A recent conversation with my grandpa about working for Amplimark led us to a conversation about branding and digital marketing. The main point of our conversation that stuck with me was just how different the model is for attracting customers today. My grandpa, who comes from a small town, said that when he was younger if your business wanted to advertise then you would put your ad in the penny saver and if you were a customer looking for a business, you’d find it there. Now, our world has shifted digitally and businesses often choose to advertise online to reach the consumer. The consumer has so many options of where to look for the service they are searching for, but a common way is to type in the search engine, “_____ near me.” When their search results appear, according to Moz, the first page of Google captures 71% of search traffic clicks and has been reported to be as high as 92% in recent years. This is meaning that at least 71% of users choose a webpage on the first page of their Google search. That statistic shows you just how important it is to have the right keywords and get your page to the top.

SEO – Search Engine Optimization

One of the ways you can help your web page rank well on Google or other search engines is become familiar with and use SEO. The term SEO can be a little intimidating at first, but I’m here to break it down for you. SEO stands for search engine optimization which encompasses the process of enhancing parts of your website to fit what users are looking for. Search engines want to give users the most accurate web page for their topic, so they will scan or crawl your website to better understand what your site is about. That leads us to keywords. Having certain keywords or phrases on your website that are commonly searched can help raise your SEO.

Keywords

Keywords are important if you want people to visit your site. You want to find the words that best describe your services or business but also the words that your potential customers are searching for. How can you do that? The first step is to do some research on your area of business and think about what you are known for and why you attract customers. Then it might be helpful to use a keyword research tool, such as Google Keyword Planner. This tool will help you define the terms and phrases people search that are closely aligned with your business. You want to use those words in your website as well as your meta titles and descriptions.

Meta Titles and Descriptions

A meta description is a short description about your page’s content that you create in your website builder. The search engine uses this as a tag in HTML and shows the meta description when it closely matches the terms the user searched for. If you do not have a meta description written for your page, Google will pick out a piece from your website that they think is the most relevant. You want to be in control! The meta title is essentially the same as the meta description, but using an overarching name that relates to the page’s content. I hope that this blog helps you understand a little more about search engine optimization and how it can help your site and business in the long run!