Search engine optimization works to improve your website rankings in specific locations for your target keywords. SEO is a must-have for every company hoping to generate traffic, engagement and leads on their website.

The purpose of SEO is to appear at the top in the search engine rankings as possible when users search for information related to your products and services.

SEO is affected primarily by 3 things on a website:

1. The quality of content – the higher and more unique, the better (so long as your audience loves it)
2. Links and authority – the more links your site has from authoritative websites for your keywords, the better you will rank. It’s also important to link out to industry partners and relevant sites as well as making internal links to inform Google of the hierarchy of pages on your site.
3. User experience – the faster, easier and more pleasant it is to navigate a website and find what you need, the more Google will love your website and help it rank better.

SEO can be classified in various ways e.g. On-page SEO and Off-page SEO. On-page refers to all the tweaks you can do to content and code on the website’s pages. This may include optimizing SEO titles and descriptions, keywords within a page or post and headings and image SEO. Off-page refers to all SEO activities that affect the site that doesn’t take place on the website. This includes link-building, local SEO like Google Business Profile configuration and local citations for business directories. There are other ways to classify SEO that showcases what the scope of agency work might fall under. These include foundational SEO, which sets up your website for success and is similar to On-page SEO. There is also technical SEO, which involves the speed and technological infrastructure of your website and where you host it, as well as fixing any errors or warnings that show up in Google Search Console, such as broken links. Finally, the big one really is content marketing and content-driven targeted SEO. This is where you build content to rank for important keywords in your industry. This requires research, writing and effective blog and landing page creation and publishing.

Hiring professional SEO services is beneficial if you’re too busy to handle SEO internally, if your website lacks traffic, or if you lack expertise in SEO. Professional SEO services provide specialized knowledge, save time and resources, and offer comprehensive strategies to improve your website’s search engine rankings and online visibility.

SEO services contribute to business growth by establishing and maintaining a strong online presence, increasing visibility and organic traffic, enhancing brand reputation and trust, and ultimately driving conversions and sales. With effective SEO strategies, businesses can reach their target audience, outperform competitors, and achieve sustainable growth.

Content is king when it comes to SEO. You can have a site that has little on-page SEO but if the content there is fresh and interesting and attracts lots of readers to spend time there, it will rank well. These days it should also have a great UX and speed otherwise it’s likely to not rank well on mobile where speed is crucial to SEO. Working with an agency on your content strategy, blog ideas and landing pages is vital to the SEO success of your website.

SEO works at a domain or subdomain level and all actions on-page and off-page should reflect that e.g. links to yourdomain.com and links to new.yourdomain.com provide SEO for what are essentially considered two separate websites.