When it comes to digital marketing, one of the pillars of a successful strategy is online visibility – you can’t advertise something that no one can see. To get your product or service out there, you need SEO. So, what is SEO in digital marketing? Be sure to stick around and find out – we’ll break down the basics in this post and help you start the journey to high rankings on search result pages.
SEO in digital marketing stands for search engine optimization. Marketing professionals use a set of techniques to boost the website’s visibility on SERPs (search engine result pages) and ensure its content is easy to find. Better ranking on result pages translates to more clicks, leading to more users purchasing a product or service offered by the website in question.
What Is SEO in Digital Marketing?
When you’re a digital marketing specialist, one of your main goals is to get people to your website. This may sound difficult if you don’t know where to start, but when you grasp the concept of SEO, things become a lot easier. What SEO means in digital marketing is search engine optimization. This is a set of various practices that are created to improve the ranking of web pages in search results.
But what is digital marketing in SEO terms exactly? Optimization covers several things, the most important ones being the technical aspects of a website, the relevance and quality of the content, and the links on the page.
Although there are many search engines out there, in this text we’ll stick to talking about Google – it’s by far the most popular one. However, you need to know that search engine optimization isn’t restricted to appealing to Google algorithms, or even search engines – these advertising techniques can be implemented in social media as well. Therefore, the perfect combination for any small business out there is optimizing your website and social media profiles.
Types of SEO – Technical, On-Page, Off-Page, and Local
If you want optimization to be a strong asset for your website, you need to cover all the bases, starting from technical optimization. The website should be easily discovered – as SEO specialists would say, it should be easily crawled and indexed by search engines. It’s crucial to offer a good user experience as well and ensure the pages load quickly.
On-page optimization refers to content creation. The content you put out has to appeal to both users and search engines. It should be relevant, well-written, and offer unique insights. Search engines, on the other hand, look for details such as meta descriptions, headings, keywords, and strong tags (among many other things).
Off-page optimization is what’s done outside your website. It’s essentially building credibility for your site – at the core of this is link building. Lastly, local SEO focuses on ranking in local search results. It’s primarily useful for businesses that are limited to certain geographic areas. They can benefit from practices such as local content or having a Google Business Profile.
The Importance of SEO in Your Digital Marketing Strategy
Why is SEO important? Its main focus is driving organic traffic to your website. The practices and techniques you implement help your pages rank higher – which in turn ensures more people click on them. The more users find your site, the easier it will be to get more customers for your product or service.
Everyone wants to rank on the first page of Google search results for their target keyword – you can imagine how many clicks that gets you! Still, the road to this goal is long and requires in-depth knowledge of search engine optimization. The more you learn, the better, but if you lack time or energy to figure out how SEO works, it’s best to enlist SEO marketing services from a professional SEO agency like our Made Online.
Why Paid Ads Can’t Replace Search Engine Optimization
Now, you must be wondering why you need SEO when you can simply pay to appear in the Google ads section of the result page. While pay-per-click has its role, it’s not the same as organic results. When people see that something is an ad, they are less likely to trust it – they will scroll down the result page and look for organic results – they have credibility. In simple terms, organic results have earned their place on the first page of Google. Plus, once you stop paying for an ad, it’s gone. The same can’t be said for pages that rank organically.
The Benefits of Search Engine Optimization
As you can guess by now, the benefits of SEO are endless. One of the best things about it is that it’s available to anyone – no matter how big your marketing budget is. This makes it an invaluable tool for small businesses that can’t invest too much in marketing. If your website is well-optimized, you can count on it to promote your business at all times.
While many may argue that SEO takes a long time to get results, the truth is that it will more than pay off – you can get a lot from a small investment. Search engine optimization is a long-term strategy and it helps you be seen, reach new markets, and stay one step ahead of your competitors.
How Do You Implement SEO Practices?
Google uses complex algorithms to rank pages for a specific search intent, considering numerous ranking factors when deciding what to put on the first page of results. The good thing is that you don’t need to understand algorithms – you just need to learn what ranking factors to pay attention to when optimizing your pages.
Make Sure You Create Quality Content That Is Relevant
Google’s main goal is to provide users with helpful information. That’s why it ranks content based on its relevance. However, this doesn’t mean simply showing a page that talks about what was typed into the search bar. The result page should not only be topically relevant but it also has to answer the user’s search intent.
The text has to not only be unique, but comprehensive and grammatically correct. It should cover the topic properly. Ask yourself – if you were searching for information on the topic, what would you want to know?
Pay attention to readability. Users are more likely to stick around and read something if it’s well-structured. Your text should have subheadings that break down the topic. Sentences and paragraphs shouldn’t be too long. Google likes to look for E-E-A-T signals – experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.
Pay Attention to User Experience on Your Website
When it comes to user experience, this is where technical SEO comes into play. The first thing users will notice is page speed – no one wants to waste time on websites that load slowly. Websites should have a structure that’s easy to navigate, and the site’s security is something that shouldn’t be overlooked as well. Lastly, don’t forget about mobile users – make sure your website is optimized to be mobile-friendly.
Assert Authority Thanks to Link Building
There are numerous signals off your page that Google uses to check if you’re a reliable source. One of them, an important ranking factor, is the number of backlinks. Those are links from other websites that lead to your page.
Backlinks show Google that you can be trusted – the more links your page has, the more confidence the search engine has in the page, which leads to higher rankings. To increase the number of backlinks, marketing specialists use link building, which covers several strategies. The most common ones include creating naturally linkable assets, broken link building, and guest blogging.
Search Engine Optimization Is a Long Game And You Must Have Patience
When you start optimizing your pages, it’s not unusual to expect huge changes will happen at once. Sadly, that won’t be the case – results will be noticeable only after quite some time, which means you’ll have to exercise patience.
Stay consistent and keep up the good work. Regularly monitor the website and fix the technical issues that may occur from time to time. Implement changes to reflect the new marketing trends and remove old content if you notice it’s outdated. Check your analytics regularly and assess the data to track performance – this will help you adjust your strategies.
Don’t Want to Do It on Your Own? Entrust Your Advertising Strategy to Our SEO Marketing Agency
If you’re developing a business and wish to improve your marketing efforts, investing in quality SEO services should be at the top of your list. Made Online is here to help – our professional SEO agency has years of experience and countless pages ranked on the first page of Google for various clients. Let us optimize your website and ensure you get the most out of everything digital marketing has to offer. Take a first step today – contact us, and we can discuss your advertising needs to curate the perfect strategy for your business.