5 Signs You Need To Invest in SEO To Boost Your Website Traffic

Are you investing in SEO for your website?

Search Engine Optimisation, otherwise known as SEO is a fantastic way to grow traffic to your website.

Not sure what SEO is?

In its simplest form, search engine optimization (otherwise known as SEO) is a FREE way to help search engines such as Google and Bing find your website. For those of you unfamiliar with search engine optimization, Moz provides a really informative SEO guide for beginners

5 reasons to consider investing in SEO for your website!

1. Your competitors are ranking higher in Google search

According to the Google Organic CTR study in 2014, 71% of organic searchers click on results on the first page of Google, with 67% of those clicks going to websites in the top 5 positions

What does this mean for your website?

If your website isn’t appearing on page 1 of the search terms your target audience are using, it will be increasingly difficult for you to reach your target audience

If you’re currently not investing in SEO, the chances are your competitors may have beaten you to it

There are 101 reasons why your competitor is outranking you in Google search and this could be anything from updating their website with new high-quality content to good off page and on page optimization.

But the key is to audit your site on an ongoing basis to:

· Look at the analytics
· understand what people are searching for to get to your website
· to gain insight into your website, individual pages, and overall traffic.

It is a great way to improve performance allowing you to rank better in the Search Engine Results Page (SERPs). Search Engine Watch has an informative guide about SEO audits.

2. You’re unsure of what your target audience is searching for online 

Different target segments will search for the same product in different ways e.g. A price conscious customer may always be looking for the best deals and use search terms/keywords to do with price. A brand conscious customers may always be looking for the product they perceive to be the best brand and use branded related search terms. You need to ensure your website is optimized for the keywords your target audience is using in search engines when doing research. Google Analytics is a fantastic place to start to find out. Pronto Marketing provides some useful examples of how to use Google Analytics to measure SEO.

3. You hardly have any internal links on your website

Internal links are an SEO necessity, but is this something you are currently overlooking? If you are new to SEO and wondering what’s an internal link? Neil Patel defines internal links as a way of connecting one page of your website to another, so linking one blog post to another.

The benefits of Internal link building include; helps with website navigation, boosts web page authority and helps with the overall optimization of your website.

If you are unsure of how many links you currently have on your website, your SEO audit will flag this up for you and when crafting new content, start to think about linking to 2 or 3 older blog posts per article.

Use the Blog Kiss Metrics 7 internal linking commandments to start building internal links for your website.

Razor Social has a fantastic guide about link building.

4. You haven’t updated your web page content in a while

People will judge your company and its products by your website, if your website contents have not been updated in a long time, prospects may form a perception of your brand. Examples of outdated content are anything from; broken web page links, out of date customer offers/promotions and blog sites/news sections which have not been updated for a long time.

Introducing “content marketing”. The content marketing Institute defines Content marketing as a marketing technique of creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience — with the objective of driving profitable customer action.

SEO and content marketing go together like a horse and a carriage and need to be connected. When you create amazing fresh content, not only will your prospects come to you, search engines will flock to you too.

Developing a content strategy that’s aligned with your business objectives will ensure you have new and engaging content on your website to help turn prospects into sales. Need help writing a content marketing strategy? The Content Marketing Institute has some useful resources for creating your own content marketing strategy.

5. Your website is hardly receiving any local website traffic

Every day millions of people use local search to find services and products to suit their needs. In 2014 Google reported that:

· 18% Of local mobile searches lead to a sale within one day
· 72% smartphone users are prepared to travel up to 5 miles to a business location

With these stats in mind, ask yourself, how easy it for local people to find your website? When they do find your website, how easy is it to find things such as; your opening times, address details and directions on how to get to your premises?

Local SEO is an effective way to raise awareness of your products and services to local customers and It's essential that your website is optimized for local search.

If you are new to SEO, Search Engine Land provides 5 simple tips for optimizing your website for local search.

5 signs you need to invest in SEO infographic
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This is my first blog post, so I’d love to get your feedback. Thank you so much for joining me. Look forward to seeing you again soon.

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