Search Engine Optimization—or SEO—is a jargon term used by digital marketers. When it comes to SEO, the technical rabbit hole can go deep but the process is rather simple. Let’s break it down. SEO is the process of optimizing your online content (website, blog, Facebook page) for search engine algorithms such as Google. Search engine algorithms, some people call them ‘spiders’ and they “crawl” the content on the web and display it on the search engine results pages. This is where your business will be found or be sent to the dreaded second page and beyond.
Quick Marketing Joke, where’s the best place to hide a dead body? Page 2 of Google because no one will ever look for it there. 😉
SEO success requires consistency. It’s a crucial long-term strategy if you want to dominate the number of times your link is clicked for a particular search term. We often compare it to harvesting crops. Plant the seeds now so next busy season, you’re reaping the rewards.
Basically, SEO is the process of consistently updating your website, blog, and other online content so that Google, Bing (don’t forget about them), and other search engines will put you at the top of the search results page when customers start looking for a service you provide.
In short, if your business needs new customers, you need SEO.
Basic SEO terms
SERP
Search Engine Results Page. The list of results that search engines establish and present to the user after a search is made. Your SERP rank is where your website/content appears on the list of results. SERPs can often fluctuate.
Backlink
When one webpage hyperlinks to another website. You can think of it as a vote. Something or someone is saying, yes, these people actually exist and are relevant in that particular industry. Not every ‘vote’ counts the same. A backlink from the New York Times Online carries more weight than a backlink from a student online newspaper. The more strong backlinks your website gets, the better your SERP rank!
Keyword
A word or phrase that a consumer enters in search.
People don’t search the same. Search Psychology is fascinating to us. Ask 10 people how they would search for a barber in New Orleans and you’ll get 6 slightly different answers. Your website and content should be optimized to attract future customers who are searching for specific keywords. E.g “best barber new orleans”
Metadata
Data that tells the search engines like Google what your web page/content is about. This helps the algorithms know if your content is relevant to what the consumer is looking for.
Why does SEO matter to my business?
Do you want more phone calls or visits to your website? If so, SEO is vital to the health of your business. Optimizing your website and blog content with the right keywords, metadata, and other SEO factors will be very beneficial to your business. No one is a better salesman than Google.
Jambalaya Marketing consistently improves our client’s SEO strength and SERP standings by using cutting-edge keyword research, creating high-quality backlinks, and citations, and by creating relevant and audacious content.
Here are some more reasons you should fall in love with SEO.
Traffic
If one person types in “best plumber in Texas” into Google, and your business is sitting pretty at the top, then they’re probably going to click on your name. Google literally gets billions of searches every single day. Becoming # 1 in the organic section means you’re going to get about 33% of the clicks for that keyword. If that keywords gets thousands of searches a month, business will be booming. Now add 20 more keywords that you’re ranking for. Boom! Boom! Boom!
Doing SEO will save you money
SEO can be hard to stomach for some small businesses. Why? It’s because it’s a long term strategy and can take 3 months to a year (depending on keyword and market) before you’re doing the happy dance. Lots of businesses demand fast ROI from marketers and so we have to depend on PPC (Pay Per Click) and other forms of advertising. This means most of the budget will go to Google, Facebook, etc but can create fast ROI (Return on Investment) to develop trust between the business owner and marketer. That’s great but it can also get super expensive. SEO is organic, you’ve got to earn your place and the work you’ve done doesn’t just disappear. Didn’t pay Google this month? Your ad is gone and the phone’s not ringing. SEO creates much more traffic/calls and you can turn it off without fear of an instant slide. Overall, SEO is way more budget-friendly than paid ads.
Your competition is already doing it
When I started doing SEO about 15 years ago, the local competition was a breeze. I could rank the top 10 keywords on page 1 in 30 days. Those days are gone and even smaller markets are becoming an obstacle. Simply put, you’ve got to play to win the game. The team at Jambalaya Marketing is highly competitive and consistently wins in large and small markets for a varying number of industries.
At Jambalaya Marketing, we specialize in organic SEO and paid SEM. Give us a call at 504-875-5036 to schedule a consultation with us.
