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What is SEO Marketing?

In order for your website to succeed, you will need to drive as much traffic as possible to it. There are many ways to go about getting more traffic, but one of the most popular and effective ways is through SEO marketing. But what is SEO marketing?

In short, SEO (search engine optimization) is a means of improving the visibility of your website on search engines. This includes unpaid search results only, and complex algorithms are used to determine the importance of individual web pages for certain search queries.

In order to truly get the most out of your SEO efforts, however, you will need to track the performance of your website with StatCounter. With Sour web tracker, you can monitor the number of visitors that come to your website, how long they spend on your site, and even the most popular pages. Before you begin tracking such progress, though, let us explain SEO marketing in more detail.

Suggested Reading

If you feel you have a grasp on the basics of SEO and are ready to move on to further training, you can view the articles provided below:

SEO Marketing Explained

SEO marketing is really an encompassing term, which includes standard SEO, or search engine optimization. Not to be confused with SEM, SEO focuses solely on acquiring traffic organically. By organic, we mean without paying for your traffic. This is accomplished through a range of tactics from creating content based around keywords to acquiring backlinks for your website, yet there’s far more to it. SEM on the other hand, encompasses SEO and more, so it can include non-organic tactics such as paid search ads, among other marketing strategies. So, when we say SEO marketing, you can think search engine optimization and the marketing tactics therein.

Getting Started

The first step in SEO is to choose a number of keywords that you would like your website to rank for. These keywords should be related to your industry and match the intent of people searching that query. There are a number of tools you can use to help you in keyword research, too. SEMRush, for example, has a cutting-edge keyword research tool to help you identify keywords that are searched often. It will even give you a list of related keywords as well.

Once you have selected a list of keywords relevant to your business, you will then need to write high-quality content around the terms. In the early days of SEO, it was possible to fill a web page with a keyword as much as possible and it would soon rank for that search query. As algorithms have become more complex, however, this practice has been labeled “black hat SEO” and will now be punished by search engines.

The best way to produce high-quality content for your site is to write it naturally, focusing around the keyword. Make sure your writing sounds natural and that the usage of the keyword doesn’t sound forced, as this can be considered keyword spam by search engines and could result in a penalty, causing your rankings to drop.

Of course, even once you have published the new content to your site, your SEO work is not complete. You will need to build some quality backlinks to help build the authority of that webpage, among a range of additional tactics. To gain more insight as to what these tactics are and how they’re performed, check out the list below:

  • Building Backlinks: As mentioned, building a strong backlink profile for your website is a necessity within SEO. Backlinks are links that point from one website to your own. So, if a website leaves a link to your site on one of their pages, that counts as one backlink for you. You can acquire backlinks in a variety of ways, from guest blogging on other sites to submitting your site to online directories.
  • Optimizing Pages: Using the same list of keywords you do to create new content for your site, you’ll also need to add them to existing pages, as well as title tags, header tags, meta descriptions, and your image alt text. These tactics directly affect your search results rankings, as they tell search engines what each page of your site is about.
  • Posting to Social Media: No matter your industry, every business should have a presence on social media platforms. Facebook and Twitter are two great platforms that are suitable for any business. From here, you’ll need to decide which other platforms make sense for your business. For example, Pinterest is best for arts and crafts sites.

Essential Definition

  • In regards to on-page optimization, title tags are the clickable, blue link listed in search results, yet they also display at the top of your browser for any given webpage.
  • Meta descriptions sit right below the title tag in search results, though they remain hidden once on site. These allow for further detail explaining the topic of the page, so users can get an idea before clicking to a site.
  • Header tags are used within content and serve as subheadings for each section of a page. As with title tags, header tags (htags) also tell search engines what the subject of a page is.
  • Image alt text not only helps search engines determine what the subject of any image on your website is, but it’s also displayed if an image ever fails to load.

What About Local SEO?

While local SEO won’t apply to every business, many local, small, and even new businesses can benefit greatly from such. Traditional SEO can often encompass many of the tactics involved with local SEO, yet the type of businesses mentioned above will typically only see results by starting local. So, whether you’re just getting started with your business and/or website, or you actually run a business with a physical location, local SEO is an absolute must.

As mentioned, many of the strategies within local SEO don’t vary much from traditional SEO, they just take a more localized approach. For instance, the keywords you choose to base content around and optimize pages of your site need to include mentions of your location.

Real World Application

Let’s say you run a restaurant in Boston, MA that specializes in lobster dishes. Since your restaurant is only in Boston, it only makes sense to market toward that city. With this, a keyword you could focus on might be “best lobster rolls Boston”.

The reason local SEO is best suited for small, local, and new businesses is that these types of businesses won’t rank well using national SEO tactics. Plus, as mentioned above, it only makes sense to market to your audience, which is going to be local. However, small and new businesses can still benefit from local SEO, as you need to start slow with a new website or one for a small business.

Search engine optimization is no simple task, but the subsequent benefits will undoubtedly be worth the effort. Brands and businesses today are more competitive than ever, and online marketing has flourished as one of the best marketing strategies for these companies, which includes SEO. Here are some of the biggest benefits of such:

  • Increased Brand Reputation: By improving keyword rankings, your brand reputation will invariably improve. Whether you’re outranking competing brands, or simply bringing in greater traffic to your website, people will start to remember your brand.
  • Precise Targeting: Search engine marketing allows us to target precise demographics across an array of media. When it comes to organic search engine marketing, being able to choose keywords and create content that will satisfy user intent offers the ability to target relevant and precise search queries.
  • Measurable Traffic: You can’t necessarily measure the engagement of a roadside billboard, but with StatCounter, you’re able to objectively measure the traffic coming in from your SEO and other marketing efforts.
  • Online Visibility: Along with brand awareness, ranking higher for more keywords will increase your online visibility. When 90% of search engine users will stay on the first page of any search, ranking in the top 10 results for certain keywords will boost your website’s visibility and credibility in the eyes of these users.

Track Your Website’s Performance with StatCounter

As we’ve mentioned above, you’ll need to track the performance of your website and SEO tactics to discover ways to improve your efforts. With StatCounter, you can track the most important metrics and dimensions so you can constantly update your SEO strategy and continue to improve your presence on search engines.

If you ever need any assistance in navigating through metrics and understanding your analytics, be sure to contact our support team by completing the form below.

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