To answer this, we need to first answer the question, what is SEO?
SEO stands for search engine optimization. It's the algorithms, the reasons why certain pages show up over others, behind Google, BING and other search platforms.
Search engines follow a series of indicators for why they should display a page to someone performing a search.
If you search for "data-driven digital marketing Columbus, Ohio" (spoiler alert, it's our firm, WolfeDen Marketing 😉), Google will deliver results based on:
Meaning
This is the intent behind your search. For our example, the meaning is to display data-driven digital marketing firms in Columbus, Ohio, not Columbus, Indiana or Cleveland, Ohio.
Relevance
This is the matchmaking of keywords that occurs between your search, and the content displayed. Google will look at pages with a headline, or body of text related to the search, an exact match would be "Data-Driven Digital Marketing in Columbus Ohio", a close match could be "Digital Marketing in Columbus Ohio".
Quality
I've posted before about the quality of content and how I consider this one of the most important factors and here's why. Google actively prioritizes high-quality content over generic, unoptimized low-quality content. Quality takes into consideration everything from the images/videos on your page to the word count of the page (more words is generally better).
Usability
Google's systems look at accessibility as a leading factor of usability. If your website is not optimized for mobile, you're going to take a hit on the measure of usability. If your page loads slowly, that is another major factor of usability.
Context
Things get a little more complex with context, and is generally the hardest factor to control. Search History, Search settings and location are all the biggest factors of context. If you search "football" in the United States, you're going to get the NFL, but if you're in the UK, you'll get a search result for the Premier League.
If you read all of that, congrats, you are now more informed about how Google works than 80% of people. And you now have a very good idea as to why SEO matters.
Having a good SEO strategy will help you create web pages that address each of the major parts of the Google algorithm.
This means your business will be found more easily, you'll get more eyes on your products and more recognition.
Ready to get started improving SEO for your business? Contact Us today.