What Is SEO and Why Do You Need It?
Most industrial business owners are experts in their field, but are not as knowledgeable when it comes to the inner workings of the internet. You’ve likely heard people talking about SEO, you know it’s important for your website, and it’s supposed to be a good thing… But what is it?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It’s how Google finds your website, decides if it’s helpful for people searching for certain keywords, and determines where you show up in the search results for those terms. Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as just using your industry lingo & product names everywhere you can all over your website. There are several factors that go into Google’s algorithms. Let’s look at some of these factors.
Site Age
This one is pretty self-explanatory. Google puts more trust in businesses that have been around for quite a while. The best way to show them that your business is well established is if you’ve had a website for ages! We obviously can’t go back in time to begin your web presence sooner (and I can think of better things I would use that power for!) But, we can get started now, and that’s the next best thing. Drop me a line if you don’t know where to begin. The longer you put this off, the more Google will see your business as being too new and potentially not an authority in your industry.
Content
To rank higher in Google search results, there has to be something for Google to show to the people who are searching for your services! This is where content comes in. It’s a big buzzword these days, for good reason. You’ve probably noticed that most company websites have a Blog section. These are articles that talk about their industry, their product lines or services, and even about their business in a more personal way. Ideally, people will get all this information from you, not from your competitors. You want potential customers to read your blog articles and know that you’re the expert!
Having new content is important too. Google places less trust in websites that haven’t been updated recently. In the eyes of their algorithms, a lack of updates could mean the information in your content is outdated, or even that you’ve gone out of business and abandoned your website. If you’re posting new content weekly, or even monthly, Google will be able to see that you’re committed and producing good information for them to share with the people trusting Google Search.
It makes sense. You wouldn’t refer your clients to a company that you don’t know very much about, and who could even be out of business, would you?
Search Relevance
Content that contains the keywords that embody what you can offer your customers is vital. If someone is searching for Boiler Parts, but your website doesn’t have those words anywhere on it — How are they going to find you?
Maybe Boiler Parts are only a small portion of your offering, so it’s not really something your website focuses on. If you had blog post on your site called “How To Choose A Replacement Boiler Circulator Pump,” there would be a greater chance that a potential customer would find your company on Google while they’re frantically searching “Replacement Boiler Pump.”
Social Interaction
This doesn’t mean spending all day on Facebook trying to round up customers. You want to let your content spread your message, and you want every potential customer to see it. No matter how you feel about social media, you can’t deny that most people use it to share information. The information they should be sharing is that your company is the best in your industry, and creating content that gets people excited will help you achieve that! You want the information on your website to make people stop and think “I need to let people know about this!!”
They might share your article about, for example, using correct gasket materials via their LinkedIn page. Their contacts will see it, and maybe they’ll share it too. You’ve reached hundreds of people at that point — And are some of these people looking for a new gasket supplier? All that advertising from one piece of content, spread organically through social media, can directly result in increased sales.
Click Through and Bounce Rate
Do people see your website, and immediately leave to look at a different website? That’s a Bounce. They came, they saw, they didn’t care, and they bounced right out of there. That’s no good. You need people to Click Through. That’s where they read what your main page has to say, then they click on some of your other pages to see what else they can learn about your services. That’s what we definitely want!
The more time a person spends hanging out on your website, the more they’ll remember your name and what you do. Also — Google will notice that. If Google’s algorithms see that one website constantly gets Bounced, and a different website gets a ton of people who stay & read more — Which one do you think they would recommend to their searchers? I bet I can guess which one you want to be!
Your Company Needs SEO
This is just a piece of the SEO puzzle. There are other measures that Google considers when they decide what they’re going to put on the first page of search results. However, these are the things that you have the most control over. Content is what makes people find, learn from, and remember your company. You don’t need to be a brilliant writer to be able to have amazing content that will bring in all sorts of new business — That’s what I’m here for! I’ve spent many years working in industrial sales, project management and even machine repair. You have the detailed knowledge of your industry and your company. Between the two of us, we can write some content that will have people remembering your business when they need you.
If you’ve read this far and still wondering if content really works — I bet you’re not going to forget my website when you decide to try it out!
Originally published at https://smgrant.com on March 19, 2020.
