Creating a website starts with getting a domain name check to find out if your desired URL is available for purchase or not. If it is, you will have to register it, design it, and launch it. Upon going live the next steps that you will take will determine whether your website will generate any leads or profits for you. Establishing your brand online means executing different online marketing techniques that will drive traffic to your website. This is what search engine optimisation (SEO) is, and it is what’s going to give your brand that much needed online exposure.
For someone who does not know what SEO is and how it works, learning about it may be a bit of a doozy. To begin with, much of SEO involves analytics and keyword research — things that bloggers of new website owners don’t usually think about within the first few months of their website’s creation. So in this article, we will explore the reasons why investing time (and sometimes money) in SEO is imperative to your website’s success.
An intuitive website layout should make the best first impression
Website design and layout is part of optimisation. This is because online behaviour dictates that if a website is difficult to navigate, people will leave the website, therefore giving you more bounce rates than significant website activity. More importantly, the design and user interface is the very first thing visitors will notice. Easy navigation and a good website experience can very well be a reason your visitors will share your page to other people.
Establishing credibility and ranking in search engines
Again, you don’t need to know a lot of technical SEO techniques, but you have to know enough within the first 3 to 4 months of the website’s launch. Most basic SEO techniques depend on knowing which keywords to target and how you use the keywords. You can use keyword research tools like Google Planner or Moz’s keyword research tool. Use your chosen keywords in blog articles and on your website pages. However, make sure you use them properly by putting them in the copy seamlessly and not haphazardly.
By doing this, you increase your chances of ranking on the first page of search engines. And based on our personal online behaviour, most of us trust first page links. In fact, very few go beyond the first page. So make sure you continuously create content so that Google can crawl your website and see that not only have you targeted keywords, but that you are also creating relevant content.
Getting accurate data on the online behaviour of your audience
Websites and social media channels have what they call analytics — it is accumulated data that tells all the pertinent information about customers and first time visitors. What it does is give you a picture of what they do on your website, how they ended up on your website, what days of the week have more engagement, which area/country they live in, what time they are most active, and so on. It can even tell you basic demographics like the age range of your audience and sex.
Through this, you can come up with better ways to be relevant in your industry. By knowing what they are interested in, you can craft strategies that will definitely persuade them to do what you want them to do on your website (whether it’s to purchase or to subscribe).
More importantly, SEO allows you to build better relationships with your audience. A good website experience will definitely encourage them to pay extra attention to what you’re offering. And if they like it enough, will most likely tell other people about you.
Take the time to read up on basic SEO and execute each strategy little by little. Not only are you going to get significant traffic and conversion, but you will become quite the SEO strategist in no time.