Search engine optimization may be difficult to perceive at once. First, we have to understand how it operates. Then we have to fine-tune our approach.
6 Benefits of Best Professional SEO Services
Once you’ve got your methods down, you have to keep at it for as long as you want to hold your rankings.
When you consider the effort that goes into a successful SEO campaign, it starts to look like a full-time job. In fact, optimization is a full-time job for a lot of people.
That’s why it’s smart to consider professional SEO services before you invest too much of your own time.
We’re going to take a look at professional search engine optimization today, giving you some insight into the difference that the experts can make.
Let’s get started.
What Does SEO Entail?
In order to understand the difference that professionals make, we’ve got to take a look at what SEO requires of us in the first place.
Optimization is an effort to make your website and all of its content rank well in search engine searches. For the most part, this means trying to adjust things so they’ll appeal to Google’s search algorithm.
You could try to look into the algorithms of other search engines, but the majority of traffic exists on Google. There are something like 200 ranking factors that Google takes into consideration, and each one is an opportunity for you to increase your rankings and get more traffic.
Google’s Approach
Google uses bots to “crawl” the internet and gather information on its pages. These bots explore the web through links, arriving at new sites, and gathering data on the 200 ranking factors we mentioned earlier.
They look at things like the subject matter, link quality, keyword placement, speed, site architecture, brand reputation, business reviews, and more. Their angle in all of this is to get the best idea of how well your content will serve the user’s needs.
Google’s objective is to produce search results that will effectively answer the questions that users have when they make a search. If they can do that better than anyone else, they’ll retain more traffic and remain the dominant search engine.
If their results start to slip, users might switch over to a different search engine. So, their goal is to identify quality content. At the end of the day, the goal of optimization is to create quality content first and “optimize second.”
If you can manage to make content that’s useful to users, a lot of the optimization will factor in naturally.
The Importance of Optimization
Great content has no guarantee of ranking well, though. We have to consider the fact that there are billions of websites on the internet, trillions if we consider all of the pages that each respective site has.
Other sites in your niche could very well be optimizing their content. In a pool that big, there are bound to be a lot of websites just like yours with similar content.
As you refine your target audience to a smaller group, the odds of ranking get a lot better, but there are still hundreds, maybe thousands of sites that you’re competing with.
Quality content sets the foundation but you have to optimize in order to have a chance at competing with the other sites in your bracket. Optimization is a difficult process as well.
Sure, there are a number of things that you can do on your own to optimize, but not all optimization is the same. There are moving parts, changes to the algorithm, technical work on the back end, and a lot more that impact things.
It involves a lot of skill, and the more skilled the work, the better results you’ll get. It’s entirely possible to invest a lot of your own time and energy into optimization to find that there are no significant changes to your rankings.
This is where SEO services can be so helpful. Let’s explore some of the things that they do to help your business succeed.
Keyword Research
The whole process of optimization starts with finding the right keywords.
It seems like this would be an easy thing to figure out. You’re a business that sells vintage clothing, so you want to optimize for the term “vintage clothing,” right?
Not exactly. The top search results for the most obvious terms in your niche are often bogged down with the biggest brands in your field. So, while it would be nice to rank for “vintage clothing,” it’s unlikely that you could inch past the big players in your niche.
That doesn’t mean there isn’t any hope for the little guys, though. Good keyword research can help you find keywords that are popular but don’t have competition that outmatches you.
This might mean localizing a search term or extending the term to be more specific. For example, trying to rank for “vintage clothing in Albuquerque” will be a lot easier. Similarly, something like “vintage hippie 70s clothing” is more specific and will have less competition.
The best local SEO uses location-specific keywords. This narrows down the competition a lot.
Keyword research is conducted with the help of Google, various SEO tools, and the insight of the professional. Professionals have a keen eye for the right keywords and can ensure that your time isn’t wasted on terms that you have no chance of ranking for.
Content Creation
Many SEO services will offer some kind of content creation.
Content is the keystone of your campaign, and it’s important that it hits the mark. If your content flounders, you’re not going to see significant results. The more content you have, the more opportunities you have to incorporate keywords, rank in different parts of your niche, and draw traffic to your site.
The more traffic that comes through various pages, the more Google gets the impression that your site is generally useful. It’s like they see a business with a lot of people walking into it and assume that the business is well-run.
The more engagement and traffic you have coming to your page, the more weight that you hold in the search rankings. So, a wide range of content is essential to try and rake in more users.
SEO content is a specific kind of content, though. It’s not as if you can just sit down to the computer, type a blog about your store, and call it a day. There are keyword placement requirements, content length, HTML optimizations, meta-description factors, linking strategies, and more involved.
Additionally, the content has to be created in response to keyword research. Instead of writing about what comes to mind, the subject matter has to relate to the keyword you’re trying to rank for.
So, if your keyword was “vintage clothing in Albuquerque,” you could write an article entitled “How to Find Great Vintage Clothing in Albuquerque.” Extend that out to a different keyword phrase every day or two, and you have a thriving content creation effort.
Paid Search Advertising
Another area that draws a lot of traffic is paid search advertising.
Search advertising allows you to present content to a target audience without going through the trouble of SEO. This is typically PPC or “pay-per-click” advertising, so you only pay when your content is engaged with.
We see these advertisements listed at the top of the search results or in our social media feeds as “sponsored posts.” You’ll notice that advertisements are geared toward your searches or interests, and grow more relevant to you as you spend more time on a particular site.
This is because sites like Google and Facebook gather demographic and personal data on you to use in advertising. From the business perspective, that data gives you a direct line to your target audience.
Creating and posting ads is another area of things that can get murky if you do it on your own. Professionals offer a refined approach that is more likely to bring in significant results.
Results From Ads vs SEO
Just because paid ads give you the benefit of quick results doesn’t mean they’re inherently better. It’s best to use a combination of both in your digital marketing campaign.
While ads rise to the top, they’re still displayed as advertisements. These are effective when the individual shows an interest, but they won’t generate organic traffic.
We’re more likely to search for something and click on it than we are to notice an ad and follow it. So, organic SEO results are a more powerful way to reach people. Additionally, SEO results will stick around for a long time and they’re free.
So long as your site retains traffic, the position in search rankings isn’t going to shift too much. You might pay a little bit to get your post to the top of the rankings but you don’t have to pay for it to stay there. That means you have a lasting position in a prime location to draw traffic.
Site Management
A big, and most technically difficult factor, is site management. This is the practice of keeping everything in check on the back end.
Dealing with site speed, link structure, dead links, user experience, and much more is very important. Google takes these factors into consideration with every search, so it’s important that you’re up to the standard of what’s expected from a website.
User experience is a big deal, and it’s something that most people don’t understand how to adjust. It requires graphic design knowledge, coding knowledge, and an understanding of how UX plays into SEO.
That’s some tricky stuff, and there’s a lot of room for error.
Don’t forget about site backups, cleanups, protection, and updates to different plug-ins and content management systems you might use.
Regular Feedback
It’s also important that the SEO agency you work with recognizes your importance in the process.
They’re working on your site, representing your business, and you’re paying them. You should be involved at every step of the process and have a good idea of what it is that you’re paying for.
A good agency will give you feedback, keep you in the loop, and tell you precisely how their services are working to boost your business’s bottom line. If you run into some trouble getting information on what’s happening with your campaign, that’s a good reason to explore other options.
SEO is complicated, but it’s not so cryptic that professionals can’t inform you of what they’re doing with your site. Our suggestion is to get an understanding of the bare bones of different pieces of an SEO campaign so that you have something to reference when work is being done.
That way, you can ask questions and stay updated on the process.
Continued Optimization Management
After all of the hard work described above, there’s the matter of keeping it all going.
Keyword research, content creation, advertisement, and web management have to be maintained. The longer things stay moving, the more results your website will see.
Ideally, those investments would bring in enough traffic to justify more effort in SEO. It takes some time, but increased search results are absolutely a direct way to engagements and sales. The trouble is that you have to keep the optimization going in order for those things to take hold.
That’s the final way that professional SEO services help you out. They keep going so that you can get back to the work you love doing.
Running your own SEO campaign would be too difficult to do while running your own small business. If you’re not trained or skilled at digital marketing and web management, why go through the trouble of learning to do it?
Even a skilled SEO expert wouldn’t be able to run a separate business at the same time. Marketing and running the business are two jobs that require equal, full-time attention. Why do two things poorly when you could do one thing well and outsource the other?
Want to Learn More About Professional SEO Services?
Hiring professional SEO services might be the best thing you can do for the future of your business. Business is constantly moving in a digital direction, and SEO is an excellent way to stay on the cutting edge.
We’re here to help you learn more. Explore our site for more insight and information into optimization, digital marketing, and a whole lot more.
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