There are 5.9 million Google searches per minute as of 2024. If you’re a business owner, you want to be at the top of those search results for your product or service. So, what gets you there? The answer is found in these 3 little letters: SEO. And how much you can boost it to better your brand. Here’s how to increase SEO, and make it work for you.
What Is SEO?
SEO (search engine optimization) is the process you follow to gain more organic traffic to your online presence via search engine results. And with more than half of all trackable website traffic coming from organic search, you can see how vital SEO is to your company’s growth.
In fact, whether you know it or not, you’re a contributor to the simple yet complicated maze of SEO every time you use the internet. What was the last subject you searched? Maybe looking for a nearby restaurant? Each time you plunk in specific keywords, search engines gather the best results based off of those brand’s SEO.
How does it find those brands? And how do those brands increase their SEO to rise to the top?
What Search Engines Want
Over 90% of people globally use Google to get their answers (meaning this little engine processes 8.5 billion queries by scouring 1.5 billion websites daily). In short, Google remains supreme when it comes to search engines. So it makes sense to follow its guidelines when it comes to working on your brand’s SEO.
Google’s Search Quality Guide provides info on how search works, and what to do to improve your results. It bases its results off of these 4 important standards:
- E. Experience: do you have experience in your field? Your content should reflect that.
- E. Expertise: how thorough is your knowledge when it comes to your field?
- A. Authoritativeness: how credible are you? Is this verifiable by your content’s consistent accuracy?
- T. Trustworthiness: is your content reliable, and worthy of trust?
If you can check off on the above list, you’ll be well on your way to increasing your SEO.
Include Video
One of the most powerful ways to boost your SEO is through video. In fact, as of 2023, the term “YouTube” was searched almost 400 million times in a month. Considering YouTube is the king of all video platforms, it’s content you want to have.
Other reasons to invest in video content is because Google favors it. Consumers spend twice as long on pages with video than without, which then opens the door to “backlink” sharing (more on this below). Both of these automatically help SEO, so the better your chances are at rising to the top of those search results.
On top of this, since Google owns YouTube, it makes sense that it would promote video as, in a way, it’s promoting itself.
Other Important Ways to Increase SEO
Keywords
Remember how you Googled nearby restaurants just a bit ago? Unwittingly or not, you most likely typed some keywords.
“Restaurant”, for example, would be a common keyword if you were in the food industry. For us at Waves, one of our keywords would be “video production”. You get the gist. Basically, keywords are what your audience would most likely think of in relation to you and, thus, most likely type into search engines to find you.
The more specific you can be when it comes to keywords, the better. For instance, don’t just use “restaurant”. Use “Modern Italian Restaurant” so your customer knows what they’re getting and how to find you and the unique-ness you bring to the table ( pun intended 🙂 ).
Want some help finding relevant keywords for your brand? Click here.
Backlinks and Internal Links
Ok, we promised we’d give you more on this one.
Essentially, backlinks are a link on one site directing to another. This link right here is a backlink for the page we’re directing you to. We’re using them to “back” up what we’re saying here. These are great as they help build your credibility. It’s kind of like when you wrote those research papers in school, where you had to provide your sources to prove what you were talking about. ( Or maybe you didn’t write those papers…in which case, your secret’s safe with us 🙂 ).
Internal links, on the other hand, are directed inward. Meaning, these are links directing your consumers from one page on your site to another page on your site. This helps Google identify the topics you cover, and what you are, essentially, all about. The more internal links you create, connecting related topics, the more you establish yourself as a credible source on your topic.
Note: it’s important to keep new (and old) links updated (as “dead” links detract from your SEO). Want help identifying those on your old blogs? Click here.
Streamline Your Content and Customer Experience
Google is all about improving customer experience (as you, of course, are too!). Some ways to help do this, while increasing your SEO, are as follows:
- Ensure your site’s response time is swift and smooth. If it takes too long, your customer won’t wait. Click here to help analyze your website’s current speed.
- When writing content, keep paragraphs short, and incorporate lists (such as this one) to give it an organized and informative feel.
- Keep it easy to navigate, so it’s clear where your customer (and Google) can find answers.
- When posting video, include captions and strong titles, as Google cannot read images but only text.
Social Media: the New Search Engine?
While Google still dominates as the world’s leading search engine, up to 40% of Gen-Z prefers using social media for their search results. In other words, start treating your social media pages as such. Meaning, remember your content is a WAY to find you, not just a way to express what it is you do.
In short, keep the path to finding you and your product/service as easy as possible. Optimize your content with the tools above, be consistent with posting and stay updated on your customer and how they search.