If you’re a business owner, you’ve probably heard the buzzword SEO before. But do you know what SEO is and why it is so important?
Well, this blog post helps to answer these questions and explains why you should implement SEO into your marketing strategy as a self-employed person.
What Is SEO?
SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimisation. It is the process of creating content in line with the search engine algorithm to help your chances of ranking high in the search engine results pages (SERPs). Each search engine considers different things into the algorithm that help contribute to ranking in their search engine. Google, Bing, Yahoo are examples of some search engines.
Why Is SEO Important?
As a self-employed person, having a website is essential. I always say this, and I’ll say it again; your website is like your digital shop where people can find all they need to know about your business.
However, in order to give your website the best chance of being found organically, through searches, you need to implement SEO strategies.
Important Aspects of SEO
Website referral search engines
Depending on the search engine you are using, there will be different aspects that play a part in your content ranking. However, for website referral search engines like Google, passive voice, active voice, website loading speed, are some things that impact your website ranking in search results pages.
Web design
As well as creating content, the way your website is built can impact your ranking factors on website referral search engines like Google. Page loading speed and an easy on the eye design are two aspects of this. For example, if your website takes a while to load and is difficult to navigate, visitors may not stay on your website for long. This can then cause a high bounce rate or low session duration on your site.
Bounce rates and session durations is a factor that Google takes into consideration when ranking sites.
So, first impressions count and having a professional-looking website that is SEO’d can affect your ranking on SERPs. Having a website designer or someone who is familiar with UX/UI design can help you with this.
Website referral and visual search engines
Visual search engines, like Youtube and Pinterest, do share some ranking factor similarities:
Keywords
Keywords remain a consistent ranking factor for all search engines. This is because users type in words on all of these platforms in order to search for what they’re looking for. So, creating content in line with keywords that are popular or in trend is a key part of SEO strategy.
Images
Pictures are also a factor in SEO strategy across many search engines. As humans, we are visual creatures and therefore images and videos are a great way to engage with your audience, whether on your website or Pinterest for example.
Make sure the images you use in your content are good quality, relevant to your content, and royalty-free. Websites such as Canva offer royalty-free images that you can use for blog posts and other content for your website.
What is the difference between Search Engines and Social Media platforms?
The difference between social media platforms and Search Engines is that search engines are geared more towards evergreen content. So, for example, on a search engine, if you create content that ends up ranking high on a results page, that content still has the possibility to keep that position for a long time after it was first created. Sometimes even years!
However, with social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, the algorithms are geared more specifically towards current content. So on pages such as the explore page or recommended posts, it is usually content that has been published more recently.
This is why, as a business owner, implementing SEO strategies is a good investment in the long term for your brand. You won’t have to keep maintaining a post once it is created in the same way where there is more of a demand to keep current and updated on social media. In many ways, SEO saves you time compared to social media. However, they should both be platforms you use to combine your marketing strategy. It should not be one or the other.
Google is the biggest search engine in the world. This may not be a surprise considering many use the term ‘search‘ to be synonymous with Google when saying ‘just Google it’.
As Google is one of the older and more experienced search engines, there are a few tools created to help with SEO.
YoastSEO is a plugin available on WordPress which guides you’re writing in line with SEO guidelines. It guides you via the traffic colours green, red and amber to help you have the best chances of ranking on website referral search engines.
Google Ads Keyword Planner is a tool I use for keyword research for my blog posts. As well as detailing the popularity of a keyword term, it also highlights the competition for people creating content targeted to that keyword through ads for example.
These tools have been a great help in implementing SEO into my content and I believe are what have helped some of my posts rank on the first page of Google. Plus, they are both free!
Ranking on google can take a while but the more you work at putting out quality consistent content for your audience, the better your chances are of getting seen!
Youtube
After Google, Youtube is the second biggest search engine globally. That’s bigger than Bing or Yahoo! Many YouTuber’s have become celebrities or influencers based on the following they have built and this, in turn, is reflected in their income.
Video is a very popular way of consuming content in 2020 and is still continuing to grow. Even more so than image consumption! Youtube titles, as with all SEO should be crafted in a way that makes the user want to click on it.
However, Youtube also has the added bonus of using an enticing thumbnail that hints more to what the video is about. Quality is key – make sure the thumbnail is clear and you can use some text overlay too, to emphasize the video topic.
Pinterest, like YouTube, is often viewed as a social media platform but is actually more of a visual search engine. It focuses mainly on static images but has started to include video pins too.
Many bloggers have found Pinterest to be a great avenue to gain traffic and through the short few months I’ve been building my Pinterest account by implementing SEO strategies, I have seen more traffic come through to my site than via Google in a short space of time.
Pinterest has recently included its algorithm to focus on fresh pins, as well as relevant pins, however, the evergreen content factor still currently remains a part of its SEO DNA.
Tailwind is an app I use to schedule my pins to help save time and it also has an embedded smart guide to help ensure your pins are in line with Pinterest SEO guidelines.
I hope this post has helped you better understand what SEO is and why it’s so important. Although there are different platforms using SEO strategies in their algorithm, you should always have a website, regardless. Check out this blog post for the website builder I use and why I recommend it.
