No matter whether your business is well established or still building, your web presence is an essential part of your business’ continued success and growth. With more than 53% of consumers doing online research before they purchase a product, and the top result on search engines receiving 10 times more clicks than the 10th-ranked result, the result is clear – getting your pages highly ranked on search engines can make or break deals.
But once you’ve built your brand, and created a solid website with content you’re proud of, what comes next? How do you make the most of your online presence and ensure the most people see you at the right time? That’s where an SEO expert can step in. In this blog, we’ll explore what SEO is, why SEO should be an essential part of your marketing strategy, and how investing in an SEO expert can take your business to the next level.
What is SEO?
SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of optimizing a website to rank higher in search engine results pages. This can be done through various means, such as improving the quality of the website's content, making the site more user-friendly, and building backlinks. Investing in an SEO expert can help take your business to the next level by bringing more traffic to your website and increasing your visibility online.
When it comes to SEO, there are a few key things you should keep in mind. First, SEO is constantly changing, so it's important to stay up to date on the latest trends and algorithms. Second, keyword research is essential to determine which keywords to target on your website. And third, backlinks are still an important ranking factor, so it's important to focus on building high-quality links.
Why do I need an SEO expert?
Maintaining your SEO ranking is about more than just keywords. SEO strategy is constantly evolving, with new industry standards and ever-changing, search engine-specific guidelines. It takes time, specialization, and years of experience to be able to best manage and optimize your position.
There are several ways to maintain your SEO ranking, from optimizing internal and external linking to improving your social media presence. An SEO expert will be well-versed in these methods and may specialize in one or several areas, and they will help you be proactive in keeping up with the latest SEO trends so you can best avoid losing your SEO ranking due to industry-wide changes.
Are there different types of SEO?
Yes and no - there are different areas of SEO focus that fall under the umbrella of search engine optimization, and all are crucial to building and maintaining a strong ranking.
Here are a few key areas of focus that the right SEO expert will utilize to optimize your online performance:
On-Page Optimization - Refers to the process of optimizing individual web pages in order to improve their ranking in search engine results pages. This includes things like optimizing title tags and meta descriptions, as well as making sure that your website’s content is relevant and keyword-rich.
Off-Page Optimization - On the other hand, refers to the process of building links to your website from other high-quality websites. This helps to improve your website’s authority and credibility in the eyes of search engines, which can ultimately lead to higher rankings.
Technical SEO - A bit more technical and focuses on things like site structure and speed. It is important to ensure that your website is easy for search engines to crawl and index and that it loads quickly.
Local SEO - Geared towards businesses that serve a specific geographical area. If you have a brick-and-mortar business or if you want to attract local customers, then local SEO can be extremely beneficial. This type of SEO focuses on optimizing your website for local search results and includes things like claiming your business listing on Google My Business and other directories, as well as optimizing your website content for local keywords.
eCommerce SEO - As the name suggests, tailored toward eCommerce websites. This type of SEO is all about helping potential customers find your online store and involves things like optimizing product pages for relevant keywords and improving your site’s overall structure and navigation.
Mobile SEO - Important because more and more people are using their mobile devices to search the web. If you want your website to be visible in mobile search results, then you need to make sure that it is optimized for mobile devices. This includes things like having a mobile-friendly design and ensuring that your site loads quickly on mobile devices.
Video SEO - A relatively new but growing field. As more and more people watch videos online, it’s becoming increasingly important to optimize videos for search engines. This type of SEO involves creating transcripts of videos, optimizing video titles and descriptions, and making sure that your website’s code is optimized for videos.
Image SEO - Another newer form of SEO that is becoming increasingly important as people search for images more often. This type of SEO involves optimizing images for relevant keywords and making sure that the file names and tags are all optimized.
Is now the right time for me to hire an SEO expert?
If improving your SEO is on your mind today, now is the right time to consider hiring an SEO expert. An SEO expert will want to conduct a thorough audit of your web presence in order to create an SEO strategy, and once they’ve come up with a plan to improve your ranking, it takes time to see results, from months to years.
The impact of SEO cannot be denied – SEO drives more than 1000% more traffic than organic social media, and 53.3% of all website traffic comes from organic search. Consumers rely on search engines to learn about and engage with businesses online, and ranking well is imperative to any business’ success. The value of starting as soon as possible lies in getting results as soon as possible.
How do I find an SEO expert?
There are several paths to filling the SEO gap in your business, including freelance SEO experts, hiring an in-house SEO role, or seeking a marketing agency with SEO expertise.
Apart from hiring a freelance or in-house SEO expert, finding a marketing agency with SEO expertise can provide a breadth of capabilities in improving your search engine rank. SEO is just one strategy of a comprehensive marketing plan – having all your marketing efforts in sync means that your content, paid media and SEO are all in alignment to boost your brand, and a marketing agency can help achieve that goal.
Key Considerations When Hiring an SEO Expert
Before you start researching SEO experts, it’s important to come prepared. Here are a few things to keep in mind when you’re hiring an SEO expert:
1. Make sure they understand your business. The first step to finding the right SEO expert is to make sure they understand your business. After all, they need to know what you do and who your target audience is before they can start optimizing your website. Give them as much information upfront as you can about your specific business needs and what your goals are.
2. Ask for references. When you’re considering an SEO expert, be sure to ask for references. A good SEO expert should be able to provide you with a list of past clients that you can contact to ask about their experience, as well as data related to their success in improving ranking for previous clients.
3. Check their credentials. There are no formal education requirements for becoming an SEO expert, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t check their credentials. Ask them about their experience, how long they’ve worked in SEO and what kind of training they’ve had.
4. Make sure they use ethical methods. There are a lot of different SEO strategies out there, and not all of them are ethical. You want to make sure the expert you hire is using methods that won’t get your website penalized by Google.
5. Ask about their process. SEO can be a complicated process, so you want to make sure the expert you hire has a clear and concise plan for how they’re going to improve your website’s ranking.
6. Get a contract. Before you hire an SEO expert, be sure to get a contract in writing. This will protect you in case there are any misunderstandings about the scope of the project or the expectations for results.
Hiring an SEO expert can be a great way to improve your website’s ranking and get more traffic. Just be sure to do your research and ask lots of questions before you commit to anyone. And don’t forget to get a contract!
Want to learn more about the value that a marketing agency can bring to your SEO efforts? Take our free 20-minute marketing assessment and let LAIRE help you get started on your journey to improving your SEO ranking.
