🎯 What is SEO and Why is it Important? Learn in 10 Minutes!

You've probably heard before that search engine optimization (SEO) is a vital digital marketing tool. But even if you have a basic understanding of it, you may not have a solid grasp of this complex and multifaceted condition.

SEO consists of multiple different elements. Knowing what they are and how they work is key to understanding why SEO is so important. In short, SEO is important because it makes your site more visible. This means more traffic and more opportunities to convert leads.

Beyond that, brand awareness is a valuable tool for building relationships with potential customers and positioning yourself as an authoritative and trusted expert in your field. Without further ado, here are the details you need to know about SEO and why it is important in today's digital world.

Important Elements of SEO

Keywords

Gone are the days when keywords were the indispensable and only important technique of SEO for a long time. However, it should not be forgotten that they are still important. The difference is that to be effective today, keywords must be well researched, chosen carefully and used wisely in your content.


As a matter of fact, it is important to understand exactly what keywords are. Keywords are words that potential customers use to find content online and can be used to connect with potential customers searching for brands' products and services.

When researching keywords, it is important to look for those with high search rates and low competition. However, it is necessary to pay attention to short-tail keywords, long-tail keywords and local keywords. You also need to use keywords to optimize all titles, URLs, and other on-page SEO elements.

Content

Content is a vital part of SEO. Because it is the tool you use to reach and attract audiences. For example, if you own a shoe store, you might consider publishing a series of blog content about shoemaking, choosing the right shoes, shoe care tips, and more.

When a person looking to learn about shoes starts searching for that information, your blog comes up and you can build a relationship with that potential customer by providing valuable information. This way you have the chance to include it in the funnel.

For example, when it comes time for this potential customer to buy a pair of shoes, you'll be the first place that comes to mind. Today's content needs to be educational, engaging, relevant and shareable. Contents can take a variety of forms, including:

• Web page content
• Videos
• Blogs
• Infographics
• Podcast
• White papers and e-books
• Social media posts
• Local listings

Off Page SEO

Off Page SEO involves external optimization practices that involve your site rather than your site. The main technique used for off age SEO is to get quality backlinks to your site from external sites. These backlinks will tell the search engine that your site is valuable and high quality.

There are many tactics for building backlinks. Some current best practices include guest posting, creating multiple infographics that will be highly shared, and mentioning prominent people in your industry in your content.

Local SEO

Local SEO is becoming increasingly important. The increasing importance of local SEO is due to more people using mobile devices for search. These days, 57% of all searches are made from mobile devices. 50% of these searches have local search intent.

For example, if you own a restaurant, local SEO will ensure that people in your area come across your site when they start searching for the best restaurants in town. In addition to using local keywords, you also need to use other best practices of local SEO.

Search Engine Marketing

Search engine marketing (SEM) refers to paid marketing efforts. Native ads include Google Ads, social media ads, pay per click, Google Shopping ads, display ads (although they have been removed in our country) and more.

SEM is generally not an important component of a comprehensive SEO strategy. SEM includes studies that can help you reach new and highly targeted audiences. The main goal is to reach people who can convert for a certain fee.

Understanding the Importance of SEO

Visibility and Rankings

One of the most important functions of SEO is to increase visibility. This means making it easier for potential customers when it comes to searching for something you offer. Visibility is directly related to the rankings you achieve.

The higher you rank on a search engine results page (SERP), the more likely people are to see you and click on your site. The more effective your SEO efforts are, the more likely you are to rank higher and increase visibility.

Web Traffic

Increasing web traffic is one of the main goals of SEO. When you increase visibility and rankings, you increase traffic. Approximately 33% of clicks on a search engine results page go to the first-ranking page. Sites in the top five receive 75% of the clicks.

If you want your site to be found through a search engine, you will need to increase your ranking. Your first goal should be to be among the top five sites. For this, you need to apply SEO practices that will help you achieve rankings.

Authority

The concept of authority is relatively new in SEO. But as authority becomes more important to web users, it also becomes increasingly important to search engines. Basically authority; It shows that your site is trustworthy, high quality and relevant. The more authority your site has, the higher your ranking will be.

User Experience

Another reason why SEO is critical is that it offers the chance to increase the usability of your site by always creating quality content and optimizing your site with on-site SEO. In this way, you can create a more positive user experience.

For example, when you consider supporting your site with a flexible design, you make it accessible to both desktop and mobile users. Similarly, by increasing page loading speed, you can reduce bounce rate and encourage visitors to spend longer on your site.

Approximately 50% of users expect a page to load within two seconds.

The longer the loading time, the higher the bounce rate. A high bounce rate means low conversions.

Growth

In conclusion, the main reason for SEO is that it can help you achieve many of your business goals. SEO can help you build better relationships with your audience, improve customer experience, increase your authority, attract more people to your site, gain a competitive edge, and increase conversions.

All these benefits mean you make more sales, have more loyal customers, and get more. But most importantly, you will have a significant opportunity to grow your business.

Support for Search Engines

One final note worth mentioning concerns the search engines themselves. Search engines are not perfect. SEO is important because search engines are not perfect. Failed steps you take here may mean you pay a price for your site.

For example, if a site does not have a proper link structure, search engines will not crawl and index the site properly. This may mean a drop in rankings. Additionally, coding errors may cause search engines to be disabled completely.


Having a coding error on your site will make it impossible for your site to rank, no matter how much effort you put into SEO. Other common areas where search engines may experience problems are as follows:

1. Duplicate pages
2. Forms
3. Images, audio, video and other non-text content
4. Language and semantic data

Conclusion

As you can see, SEO is a complex endeavor that involves many different techniques, tactics, and best practices. What's more, these best practices evolve as consumer and user behavior changes and search engines evolve. SEO is still hugely important for anyone who wants online visibility. That's why your efforts are valuable.

SEO can help a business achieve a variety of goals including brand awareness, traffic, conversions, customer experience and much more. Therefore, it is very important for digital marketers to have a solid grasp of what SEO is and how it can be done.