Consider someone is doing a random google search wherein they are looking for restaurants that serve great Chinese food in the U.S. So when they type "Chinese food," "best Chinese food in the U.S," "authentic Chinese cuisine near me," etc. and hit search; and if the name of your website pops up on the first three results of Google page, that is when your website will grab the maximum traffic. It is called using the right “keywords”.

However, SEO is particular. By that, what we mean is, you would not literally want any actual Chinese people landing on your website for Chinese food, right? So when that happens, it drives unnecessary or unrequited traffic to your website, which does absolutely no good for your business. 

And so to avoid that, we have to make sure that only quality audiences are being targeted, and that's how conversion rates would improve. 

I know it might sound overwhelming or near to impossible to attain this kind of efficiency out of your SEO tactics in the first go, but trust us, it works organically as well if you do it the correct way.

What Is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

Search engine optimization is an organic (free) way of ranking your website on the first page of google, also known as the search engine results page (SERP). SEO is given immense importance across all the digital platforms so that your business’s online presence can make it to the top spot of Google’s first few links.

It’s indeed a tough cookie to crack even when your page is fully optimized and still fails to badge the top spot. The reason being, a lot of companies are doing and wanting to achieve the same thing as every digital marketing and SEO specialist in the industry are. 

So yes there are billions of businesses trying to fit into the spot either through paid or organic channels. Having said that, SEO is still the most promising way of ranking your business unlike Search Engine Marketing (SEM) that works great for a short period and then fails to create a similar impact. 

Why Is SEO Important?

SEO is important because businesses are going digital and people are wired to their smartphones and tons of gadgets. They shop, order, book tickets, enquire, review, educate themselves and so much more all at the click of a button on their smartphones with the help of the internet. This only says how impactful the world wide web has become and people are glued to it. And the first rule of marketing is simply to be where your target audience is, i.e- online channels and platforms.

In addition to this, SEO is important because of three primary factors that it offers, and those are- i) Premium Quality Content

ii) Targeted Keywords Related To Your Line Of Business

iii) Building Quality Backlinks

Types Of SEO In Digital Marketing

i) On-Page SEO: Search engine ranking pages consist of all your web pages residing on your website. And in order to rank higher on the search engines, you must optimize every page of your web on-page. This includes proper usage of the page title, content, keywords, title tags, meta tags/descriptions, and so on. 

ii) Off-Page SEO: While you can be certain and confident of what’s going on inside your web page, it’s important you pay attention to the activities outside of your website too. This includes elements like submitting blogs and articles related to your business’s products and services, impressions on social media, forums, press releases, etc. This ensures even when someone isn’t viewing your website but your presence is evident elsewhere as well. 

iii) Technical SEO: The technical specifications need to be taken care of as well when it comes to SEO. Technical SEO ensures your user experience is top-notch every time that includes- website loading pages, being mindful of any broken links, indexing every page on Google, and using appropriate meta descriptions for every single page residing on your website. All of this makes it easy for Google to crawl your website and rank higher on the SERPs.

Importance Of SEO In Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is vast and so is SEO. And digital marketing and SEO go hand in hand, both are inseparable from each other. While digital marketing is a form of marketing, SEO is more of a marketing tactic to enhance your visibility not only in the eyes of your customers but also in search engines. SEO holds crucial importance because it helps your business churn revenues, induce engagements, get more leads and help proffer business today and for the future. It is more of an ongoing process rather than a one-time upshot. 

Let’s be more precise and understand in greater detail as to how can SEO impact your overall digital marketing efforts:-

i) Boosts Brand Awareness: A digital marketer puts in all their energies into making any website or web page SEO friendly because of one core reason i.e- to boost its brand image and awareness among its target audience. If your website qualifies every aspect of SEO, the chances are it's going to be widely visible when anyone searches for products or services directly related to your business.

ii) Optimized Pages On and Off-Page: When all the parameters for SEO are check-marked, only then your business can start attracting some eyeballs and grab attention. The elements of on-page and off-page SEO are as follows:- meta description, title tags, image optimization, content quality, plagiarism-free content, alt text, URL structure, quality outbound, and inbound links, etc. 

iii) Enhances User Experience: Optimized websites with quality content, visually appealing design, and easy-to-use functionality enhance the user experience. This ensures your potential customers keep coming back to your website without having an unpleasant experience at any point of using your digital products. 

iv) Higher Traffic And Footfall: SEO will work in favour of you when you follow all the rules which automatically leads your customers to visit your website more. This increases engagement throughout all your web pages which are considered a good SEO practice in the world of digital marketing. 

v) Improves Overall Quality Of Your Web Page: When your web page loads faster, looks aesthetically pleasing and routes to every page with ease, it's indicative of an SEO optimized page that improves the overall quality of your web page.

vi) Bring Quality Leads And Potential Sales: Whenever a user lands on your website because of SEO, they most probably come with a hope to find a solution for their query. An SEO optimized website enables a potential consumer to go through the services or products you offer and raise a query or spend time at your website which is good for SEO purposes. This might lead to a sure shot lead for you to convert later or direct sales on the spot.

Crucial Elements Of SEO Every Digital Marketer Should Know

There is a long list of essence that makes all your SEO efforts a success, we will be discussing a few of them in detail for you to understand how those elements affect your success and even downfall if you happen to specialize in SEO in the future. 

The crucial elements of SEO are as follows:-

i) Keywords: When it comes to naming your website and URL across every page, it becomes important you make use of keywords that are relevant to your industry, products, and services that you deal in. The more relevant keywords you use, the more it gets better for search engines to tap your website and humans to stumble across your page. 

ii) Website Content: Now you cannot deny, your website is the first foot in the door for your customers to have a glimpse of what you have to offer to them. So your website content should ensure relevant phrases, keywords, plagiarism-free, premium quality content. All of this in addition to an appropriate listing of services, proper structurization, and eye-pleasing visuals to go with your brand voice. Your content needs to feel human of course, but it should also serve the purpose of SEO which can end up being a win-win situation. 

iii) Inbound and Outbound Links: A website consists of lots of links within a page. When we speak of creating content many businesses feel that if the home page is loading properly that is enough. But you as a digital marketer or an SEO specialist need to make sure every single page of the website opens in less than 3 seconds otherwise any user will bounce back and end up leaving your site and may not visit again. 

iv) Accessibility And Usability: The topmost priority you need to allot to is how comfortable your website can be accessed across multiple devices, especially mobile phones. Google has emphasized on this point the most that your online platform should be mobile friendly which means your websites should work flawlessly on phones without any lags or errors. If it does, Google will look down upon it and will not give preference for your website to rank higher on the SERP.

To Sum It Up

You need to understand that Search engine optimization is an un-negotiable aspect of digital marketing. Sooner or later, every digital marketer aspires to work towards boosting engagements and generate sales through organic channels. 

Even though we have Search Engine Marketing as a paid option for the ones who need faster results to drive engagements and leads to their websites, but SEO is something every company needs to do for everlasting sustainability in the digital marketing world. You may also check out some amazing blog posts by Hubspot, Moz, and Backlinko about SEO to get an in-depth understanding on the same.

Hope this blog helped you uncover all the questions and queries you had related to SEO. We will keep coming up with more such content on marketing in the digital age! But till then, stay tuned for another article on digital marketing which is soon to be coming your way.