Search engine optimization is more commonly known as its acronym SEO. Optimization is the basis of all SEO practices. Once your brand’s presence (website, content and social media platforms) is optimized across the internet, you increase its online visibility. Your website will find its way to the first page of the search engine results pages (SERPs). Your online customers will find your business much quicker too.
SEO is the practice of making changes to your online presence, particularly your website, making it more attractive to search engines like Google and Bing. Search engines crawl (or scan) your website to understand what it is about. The best SEO practices make sure it is easy for search engines to understand your website. SEO increases the quantity of organic website traffic and the quality of your site visitors at no additional cost. It doesn’t include any paid media or placement and it excludes direct traffic. With a robust SEO strategy implemented on your website, Google will identify it as an authority site and point users in your site’s direction.
There are subtle differences between the various search engines. However, you can usually focus on Google in your SEO strategy, since most of your target market will make use of this leading search engine. Also, the majority of organic traffic is from Google.
It’s advisable to employ an experienced SEO agency or expert and this cost should be included in your marketing budget. The amount you should expect to pay is aligned to the scope of work needed to ensure success. A digital agency or SEO expert will charge after considering the project scope and once you have presented your predetermined expectations. The average hourly rate of employing an agency or SEO expert is approximately $150 per hour.
Yes, you can – it takes a bit of know-how and learning by trial and error, but it’s possible to implement a basic SEO strategy across your website. However, SEO is time-consuming and to do it properly you need to consider both technical SEO and on-page SEO. What’s more, you will need to keep up-to-date with the algorithms’ changes to the various search engines.