There’s no getting around it. Your business needs an online presence. But having a website doesn't mean you'll automatically get in front of the right audience. So, it’s important to be easily discoverable online.
People use search for various reasons, and it’s had a big impact on the way we find information. While in the past we used to rely on libraries and encyclopaedias, today we have the world’s information at our fingertips.
So, what's the key to getting noticed online? How can you make the content on your website stand out?
The answer is SEO. While you may have heard of the term, you won’t be alone if you aren’t entirely sure how it works. Let’s go back to basics to define what SEO is and see why it's important for your business to get right.
Search engine optimisation, better known as SEO, helps improve the visibility of your website on search engines, such as Google and Bing, so your audience is more likely to come across your business. It’s a little technical, but here’s how it works...
Search engines use things called bots – let’s think of them as little web spider. These spiders crawl your website to gather information, collect data and store it in an index. Imagine that the index is a library, where you can pull a book on any topic and read it. The same applies to the index – when you enter a search query, the search engine uses complex algorithms to highlight what it believes to be the most relevant links from the index library. Then, these links appear on the search engine results page – also known as SERP.
Think of SEO as a personal guide, on a mission to point each person towards the best information. And it’s vital in a digital space, as online users rarely scroll through pages of results, often opting to only explore the first 1-2 webpages.
So, to increase the chance of your website being clicked, you want it to appear as high up the search list as possible. That’s where a solid SEO strategy comes in. Getting your approach to SEO right means a higher ranking – and, in turn, means your business isn’t only getting in front of your audience, but it’s getting there before competitors.
Major search engines are trusted by many, so when your website appears among the top results on the SERP, users are more likely to click on it and trust the content and, ultimately, your brand. So, if you’re focused on building brand awareness of your business online, investing in SEO is a good place to start.
Interested in beginning your SEO journey? Click here for some easy steps for getting started with SEO. Or speak to the V-Hub Digital Advisers to help you get to grips with SEO.
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