My name is Kate Carrara, and I am the Content Manager here at Planet 8 Digital in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Prior to working at Planet 8 Digital, I owned a food truck and bakery in South Philadelphia. While my bakery business boasted a strong social media following, it had a comparatively weak ranking on a Google search results page. After learning about SEO, now I know why my ranking was poor.
If you do keyword-based internet query and find your business website ranked ten pages deep, it could be that you need an SEO specialist to improve your position. For the uninitiated, SEO stands for search engine optimization and encompasses a variety of techniques proven to increase a business’ ranking on a search results page.
At Planet 8 Digital, we employ proven techniques and structure your website and social media accounts to move your business to the top of the search results page. Here are 5 reasons professional SEO is crucial for your business.
1. Search engines rank your business
Like it or not, search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo (now Altaba) use algorithms to scan the internet to find website content and links. Approximately 93% of consumers seeking products or services turn to search engines to answer their queries. Where your business ranks on a results page is highly important, especially since most searchers only click on the top three results. If your business is not on top, most consumers will ignore it.
2. Your competition is already doing it
Every business industry has leaders and followers. Which one do you want to be? If we know that searchers click primarily on the first three results, we must position our business to be at the top or risk being ignored. Business owners who invest in a sound SEO strategy ensure a higher organic ranking than their competitors. If your business falls behind and fails to establish dominance, a competitor will seize that opportunity. It is not simply a matter of getting to the top either, as SEO is an ongoing process to keep the competition from taking your coveted spot.
3. SEO is about quality not quantity
In the past, the best way to bring your website to the top of a results page was to have a multitude of links back to your site. Unfortunately, this resulted in companies finding less than reputable means to create backlinks. Now Google penalizes link building spam and search engines focus on websites with first-rate content and links from reputable websites.
At Planet 8 Digital, we use expert tools to track keywords and links that track your current online ranking. We look at existing links to your business and develop strategies to improve these links and to create new ones.
4. SEO generates the type of web traffic that business owners desire
The bottom line is what matters most and the best way to make money is to bring paying customers to your website. A prominent position on a results page brings more eyes to your website and delivers more money into your pocket.
Ultimately, you want to ensure that your business is highly visible to consumers in your community. Imagine what you could do with a top search engine ranking? Your business would be an impressive illustration of the power of SEO and the success that comes with high visibility.
5. SEO is here to stay
SEO will never disappear and we know that the modern consumer uses search engines to find local products and services. To stay on top, a business needs to evolve to keep up with the myriad of ways that search engines crawl for data.
While it is likely the fundamentals of SEO will remain consistent, the techniques that attain and maintain top rankings change rapidly. As long as customers are looking for businesses on the internet, SEO will be a crucial component of marketing. Companies that understand the dynamics of SEO must constantly adapt to changes.
As a busy business owner, you already struggle to find enough hours in the day to accomplish your daily tasks and you do not need more on your plate. SEO and digital marketing demands constant attention with regular creation of fresh content for your website and numerous social media accounts. It is not simply a matter of getting to the top of the page, it is holding steady in your position once you get there. This is precisely why you need the dedicated experts at Planet 8 Digital, who have the staff, software and expertise to take your business to the top and keep it there.
