The digital world has been engulfing our physical lives, what with all of the cool advancements in technology, information, and connectivity. It has become such an integral part of our lives that screen time, or time spent consuming media via smartphones, laptops, televisions, and any form of streaming is now stated to take up approximately 10 hours of each of our days (CNN). Such a pull to the digitally propelled way of life has, one, caused a general migration to this way of operating in realms from the social to the professional, two, has enabled people to gain new information or access sites of their intrigue at the quicker than ever before, and three, has set a precedent that we be able to get the best information as quickly as possible or the information becomes irrelevant and not-so-readily-accessible to us. This is especially the case in the business world. To be relevant or worthy of business, companies have to be the quickest visible option, most accessible, and most highly sought after fit for what someone’s search needs. In order for a business to achieve this status in the online market, they must properly execute and exhibit search engine optimization (SEO).
SEO is the measure one takes to ensure that when people search for a need and it is within one’s realm of expertise, that person or business’s stands a fighting chance of participating in the winning over the heart of the searcher. In 2016, Google claimed to have processed over 2 trillion searches worldwide (Search Engine Land). With such high numbers, it is apparent that this has become one of, if not the, most utilized modes of information collection. While the amount of accessible information these search engines produce is utterly immense, only small portions of the results are noted by searchers. As stated earlier, the use of online search engines has made for a quicker approach to finding this information, thus rendering us presumptuous that what we see as the first results must be the best and most useful due to its immediacy. In 2013, it was shown that 33% of search traffic went to the first ranked site from a Google search in comparison to the second ranked at 18% of traffic (Chitika). Furthermore, the first page of Google search rankings received 92% of traffic, leaving the second page and beyond essentially unconsidered (Chitika). A business’s position in these rankings is crucial for not only business, but mere attention.
Business is competitive enough as it is in terms of gaining the attention, and then the business, of clientele. In order to make it as a business, you have to sport the right products, service, and quality of all facets to prove that you are the best in your field, and that translates into success. Regarding e-commerce, it is not enough to be the best at your work, you also have to be the best at knowing how to make search engines rank you best above the rest. While there are many instances that the rankings are a just representation of the actual quality ranking of businesses within an industry, understanding and utilizing SEO methodology in search engine recognition as reinforcement to your established industry prowess will give your business a leg up in this new form of commercial competition.
The first thing to implement is a use of the right keywords for search engines to recognize and acknowledge in their results from a relevant search query. Since search engines are still not as abstract thinking as humans, at least for now, there has to be some common language by which they take commands. This is typically done through the use of written text, as it is very concrete. When someone searches a particular word or set of words, they can get back results of exactly the words they wrote. For instance, if you are to search something like “recreational equipment incorporated”, you will get just that back with the website to REI (Recreational Equipment, Inc) as your highest ranking search result, as that is exactly what you searched. Specific keywords in certain searches are important, however, sometimes it is not only keywords themselves, but the collection of what these words mean to a search query. While the written text of a word is concrete, the significance of the written word is more up to interpretation, and can sometimes render various results with synonyms of what we are searching. According to Google research, roughly 70% of searches bear impact from the synonymic words relative to those initially searched (Google Blog). With the words and the meanings of the words in a search having the influence that they do on search result rankings, to have the most appropriate keywords implemented relative to your business’s service is the best way to enhance your rank user superficial measures.
While the superficial aspects of your website are attractive to search engines, behind the scenes, technical, and less apparent measures are tried and true to making sure all of your content is accessible and recognizable in a search query. It can be agreed upon that our media content is equally important to our written content. As discussed in previous blogs by Rave Retailer, we have determined that all content is useful in driving traffic towards our business in terms of appeal. In the same respect, ensure that all of your content is of use in driving traffic as decided upon by a search engine. Having images coded in gif, jpg, or png with applicable and relevant keywords will give search engines a written annotation of your visual content, and make them visible to search engines as worthy and sensible search returns. Videos, although another great form of visual media, may also go unrecognized if not given a written correspondence. To transcribe any scripted aspects of videos is a simple way to ensure that they will get some extra attention. Studies concluded that websites with video content achieved a 16% increase in revenue upon transcribing these videos for search engines to identify and implement as search results (3 Play Media). A small and often disregarded step that can end up having a rather sizeable impact on your traffic and overall business.
To bring the utmost attention to your business and its website means a lot of accessible information and involvement of your brand online. The more ground you cover with regards to your brand, the more attention you will certainly receive. Think of it from the hypothetical perspective of a small clothing business in a small town that puts its eggs in many baskets. If that business exudes involvement in local charity events, has affiliation with the local chamber of commerce, and has public notoriety in other avenues as well. They will be recognized in any instance, from promotional ad displays at or acknowledgements at the locations of organizations, events, or other associations that they back. The same goes for your online presence. Even if your business does have a hand in all of these different fields, having a public display of connection to them online will increase your relevance in search query returns. Many great methods of this additional involvement which will lead to additional attention are depicted by Allegory Studios, check them out! Aside from general involvement, another imperative action to take to achieve SEO is ensuring that all links oriented around your business’s website be compatible for mobile viewing since 25-30% of visitors are doing so on these smart devices (Allegory Studios). This expresses involvement and does it in a way that is visible and shareable.
Speaking of shareable, to spread the view of your brand where search engines can find it and rank it higher in relevance, social media involvement is vital in given the technical era of today. By strategically configuring social media content with the programming involved in link creation, you can make a big impact in Google search returns rankings. We want to ensure that our brand is getting all of the attention it possibly can, but we also want to make sure that that attention is good and representative of our brand, meaning we don’t want it to come up in a search query return every time someone shares something of ours, as that is not most central to our business, and may repel the standard visitor. So how do we do this? We do it using ‘dofollow’ and ‘nofollow’ links, a cool way of either firing a flare signal for search engines to find you or opting to remain hidden. The distinction between ‘dofollow’ and ‘nofollow’ links will help a lot with getting your brand known using social media. With shareable content, options for the shareable link can be designed to have a ‘nofollow’, where search engines will not bog down your truly relevant pages and links with shared media on platforms you don’t find most worthy of attention (Techwyse). Concurrently, while these ‘nofollow’ links decrease likelihood of your ranking in search engine returns from being bogged down, they increase potential for referral traffic from those shares, basically free publicity and advertising based off of someone seeing your material or content as worthy of the additional notoriety (Techwyse). Although social media serves its purpose for the sake of good ‘word of mouth’ style promoting, it is often for the sake of covering a lot of ground as with not so frequent cases of engaged reading or consideration with 55% of visitors spending less than 15 seconds viewing your site, so it is not advised to use this as your absolute main form of attention seeking (HubSpot). Supplementing the aforementioned practice of being involved with multiple organizations, associations, and charities both with the proper dash of social media is the most sure-fire way to move word of your brand or business and get great levels of engagement, all while being ranked at the top of your market search. With all of these things considered, you’ll rule the rankings!
In conclusion, to get business means to get attention, and to do that means the online SEO means necessary to drive traffic your way. Through the proper understanding of people’s short-spanned web browsing experiences and a corresponding semantic and digital approach for being the first and best option people see while browsing, you will manage to continue to see business and recognition grow! To learn more about getting your business the utmost attention online through SEO implementation, contact Rave Retailer today!