Why is SEO important?

People search on the internet more than 6.5 billion times PER DAY. What an awesome opportunity to help those searchers find your business.

As a matter of fact, on average, more than 60% of website traffic comes from search. The world of search engine optimization seems complex, but most people can easily understand the basics. Even a small amount of knowledge can make a big difference.

First of all, search engines are answer machines. You ask a question, they find answers. If you want people to come to your website and see what you’re offering, start providing answers. Most people are searching for:

things to do
stuff to buy
places to go
information they want to know

Ask yourself what your target customers are looking for and make sure your site delivers it to them.

The second thing to know about SEO is that it is an A.R.T.

Authority
Relevance
Trust

These are things that search engines focus on when deciding if your site has the answers users are looking for. How do you build that authority, relevance and trust? Why, by implementing standardized SEO best practices, of course.

But here are some steps you can take right now to improve SEO on your website:

Make sure you site is being indexed. One way to check if Google already knows about your site is by performing a search. Just type this in the search box site:mywebsite.com (replace mywebsite.com with your actual domain name). If pages from your site show up, that means they’re in Google’s index.
Have a fast-loading site. How fast does your website load? If it’s slow to load, you could be losing out on traffic. Don’t know how fast your site loads? Go to tools.pingdom.com and run a website speed test. Pingdom will even help you pinpoint exactly what it is that’s slowing down your site.
Clear errors. Are there error messages popping up on your website? You’d better take care of them quickly. If something on your site is not in working order, your site will fall in the search engine rankings.
Create a content marketing plan. Build authority by creating valuable content on your site, like blogs or tutorials.
Supercharge your WordPress site. If your site is on WordPress, use a plugin like Yoast or All In One SEO to help you maximize your content’s visibility.

SEO isn’t instantaneous, it’s a long-term strategy. It takes time to do properly, and time to come to fruition, but it is time well-spent if you are serious about getting your message in front of potential customers.