Keywords. Analytics. Meta-somethings. Technical optimization. What do all these words mean, and why should you care? You have a business to run.
You should care because SEO services are all quiet but important ways to bring awareness to your products, services, and brand.
These are the behind-the-scenes to-dos that if you do not perform them well, can drive clients or customers away from your website and to a competitor who does care about improving these areas.
Business and the Value of SEO Services
The value of search engine optimization services is that it provides methods to improve your website and your web presence so that you may stand out from the competition.
SEO services provide two primary values: they help you deliver a site and products that your customers want, and they guide you to create the best website you can build.
However, SEO is more than just site traffic, rankings, and a great website.
It is also about building an overall online presence that takes into account changing search habits and makes your business available to your target market.
For example, users aren’t just searching the web. The use of smartphones for the past several years means that people are searching for businesses directly within apps such as Porch or Yelp.
Users are skipping the web completely.
In order for your business to survive, you need to be aware of and take advantage of these “mini-search engines” such as Yelp and Facebook, and users’ changing behaviors due to mobile technology.
SEO can be a frustrating proposition. It can take 4-6 months to see results on your site and bottom line from the efforts of SEO services that you purchase.
The engineers at Google and Bing are constantly updating their algorithms.
This means that strategies that worked well one month or for a few months may no longer be valid. Then, your SEO service provider has to tweak your site and online presence again.
Still, you have to engage in SEO services in order to stand out from your competition with an overall marketing strategy that incorporates your brand and brings awareness of who you are to potential customers and clients.
What SEO Services Provide to Your Business
First, read a few articles and understand the basics of SEO. You should have an understanding of what SEO is and is not.
You should know and understand the basic fees and deliverables for an audit, and what to expect with monthly maintenance fees and services.
If a company promises you overnight results, sever the relationship immediately. No SEO company with integrity can make a promise like that and deliver.
Get and Apply a Site Audit Before You Purchase SEO Services
Second, have an initial audit performed on your website. Implement the recommended changes as soon as possible, pending your budget.
Use the keyword research to build additional content that your users want and need. Iterate by monitoring your monthly analytics but give it 4-6 months before you make any substantive changes after the initial audit and implementation.
Improve the technical back end as much as you can, especially load speed and image optimization. (Large images slow down web page upload.) Make sure you are using a top quality theme, especially with WordPress installs.
Know There Are More Search Engines Than Google
Third, explore the non-web options for your brand, but only after you have your website optimized.
Take what you have learned from optimizing the website, and put your company out there. List yourself with Bing Places and Google My Business.
Examine social media user statistics to determine where your target market spends their time, and list yourself on that social media.
Twitter may be right for one business, but wrong for another. The same goes for LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram, Yelp, Porch, Etsy, YouTube, Periscope, MeerKat, a few other non-web sites that can help you build your brand off-website.
It is better to choose quality over quantity and spend time on 2-3 formats than it is to spread yourself thin across several social media offerings. Do not put the same material out on every social media site.
Users are savvy. They know when a post is unique or sent out across multiple formats.
If you want to drive engagement, be unique and careful in what you post online.
Find Your Niche
Fourth, make sure you are telling a story that appeals to your target market. If your product is aimed at entrepreneurs, know their pain points and find ways to solve their problems.
Be passionate about your product or service. That emotion will help you find your niche. Determine how you are different from your competitors.
What do you offer, what is special about you? If you sell insurance, for example, what makes you different from your competitors? Why should someone work with you?
If you cannot quite differentiate yourself just yet, then keep going. Get really, really good at what you do, and let those differences emerge on their own.
Keep Going
Fifth, do not be afraid to iterate. If what you are doing does not work or generate results, then try again. Make sure you are providing content that your users find engaging and useful.
Above all, choose quality over quantity.
People are overloaded with content and are constantly bombarded with information.
Take care, be mindful of people’s precious time, and deliver something of value that solves a problem…even if the problem is “only” needing to smile that day.
Conclusion
SEO services are a necessary and needed part of creating a cohesive online brand that brings clients and customers to your site to buy your services or products.
The implementation of the services can be time-consuming and detailed, but the purpose and end result is not.
You can simplify the services down to two primary values for your business: ensuring you are delivering what your client or customer wants and building a great website and online presence.
That’s it. The value of SEO services really can be summarized simply.
If you would like to work with me to get found online, please review my SEO services. I previously published this post on the value of SEO services for your business as a guest blogger on AskYvi.com on 5 May 2016.
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