Why understanding SEO is important for any business owner

SEO, or search engine optimisation, is now a crucial, yet pretty easy-to-understand marketing tactic for any business owner. 

In the past, businesses may not have known as much as they should about SEO, but in a modern-day business world dominated by technology, having even a basic understanding of SEO is crucial for success.

There are many ways to understanding the various different elements of SEO, but the more basic, and probably most important, can be categorised as follows:

Keyword research

First and foremost, keyword research is one of the biggest SEO tactics out there. Whether it’s writing articles, website copy, or product descriptions, you always want to know the best range of keywords you can use for your brand.

As you can imagine, SERPs, or search engine results pages, are endless, but it’s on the first page where you really want to be. Of course, the secret to bagging a top spot in the SERPs is investing money into PPC advertising, and lots of it. However, for organic SEO tactics, keyword research is vital.

Start by shortlisting around 10 keywords you want to use for your product or site. Then, using a keyword rank checker (you can get some free ones through Google), you can determine which have the most hits per month. If your keywords are all extremely high, bear in mind the market is a lot more saturated, so you may want to go slightly more unique to get the best results.

Social integration

Having basic SEO knowledge is just as important as social media knowledge – both are powerful marketing tools and a must-have for any modern-day business.

Ensure your social media channels and content align to the keywords and messaging used on site and use link-building tactics such as driving traffic from posts (Facebook carousels are best at doing this), comments to your customers, and your bios.

Managing expectations

Of course, just including a few keywords isn’t going to get you onto the first page of Google overnight, so it’s important to manage expectations. Success will also come over time, so ensure your SEO strategy has been either developed or checked by a professional in the industry to get the best results on a timescale to suit you.

Tracking results

Google Analytics is a magical tool – allowing you to track everything and anything visiting your site. Use Google Analytics to track the number of users into your site (sessions), as well as bounce rates, which tell you if something is causing people to drop off, such as slow loading times or even un-appealing landing pages. You can also set up Goals within Google Analytics, tracking who completes an action, and from here, the destinations they go on to on your site.