A business is of no use unless it has customers, and a business cannot have customers unless the customers know that the business exists. Traditionally, businesses advertised their services in the newspaper, on the radio and through direct mailings. However, more and more consumers are beginning to look for services and goods online, forcing business to lessen these traditional forms of advertising, and turn to online advertising. One of the main forms of advertisement for a business is for the business to have its own webpage. A web page is a place where consumers and potential customers can learn about the business and the services and goods offered, often more in depth then in previous ads. However, the webpage, no matter how detailed or well designed, is worthless unless potential customers can find the website. With millions of webpages on the internet, how can one’s business’ website be found easily? The answer is simple, search engine optimization. Search engine optimization, known as SEO, has become crucial to business’ web pages being viewed online by potential customers.
If your business, for example, offers a carpet cleaning service, you would want anyone who Googles “carpet cleaning service” in your service area to immediately see your website in the search results. With many consumers wanting a quick answer to their search results, many searchers will only view the first several search results. Therefore, it is crucial that your business’ website appear within the top results. How can you make this happen? By increasing the SEO of your business website.
The SEO of a business website is increased if the webpage contains the keywords of the business in the title, and throughout the website. Going with the previous analogy, if your business it a Carpet Cleaning Business, you would want the title of your webpage to be “Carpet Cleaning Business in (your area)”. You would also want to mention this keyword throughout the pages of your website, but without using the keyword so much that it becomes tedious for the potential customers who read your webpage. This can be done easily by using sentences such as “We are a full service carpet cleaning business in these areas” and “after years of carpeting cleaning experience, you can be assured that you will receive the highest quality service”.
Another popular way to increase the SEO of your website is to have customers talk about your service, since SEO use links as a way to determine the relevance and ranking of a website. Encourage customers to post links to your site on their Facebook page, Twitter account or blog if they enjoyed the services you provided. If they have a blog, have them directly link a keyword to your website. For example, if they say, “I had a great experience with this carpet cleaning service”, have them directly link “carpet cleaning service”. The linkage of relevant words to your website will also increase your business website’s SEO.
The the internet, especially search engines, being the primary way that consumers find and research businesses, it’s crucial that your business’s website appear high among the search results. You can personally increase the SEO of your website by ensuring that the title is relevant to your business, and keywords relevant to your business are found throughout your webpage. Additionally, customers can recommend your website and thus business, by posting links (or even better: linking relevant words) to your website, which will also increase your website’s SEO. In order for your business to be successful and survive, you must have customers, and there can only be customers if they know about your business.