You may already know that SEO stands for “search engine optimization,” but you may not know how it fits into your overall marketing strategy or when to expect results. That’s OK! SEO is an often misunderstood marketing channel that many businesses know they need, but aren’t necessarily clear on. At GTU, we love that most of our clients know they need SEO, but we also want to make sure that they understand the value of SEO and have a high-level understanding of what’s involved.
Let’s start off with the basics of what SEO actually is.
What is SEO?
Simply put, SEO is the process of making sure that users searching for your product(s) or service(s) can find your brand on Google and other search engines. SEO is getting your brand in front of the right audience and at the right time- when they are searching. SEO focuses on “organic search results,” which are the unpaid website listings that appear in the search results pages (SERPs). When your website or Google Business Profile shows up in the SERPs, that search engine has algorithmically determined that your brand is relevant to what the user is looking for. And after all, the service that search engines provide to their users are results most closely related to what a user is searching for.
SEO is the process of optimizing a website for search engine crawler access
The first job of an SEO expert is to ensure that your website can be accessed by search engine crawlers. If a search engine can’t access the content of your website or understand the basic components of your website elements, it can’t determine what searches your website is relevant for. What good is a beautiful website if no one can find it? That’s why we look at over 60 factors that impact search engine access when we do an initial Technical SEO Audit. We then get to work making sure that search engines can properly access your content and that we are “communicating” clearly with search engines about your brand.
SEO is the process of optimizing a website for query relevance
Generally speaking, the next job of an SEO expert is to ensure that your website is optimized for the keywords that you want to rank for. This involves a lot of research! We need to get to know you and your brand, your competitors, what phrases users are actually typing into search boxes to find your products/services, and then we create a custom strategy to get those target keywords incorporated onto your website in a meaningful way.
SEO is the process of analyzing web data to provide actionable recommendations which improve performance
Search engine optimization is an iterative process, meaning that often we need to implement, test, measure, and then adjust. How do we test and measure? An SEO expert has a wealth of tools at their disposal, but Google Analytics and Google Search Console are the most valuable because what better way to understand how users are finding and interacting with your website than the world’s top search engine? We review the data collected by these tools constantly so that we can make adjustments that we expect to improve performance.
SEO is creating valuable content
There used to be a saying in SEO that “content is king,” but over time, many marketers mistook this adage to mean that any content is valuable- and a lot of it. In recent years, a more valuable and true saying is that “context is king.” SEOs strive to aid in the creation of content that actually provides real value to users at every stage in the buying cycle. Whether a user is in the research phase of a purchase, or ready to buy- an SEO expert understands the language your potential customers are using to find you.
To a certain extent, SEO is making educated assumptions and calculated speculation
No one becomes an SEO expert overnight! Search engines often “tell” website owners what they would like to see from websites, but they usually don’t give away their secret sauce. Google gives us a lot of direction by way of SEO Best Practices, but it certainly doesn’t lay out the nuts and bolts of how each of the over 200 ranking factors work together in the algorithm- that’s for us as an SEO community to figure out with a lot of reverse engineering. It has been said that SEO is part art and part science. The science part is knowing how crawlers access web pages, and the art is putting our experience and knowledge to work to make educated guesses.
What SEO is NOT
SEO is not a LOT of things, but there are some common misconceptions we hear sometimes from clients new to SEO. We will address some of those misconceptions below.
SEO IS NOT a marketing channel that creates product demand
Think of SEO as a “pull” instead of a “push.” SEO does not create demand for anything where demand does not already exist. If you have a brand-new-one-of-a-kind product or service that no one has ever heard of, SEO can’t drive traffic to your website for terms associated with that directly. What SEO does is grab traffic to your website from search engines for terms that users are already searching for. An SEO expert chooses the words and phrases that we optimize for based on two primary factors: demand (search volume) and relevancy. While other channels like Social Media can actually create buzz around a new product or service and get in front of passive audiences, SEO attracts users that are actively searching.
SEO IS NOT a strategy that proves ROI immediately
SEO takes time. There is a lot of research that goes into any SEO campaign up-front, along with addressing any technical issues which may be preventing search engines from properly crawling and indexing your website. It can take Google (for example) anywhere between 24 hours and several weeks to understand changes we make to a website and then figure out how those changes relate to the overall content they serve users in the SERPs. SEOs know a few methods to get things moving a bit faster, but at the end of the day, we are at the mercy of how fast the search engines move.
SEO IS NOT stuffing keywords into copy
Roughly 15 years ago, much of SEO actually was stuffing keywords into website copy, and quite frankly, wherever we could put them. That’s because 15 years ago, search engines were not nearly as sophisticated as they are now. Not only does “keyword stuffing” no longer work, but it’s actually adverse to SEO efforts and terrible for users. Remember- we strive to create valuable content for users that speaks to their needs, questions, and concerns. For content to achieve that, it needs to be readable to users first- and search engine crawlers second.
SEO IS NOT tricking or deceiving search engines
There are two basic camps of SEO experts- white hat and black hat. White hat SEO experts focus on tactics and strategies that withstand algorithm changes, that focus on meeting the users’ needs, and strive to win their business by playing fair. Black hat SEO “experts” engage in tactics that could get your website blacklisted by search engines, that could tank your traffic and conversions if an algorithm updates to close a loophole, and do not strive to win users’ businesses fairly. GTU is a strictly white hat SEO shop so you never have to worry about a black hat magic trick setting back months of effort.
SEO IS NOT PPC
PPC stands for Pay-Per-Click marketing. PPC is just what it sounds like- you pay to play. While PPC can often show results/ROI much more quickly than SEO, it’s important to remember that SEO clicks are earned, not paid for. Because Organic Search traffic is earned and free, it takes a while to build up your online reputation- whether it’s a new website or new Google Business Profile in a new market- it takes much more time. However, once you have earned your spot in the search engines for relevant search terms, it is much more difficult to lose those earned rankings.
Do You Need SEO for Your Website?
Most businesses can greatly benefit from having a website optimized for Organic Search. Whether your website is B2B, B2C, e-commerce, informational, or just to have an online presence for your brand- GTU can help you determine the right level of an SEO engagement for your brand and budget. Contact us today to get started.