offline platforms.