How SEO can help customers find your website

How to help your website get discovered online

There’s no getting around it. Your business needs an online presence. But having a website doesn't mean you'll automatically get in front of the right audience. So it’s important to be easily discoverable online.

People use search for various reasons and it’s had a big impact on the way we find information. While in the past we used to rely on libraries and encyclopaedias, today we have the world’s information at our fingertips.

So, what's the key to getting noticed online? How can you make the content on your website stand out?

The answer is SEO. While you may have heard of the term, you won’t be alone if you aren’t entirely sure how it works. Let’s go back to basics to define what SEO is and see why it's important for your business to get right.

What is SEO and how does it work?

Search engine optimisation, better known as SEO, helps improve the visibility of your website on search engines, such as Google and Bing, so your audience is more likely to come across your business. It’s a little technical, but here’s how it works...

Search engines use things called bots – let’s think of them as little web spider. These spiders crawl your website to gather information, collect data and store it in an index. Imagine that the index is a library, where you can pull a book on any topic and read it. The same applies to the index – when you enter a search query, the search engine uses complex algorithms to highlight what it believes to be the most relevant links from the index library. Then, these links appear on the search engine results page – also known as SERP.

Think of SEO as a personal guide, on a mission to point each person towards the best information. And it’s vital in a digital space, as online users rarely scroll through pages of results, often opting to only explore the first 1-2 webpages.

So, to increase the chance of your website being clicked, you want it to appear as high up the search list as possible. That’s where a solid SEO strategy comes in. Getting your approach to SEO right means a higher ranking – and, in turn, means your business isn’t only getting in front of your audience, but it’s getting there before competitors.

So, what are the other key advantages of having a good SEO strategy?

1. SEO improves website usability

Creating a fast, robust and user-friendly website is great for customers and your search engine ranking too. A well-structured, informative and easy-to-use website compels users to stay for longer and explore the content. Not only does this decrease the percentage of visitors who navigate away after viewing a single page – known as the bounce rate – but when they discover beneficial content, it keeps them engaged.

2. SEO brings more relevant customers to your site

Having a website helps you expand the presence of your business and stand out from the competition, all to increase your customer base. SEO helps do just this, by bringing more relevant customers to your site it ultimately increases conversions and generates sales. After all, the more high-quality visitors you attract to your site, the more likely you are to see an increase in valuable conversions.

3. SEO builds brand awareness

Major search engines are trusted by many, so when your website appears among the top results on the SERP, users are more likely to click on it and trust the content and, ultimately, your brand. So, if you’re focused on building brand awareness of your business online, investing in SEO is a good place to start.