What Is SEO? An Introduction

You have worked hard to grow your business online. You have a website, social media accounts, and a marketing plan. But you keep seeing web experts recommend this three-letter acronym and state how essential it is to any business.

Exactly what is SEO?

It is the key to unlocking the door to thousands of potential customers you do not have access to right now. That is the short answer, anyway.

This simple guide will unpack the long answer and explain why it is so vital to growing your business.

So, What Is SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is a toolbox any website owner can use to improve the rankings of their web pages in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

Google, Bing, and Yahoo are all examples of search engines but Google is by far the most popular accounting for over 92% of all searches. So, when you are asking “what is SEO?”, you are really asking, “how can I make Google like my business’ website more than my competitors?”

Organic, high search rankings for popular search terms relevant to your business are essential to the growth of your business.

Off-Page and On-Page SEO

Since SEO is a toolbox, there are several tools within that toolbox you can use to increase your rankings. These are “on-page SEO” or “off-page SEO” which is also known as technical SEO.

Here are some examples of on-page SEO techniques:

• Linking to internal and external web pages on your website
• Researching keyword phrases
• Using keyword phrases in the URL, meta tag, headings, and content
• Creating high-quality, well-researched content

And here are some examples of off-page SEO/technical SEO techniques:

• Site speed
• Site security and hosting
• Website structure and user experience
• Backlinks
• Social media and brand mentions

Some tools are more important ranking factors than others. For example, backlinks and keyword usage is more important to Google than social media mentions. But the more SEO tools you use, the higher your business website will rank in SERPs.

Local and Franchise SEO

There are specific SEO techniques that you can use if you want to harness the power of local SEO and/or franchise SEO. Local SEO is useful to brick-and-mortar businesses that want to appear higher in local searches.

For example, if you run a hair salon in Michigan, you want to appear high in search results for “hair salon near me” but only for people searching in Michigan.

And if you run a franchised business, local SEO is useful too. But you likely have many locations you want to target and it is important to hit them all.

Harnessing the Power of SEO

After reading this guide, you should know the answer to, “what is SEO?” and why it is important so that potential customers can find your business online.

SEO techniques are always changing. So, it is important to stay on top of updates to keep your web pages ranking in those popular and relevant searches. What to learn about other tools which will help your business? Check out our business and tech articles for more tips and advice!