Why is SEO necessary for a business website?

This is a question most SEO specialists and SEO companies frequently come across.

To put it simply – in Australia Google has over 90% of the market share of the search engine world. In saying this, around 85% of Australians search daily to find what they need; whether that is for an electrician, a mechanic or even what dress to wear on the weekend.

This means that if a potential customer is searching for a product that you offer, you really need to be in the top 10 positions – the first page – of Google, or any other search engine for that matter. Chances are if you’re not, you’re losing out and your competitors are gaining your potential customers without you ever knowing it.

So now you’re wondering, “how do I get to the first page of a search engine?” There is, unfortunately, no short answer to this – nor is SEO an easy method of ‘attracting’ traffic to your website. Generally, a well optimised website will consist of the following:

• Good content (around 400-600 words per page; remember, “Content is King!”)
• Good keyword-to-content ratio (1 keyword per 200 words of content)
• Validated website architecture (no dodgy coding in the back end!)
• Quality inbound links pointing to your website (quality, not quantity)

The mind boggling part is that these are only the tip of the iceberg. There is quite a lot more where that came from – as well as methodology and trends to keep up with. I was reading on a fellow SEO blog just a few days ago that Google’s algorithm changed roughly 13,000 times in just 12 months; that’s a lot to keep up with! Nobody knows for certain how many times the algorithm changes except for Google themselves – and they are NOT going to let out any of the fine details! We just have to calculate and predict what’s going to happen next.

This can all be very confusing, so if you have any questions about SEO, let us know. The important thing to take away from this is that SEO is a long term investment, but it is an investment nonetheless. It will ensure you appear front of mind, and sight, when your potential customers are looking for what you offer. SEO is a necessity for any business that wants to continue making money either in-store or online.