You’ve been told that you need SEO for your business, but once you start looking into it, it feels like drinking from a fire hydrant! There’s endless information alongside varying opinions. It’s not always easy to tell what SEO is and how you should apply it to your business. 

Since we offer SEO services in Utah to help businesses both local and afar boost their search rankings and make the most of their internet presence, we thought we’d tackle the basics of SEO for you. That way, you can understand what you’re getting into and where to begin your search.

1. SEO Stands for Search Engine Optimization 

Don’t worry—you’re not the first to ask what SEO stands for! Oftentimes, industry professionals may forget to explain that SEO means search engine optimization. 

Search engine optimization involves working with Google’s unique algorithm to help your content appear in search results when a user searches for relevant content. The algorithm sends out little bots called crawlers that examine all the content on the web, indexing it into categories awaiting search. 

As you might expect, the purpose of SEO is to optimize your website in search engines. In other words, when people search for content that you offer, if your web page has the features a search engine looks for, it will feature your content in the results. 

In order to get search engines to choose your website for the front page, you must perform a series of optimization techniques to your website and web content so that search engine crawlers can find it. 

2. Your Goal Is to Match Your Content to Search Intent 

Basically, your goal is to create content that matches the intention of the searcher. For example, if they type in the search query “Utah digital services,” we hope that our content will match their search intent and they’ll be able to find us! It’s the same concept for you and your industry. 

Ultimately, you want your page to be on the first page of Google search results when a consumer searches a certain keyword. In our case, that would apply with search phrases such as: 

  • SEO services Utah
  • Digital marketing Utah
  • Utah advertising services 
  • Website design Utah 

And so on. As such, we always try to keep the searcher’s intent in mind when creating content. 

Typically, searchers are seeking information, looking for a specific website or app, looking for a product, or intending to buy a product. We might create various webpages that offer content for each of those four actions so that consumers can find us at any stage of their research process. The more our page pops up, the more likely we are to get the attention we want! 

3. Optimizing Your Website and Content Is Key

Now that you understand a fraction of what SEO is all about, you need to know some basic actions to take. Here’s a quick list of ways that you can optimize your website and content to attract crawlers. 

Write Title Tag and Meta Descriptions: Doing this right can be complex, but here are the basics: Title tags are clickable headlines that show up in a users’ search results, and it increases a person’s likelihood of clicking as well as search engine’s likelihood of picking up your content. Meta descriptions are used on the back end to influence crawlers and increase click rates. A good meta description is food for crawlers. 

Optimize Images: Users love a good image, whether it’s a meme, high-quality photograph, or video. Optimize these images to load quickly and contain metadata on the back end that crawlers can index. 

Improve Page Speed: Sites that take longer than just 3 seconds to load frustrate users. Google has taken note, and if your site isn’t loading quickly, it will need a speed update to rank in search results. 

Make Your Website Responsive: Responsive design is industry jargon to mean that your pages will load appropriately on any device a searcher uses. Whether they’re searching on a small smartphone or a large desktop computer, your website will show up and work correctly. 

Focus on Link Building: Crawlers use networks of URLs interconnected through content to find relevant information to index. Therefore, if you want to show up higher on search results, having more quality links leading back to your website can increase your rankings. 

Use Keywords Appropriately: Keywords are also good for indicating to crawlers that your content is relevant to a users’ search. These keywords must be incorporated naturally into an article, however, and they can’t be over-used, or it could result in a penalty that may decrease your search ranking.

There’s a lot to understand about SEO, and this article is barely a nibble. If you’re looking to bite off more information about SEO, or if you’re ready to curate an SEO plan for your business with premier SEO services in Utah, contact us today!