What is SEO, and why should I care?

Are you a business owner? Yes? Then if you have a website, you should definitely care about SEO, and, especially, it’s effects on your business.

You may have heard the term “SEO” before, or maybe not, but bets are that in this day and age you have.

What is SEO? SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.

Still confused? Let’s break it down to a more informative overview, and you can decide if it’s worth your time or not.

What is SEO?

As mentioned above, SEO is short for Search Engine Optimization, but what does this actually mean?

Well, firstly, know that Google is a search engine, but it isn’t the only one in the world (although it is probably the most important one at the moment!). There are thousands of them online. To be clear:

“A Search Engine is a service that allows Internet users to search for content via the World Wide Web (WWW). A user enters keywords or key phrases into a search engine and receives a list of Web content results in the form of websites, images, videos or other online data. The list of content returned via a search engine to a user is known as a search engine results page (SERP).” – Techopedia

Think of those tummy-grumbling times when you don’t know exactly what you’d like to eat, and then you type into Google, “find food near me”. Within a few seconds of pressing enter, Google provides you with a bunch of restaurant options. That’s a search engine working it’s magic.

Optimization, on the other hand, is “the action of making the best or most effective use of a situation or resource.”

As for Search Engine Optimization, this is defined by Search Engine Land in the following way: “It is the process of getting traffic from the “free,” “organic,” “editorial” or “natural” search results on search engines.”

Now that we’ve got the words defined, let’s dive into some of the main aspects of SEO. What better way to define these then by getting some help from other professional and trusted resources?

Keywords: “Your SEO keywords are the key words and phrases in your web content that make it possible for people to find your site via search engines. A website that is well optimized for search engines ‘speaks the same language’ as its potential visitor base with keywords for SEO that help connect searchers to your site.” – WordStream

Meta Data: “Metadata is a series of micro-communications between your site and search engines. Nearly all metadata is invisible to visitors. It lives and works behind the scenes in the HTML of web pages. The metadata we use most for SEO speaks to search engines directly from each page crawled, to communicate important information or request specific action.” – PracticalEcommerce

Design: “Web design, while certainly important from an aesthetic point of view, encompasses much more. From SEO and traffic to branding and conversion rates, your site’s web design affects your entire internet presence.” – Forbes

Backlinks: “Backlinks are incoming links to a webpage.When a webpage links to any other page, it’s called a backlink. In the past, backlinks were the major metric for the ranking of a webpage. A page with a lot of backlinks tended to rank higher on all major search engines, including Google.”….”It is important to have backlinks from quality sites, and those backlinks should be contextual. If, for example, you have a site about fish, and you are creating links from other niche sites about monkeys, these links will be of no use. Your goal should be to get links from authoritative and relevant sites.” – Shout Me Loud

Why would you need Search Engine Optimization?

Still wondering why you would need Search Engine Optimization? Let’s say your a business owner of a restaurant. Wouldn’t you want your venue to be one of the first options that Google (or any other search engine) provides for potential customers who are hungry and looking for food recommendations?

Let’s clarify that this isn’t limited to the food industry alone. Think of accommodations, car rentals, boutiques, book stores, yoga studios, home improvement supply companies, banks, and even doctors offices, to name other businesses that might have competing organizations.

Search Engine Optimization can do wonders for your business’ online presence, which in return can help you generate more leads. More leads means more chances of increasing your sales. Did we hear a ka-ching?

Besides this, think about how many more potential customers you’ll be able to showcase any special offers or announcements your business might have with less marketing funds spent on promoted content.

Unless you live in a town of 2000 inhabitants, and you’re the sole provider of a product, Search Engine Optimization can not only help you get found by potential customers, but well-executed SEO can also make your business stand out next to the competition.

Successfully-executed SEO

Since we do Search Engine Optimization here at CaribMedia, and we take much pride in our efforts for practicing it well, I thought I’d share one of our own success stories when it comes to SEO.

Our flagship site, VisitAruba.com, is part of an Aruba-related network of websites that we have been operating since 1997. It’s also one of the top-visited destination websites for Aruba, holding several top positions on Google for important Aruba-related keywords including, but not limited to searches for the following: ‘Aruba Restaurants’, ‘Aruba Hotels’, ‘Aruba Activities’, ‘Aruba Carnival’, and ‘Aruba Events’.

Not to toot our own horn here, but achieving the 1st , 2nd and 3rd search results for ‘Aruba Events’ is a pretty neat SEO accomplishment.

This goes to show that if one practices Search Engine Optimization well, you can achieve great results, and it does not necessarily need a big budget.

Now it’s up to you to decide what your next step will be for your business. Will you start taking SEO more seriously now that you know the power and influence it can have for your business?

For your convenience we’ve provided the following informative reads to help you get started with implementing Search Engine Optimization practices for your business.

Helpful SEO Reads:

• The 8 Things Most People Get Wrong About SEO -Forbes
• Top 13 SEO Metrics to Track Content Performance & Engagement -SearchEngine Journal
• Negative SEO Is Real: Here’s What You Need to Do -Alexa Blog
• 5 Tips for Choosing Your Next SEO Firm -Entrepreneur
• What Is Local SEO & Why Local Search Is Important -SearchEngine Journal

Digital times call for modern measures. Make sure that your business is well taken care of when it comes to Search Engine Optimization.

Keep up with us by liking our Facebook page and giving us a follow on Instagram to stay UP TO DATE with the latest website knowledge, digital marketing reads, and business tips from the CaribMedia Team.

Published on January 24th 2019. Written by Megan Rojer.