FAQs about Search Engine Optimization or SEO
How do I get my company to the first page of Google?
That's a simple question that has two kinds of answers- a simple answer and a complicated answer. The simple answer is there are two ways to get to the top of search engines like Google-
- Relevancy- the content on the web page matches what the searcher is looking for.
- Authority- search engines trust the website more than similar websites
How to get enough relevancy and authority can be complicated, though. Currently, the consensus among SEO experts is that Google uses about 200 "ranking factors", or ways to determine their opinion of those two attributes and rank a website. So, the complicated answer is far beyond the scope of this FAQs page, but we'd be happy to discuss.
Why is SEO important?
If you are in business, SEO is essential. A business owner can think the internet is unimportant to his or her business because he or she gets few leads from the internet. However, that could be a dangerous illusion as it could well mean that the lion's share of searchers are going to a savvy competitor's website instead. Here are a few things to consider:
- There are 40,000 Google search queries every second.
- There are 1.2 trillion searches per year worldwide. Click here to better visualize what these numbers mean
- People actively using a search engine to find a product or service are more likely to be in a state to buy than people using social media, who are more likely to be looking to connect with others.
- People actively using a search engine to find a product or service are also more likely to be in a state to buy than people getting interrupted by an ad while reading news or watching entertainment.
Why is your rank on search important?
Because the top winners get essentially all the traffic. A recent study shows the number one position in a search gets 33% of the clicks, number two gets 18% of the clicks, and it quickly diminishes as you go farther down the page. So, nearly double the traffic and leads are obtained by ranking number 1 instead of number 2. A second page ranking means traffic from search could be essentially non-existent.
OK, I get it, it's important. So, back to how to get on top of the first page (now that I know that just being on the first page may not be enough). . . can I just pay you, or some other SEO company, some money to jump right to the top?
There is a way to pay money to jump immediately to the top, and that is pay-per-click marketing, or paid search. Sometimes that makes sense but understand the difference between paid search and organic search results: People trust organic search results more and are more likely to click on a natural search result that was earned rather than an ad that was paid for.
So I should go for organic search results instead of using paid search?
In most cases, yes, but paid search certainly has its place. In many cases, it makes sense to do a combination of both and use paid search to get a presence online in a category while the work it takes to get high organic search placement takes effect. Then you can reduce or eliminate the spending on pay-per-click. Something else to consider is that the type of content that tends to give people who click on paid ads the information they are looking for tends to be the same kind of content that helps organic search results. So, if you are go into the trouble of creating content that converts paid clicks into paying customers, why not aim for organic search from the beginning as well?
In general, the thing to remember is that organic search resulting from SEO gets more traffic and tends to be much less expensive per-click (and per customer!) than pay-per-click (PPC) marketing.
OK, I understand I need high organic search placement - so, how do I get that?
That's another answer that is both simple and complicated. The simple answer is to do three things:
- create web content that best answers the questions your best prospects ask search engines.
- make sure the technology your website uses supports that content getting indexed properly.
- promote that content to support its authority.
The complicated answer is in what it takes to make those three things happen at a higher level than your competitors' efforts. The 5th Level Web RIPE model is a pretty good guide for that.
So, can you help me?
Yes. Call us at 866-545-8530 or Click here to request a free consult.