Why Exceptional SEO is Crucial For a Successful Business Successful SEO drives a thriving business.
By Mannie Usman
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
For many companies, success entails a strong digital presence. Oftentimes, this means having a high Search Engine Optimization (SEO) ranking.
To achieve top rankings on the different search engines, businesses must optimize their website SEO by adopting practices that fulfill the search engine's ranking criteria. Ranking factors like website security, page loading speed, creating high-quality content, earning backlinks and enhancing web accessibility are only a few of the ways one can boost their rankings in search results.
Here are three ways making the most of SEO also means making the most of your business.
Content matters to the success of the business and to the search engine.
Content is the most significant component of a website. It equips businesses with the power to engage website visitors by helping them with their journey, starting from when they first land on the website until they make their purchase.
Engaging content allows businesses to share their brand stories and values with their audience. Companies can describe their products and services in an engaging and straightforward manner that accommodates their potential buyers' curiosity. Doing so kills two birds with one stone: It enhances a potential buyer's experience and increases their chances of making a purchase while complying with the search engine's ranking factor.
John Meuller, a senior webmaster trend analyst at Google, has repeatedly emphasized the importance of the content for Google as a ranking factor. According to Google's Quality Raters Guidelines, a page should be factually accurate, clearly written and comprehensive in order to be high quality.
Related: 5 Ways to Optimize Your Content for Better Google Rankings
Credibility and trust can catapult a business beyond the target audience.
No matter the size of a business, public relations (PR) is a practice that plays a significant role in raising a business's profile. It helps establish business credibility, gives exposure and enhances its reputation. PR can bring a good reputation far beyond a business's targeted audience and to the search engines through backlinks.
A backlink is a hyperlink of a webpage mentioned on another website's content. Search engine crawlers crawl the internet to discover backlinks of a website when determining its ranking. Backlinks indicate to the search engines that the website content is credible and worthy enough to have earned a link from another authoritative website. Businesses can earn backlinks by sharing their stories or expertise with journalists, influencers or by guest blogging. The stories or blog posts are then published with the hyperlink back to the business's website.
The useful blog posts also pave the way for people to share the post URL on their websites for their audiences resulting in referral traffic and a backlink. In short, the more backlinks from authoritative websites, the higher the authority of your content.
Related: How to Know if an Online Marketing Expert is Actually Credible
A successful business website is like a successful workplace.
A website is a digital extension of the business and requires the same standards as an office to add value to existing clients and attract new ones. Successful businesses often go the extra mile with spectacular offices, high-tech board rooms and advanced security systems. Companies should also prioritize user-friendly, well-structured, easy-to-navigate, accessible, secure and fast-loading websites to achieve a high ranking.
SEO is not an independent component of a business's marketing strategy. Instead, good SEO practices are intertwined with a business's core goals and objectives. When a business and its search engine practices are aligned, they achieve the common goal of giving value to its audience.
Related: Five Reasons Why Your Business Must Have Its Own Website
