SEO stands for search engine optimization, and it is significant in today’s digital marketing world. If you own a company in modern times, you should have a website. That being said, if you do not take time to optimize that website for search engines, then your site will not show up in search results. You might think it is not important because you only sell locally, but then how are new, local customers going to find you if you have no online presence? Overall, the point of SEO is to get listed at the top of search engine results for either the products you sell, your company name or your location. If you do not optimize your website, the likelihood of getting anywhere near the top of search results is slim. There are two types of SEO of which business owners should be aware: on-page and off-page. Business owners do not need to become web experts. However, they should know enough about SEO to ask their web company if they are doing everything they are paying them to do. What is on-page SEO? On-page optimization involves everything that is done to a web page to make it friendly for search engine bots. Search engines constantly look across the internet and scan websites for various factors that determine how they will be placed on search results pages. Another term for these bots is “spiders.” They periodically visit and see if there have been any changes to your website from the last time they visited. Here are a few tips that can be done to optimize on-page SEO: 1. Clean up your site’s web code to remove extraneous code that may slow it down. 2. Streamline how individuals can navigate the site. 3. Optimize your site’s title tags and meta descriptions. 4. Add high-quality and well-written content, not just boilerplate comments about your business. What is off-page SEO? Off-page optimization is not the code or content that you write but how other sources view your website. These can include social media links, testimonials on other sites for your business, and reviews left on Google or Yelp pages, among others. If search engines such as Google see your website and a competitor as being similar, the tiebreaker can often be which site is reflected better elsewhere. So, how can you affect your off-page SEO performance? 1. Have an active presence on social media. 2. Interact with reviewers and provide feedback on both positive and negative reviews. 3. Ask customers to review your products or offer a testimonial. 4. Have other reputable websites backlink to yours. SEO is not an exact science. Rather, it is an ongoing process that keeps your website active, relevant, and easily viewed on various devices. If you manage your website, you should take the time to learn about SEO and how you can utilize it positively. If you have a web company, ask them questions about how they are managing your website for SEO. After all, your business’s bottom line depends on it.
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