What is SEO or Search Engine Optimization?
SEO is the art, science, and game of increasing sales, leads, and web traffic by strategically ranking higher on internet search engine search results.
Many see SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, as a standalone strategy alongside other internet marketing methods like blogging, content marketing, email marketing, and social media. Yet, all those things both contribute to and can be optimized by SEO in various ways so they are intertwined.
So, rather than a standalone strategy, consider SEO more like a point of view. SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a frame through which we can look at and improve nearly everything we do to market on the internet.
SEO is a useful frame in that the “media pull”, the information demands of the marketplace of your potential customers on the internet, is largely through search engines. With more than a trillion searches a year, search engine traffic is a fire hose of prospects more likely to be in a buying state of mind than anywhere else.
And search engine traffic isn’t just composed of prospects in a buying state. The media pull is also composed of potential prospects in “research mode”. A shopper research study found 81% research online before making big purchases.
People go on social media to socialize. They read the news to stay on top of current events. They watch or listen to entertainment for fun or as a diversion. However, when they are searching with Google, and other search engines, they are likely to be ready to buy or ready to learn.
SEO can bring large gains in part because the few top positions in organic searches bring the lion’s share of the traffic: A 2013 study showed that the number one position in Google got 33% of the traffic. The second position got barely more than half of that: 18%. The results rapidly decline from there, with a best-case on the second page getting no more than 1%.
Click here to read our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Search Engine Optimization.
Our experience as a Charleston SEO firm is that every situation is different. There is no "one size fits all" approach for the best search engine optimization. Sometimes we can do some technical fine-tuning and make a big difference in search traffic. More often, we find the best approach is fully integrated: There are opportunities for symbiosis between content marketing, email marketing, and social media marketing that enable getting the SEO that gives our clients the strongest possible flow of web traffic, leads, and new customers.
SEO benefits from a fully integrated web marketing approach.
Getting strong search engine placement is largely dependent on distinctive, original content. This content, whether it be blog posts or website copy, should be responsive to the keyword research required of SEO. Keyword research discovers the words and phrases your best potential customers use to search on Google and other search engines for products and services like your company sells. The keywords discovered help guide the planning of the content.
Search traffic also depends on what we call "inbound links". Inbound links are the hyperlinks from other websites to your company's website and other web media. In addition to sending people to your website directly, the number and quality of these links is a "ranking factor" in that they have a strong impact on the website's placement in search results. Social media is a great way to propagate the content using strategies that encourage the right sites and people to link to that content, whether it be landing pages on the main website, or posts on your blog.
Email marketing and blogging also play off each other, with the blogs providing content for email newsletters that drive more traffic back to the blogs. The interplay of this traffic can be managed to also supports strong search traffic results.
If you are interested in finding out what our whole-system SEO approach can do for your company, we'd love to talk! Reach out for a free consultation by calling us at 866-545-8530 or clicking through to our contact page