If you're in the business of digital marketing, you have definitely heard of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and you probably have a pretty good grasp on what it is, and how you can improve your marketing strategies using it. But if you’re new to this industry, you may not be quite as versed on the subject. In a nutshell, SEO is all about improving, or optimizing, your website and all the content it houses. The goal of this marketing tactic is to increase your position among the organic search results in search engines. No matter who you ask, you’ll get a similar response to what SEO is and a general gist of how to use it, but in order to learn and grow in this area, research is key.
Red Shark Digital is a digital marketing agency that specializes in SEO in Greenville, NC as well as other surrounding cities. We are constantly reading articles and finding new ways to stay up to date with the latest developments in the wonderful world of SEO. Search engines are highly sophisticated and very good at what they do, and are the reason that the strategies for SEO are always on the move. You see, as Google changes its algorithm, one thing always remains the same—it strives to give users exactly what they want. Google, and other search engines, care about the quality and content that your business is putting out, and the better and more relevant it is, the more likely your content will be shared with others.
So, back to the original question: How do you do SEO? We’ve just talked about how it's constantly changing and you need to do research to stay up to date. Although all of this is very true, you shouldn’t let this discourage you in your attempts to give it a go and that’s because of the constant. The one thing that stays consistent throughout all the changes is the weight your content holds! If you can optimize the content on your website and consistently provide new content, you're already on your way! Now you just need to make sure your website is up to date and make sure the content you're creating is easily shareable. The importance of those three things, creating content, sharing that content, and optimizing your website, is the secret sauce to SEO. Google is smart. It wants to know that your website is reliable in all ways. It filters through all aspects of your site, including the content and the code used to build it.
By optimizing your website, there are a few things you can do on your own, like removing excess content, reworking that content so it's easy for the user to understand, and reducing image sizes to increase page load time. If you’re not keen on the language of HTML, CSS, or PHP, you might need a more experienced party to help you with technical edits to improve your site. As stated before, we specialize in SEO in Greenville, NC, and this would include optimizations to your site's technical health, so finding a digital marketing agency that can assist in these areas is very beneficial.
As far as content, this can always seem a bit vague, but in terms of SEO, content includes the copy on your web pages, the amount of web pages you have, and the content you post via blogging or other methods. And if you haven’t heard about keywords yet—you need to, because there is no SEO without keywords. Keeping it plain and simple, think about your industry and the specific niche you serve. What might be something you would type into a search engine and could fulfill the request? Using Red Shark as an example, we're a digital marketing agency with offices in Greenville and Raleigh, NC, and perform a range of services such as web design and development, marketing, and advertising. So good keywords for our business would be "Digital Marketing in Raleigh," “Web Design in Greenville, NC,” or “SEO in Greenville, NC” since we perform all of those services. Every effective marketing campaign begins with keywords; so brainstorm, determine your list, and begin to incorporate them throughout your content.
All in all, search engine optimization can feel daunting, but if you maintain the overall health of your website and provide quality content for your viewers, you will be on your way to that number one spot.