Search Engine Optimization - Why do we need?

"One of the things I did on Google was look at maps. It's very interesting to see - I forgot what the program is called - but you have the satellite there and you can, like… I like to look at farms. It reminds me of where I want to be sometimes. ”

That's what George Bush told us about using the Internet in the early 2000's. It was really one of the most interesting things you could do at the time on the wild, "primitive" Internet. It's just that as the years go by, more and more things have appeared on the web or made the transition from reality to online. Our stores, favorite bands, movies, books are just a click away today. The Internet has fundamentally changed the way we relate to the world and the way we live our lives.

But the web has also undergone, in turn, several transformations to reach the form we see today. We are talking here in particular about changes in search algorithms. If in the beginning it was enough to type as many words as possible from the lexical field of the domain you wanted to dominate in order to reach the top of the results or simply to spam, in time Google has more and more refined the criteria of selection of quality sites, and today relies on artificial intelligence to provide users with the most relevant content.

The Search Engine Journal has made a list of all the algorithm changes so far, which can help us understand why it is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore search engine optimization.

Every year, more than 2.8 trillion searches are recorded on Google alone, ie over 88,700 searches per second worldwide. This means, according to Hubspot, that every second your site is not optimized or, worse, indexed on Google, you lose, if not thousands of opportunities to be found by potential customers interested in visiting your site. , to follow your content and possibly buy from you. This is where the foray into the world of SEO and SEO services begins.

One of the biggest preconceptions when it comes to SEO, detailed by Hubspot in a guide to myths in the field, is that the only purpose of this strategy is to get first in searches. It is a kind of reduction to the absurd and if we choose to look at things this way, we ignore all the other benefits that SEO optimization services can bring to a business.

The first position in searches does not always guarantee more clicks, nor more sales, and this can happen either because you do not use the right keywords, or because the meta descriptions are not attractive enough for users.

Then, it's not enough for the site to exist in Google's "directory." Indeed, it can be indexed from the moment it is thrown on the air, on the great web, but it can be useful to register it on the Google Search Console as well. And that's not to get on well with the browser to appear higher in searches, but rather for the statistics and personalized advice we can get from there. In this context, it is a very good idea to hire an SEO company to help us understand how the Search Console works and how we can use it in the long run to optimize the site.

So what does SEO optimization entail (which is basically a pleonasm, since SEO means Search Engine Optimization, but that's what people search for on the web, so we comply)?

There are 4 main parts that we must follow when optimizing a site for the web: on-page optimization (internal link structure, images on the site, metadescriptions, titles, online performance of each of the pages on the site, optimization for mobile devices ), off page optimization (links from sites with authority to link to our site, distribution of content on social networks and by e-mail), identification of keywords relevant to the field in which we operate and analysis optimization strategy performance.

This guide will help you better understand what all this means and why you need them for your site.

Sounds pretty technical, doesn't it? However, it would be wrong to believe that we can delegate this part to the same company that created our site or to think that it was created "ready optimized".

SEO services require another set of skills and knowledge and it would be best to turn to an SEO firm. As we turn to copywriting agencies to beautifully package the content we had already prepared for the site as the business evolves, an equally good investment is to collaborate with a company that provides SEO services to increase site performance. on search engines.

Such a company will perform an SEO audit for your site, to see where you still need to work to get to the forefront of Google searches. On this occasion, you will find out where you went wrong and what you need to do in the future. Maybe you need to improve the loading speed (important both for the user experience and as a listing factor on Google - apparently, according to SEO Tribunal, the loading speed of a site from the first positions on search engines is 17% higher than a site in the 10th position), or maybe the site is not optimized for mobile (a very important aspect, if we take into account the fact that in 2018, 52.2% of online traffic was generated from smartphones as the SEO Tribunal tells us, and the trend is upward). The SEO company can also help you find the most suitable keywords to use on the site to attract the clicks that matter, ie those that will offer new customers.

Finally, it is worth saying a few words about the cost of such a service. The price of SEO optimization is not a standard one, it depends a lot on the exact needs of the client, the stage of the site and the workload to be submitted. An SEO company can be contracted for a specific project or for a longer period, in this case the payment is made monthly. If the site owner is a fine connoisseur of SEO mechanisms, he can ask for advice on time for further clarification on a particular issue.

Regardless of the choice, SEO services should be included in any digital strategy because they are ultimately related to the health of the site, which is the business card of any business.

However, users (in the proportion of 70-80%) tend to ignore those ads that appear at the top of the list and are heading for organic results - so why not choose to invest wisely from the start?