With more and more people going to the Internet to research products and make buying decisions it has become more important for marketers and businesses to understand how to be included in that research. This is why Vivid Image now has a dedicated SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Team. I’m writing this post to introduce you to the concept, and the most important part of SEO.
What Is SEO?
Let’s start with the important part, SEO. There is some confusion in the online world relating to SEO. Many people think that it is the process and science of being ranked high in search results done on search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo etc…). While there’s nothing wrong with that definition, in my mind it leaves many questions and does not completely identify the goals of SEO. That is why I define SEO a little differently. My definition of search engine optimization is as follows, the process of analyzing data, consumer trends, and search engine behavior to achieve a higher ranking in search engine results in order to complete a defined goal. Do you see what I did there? The most important part is the goal. It’s great if you rank number one in Google, but if nobody is compelled to take an action when they see your website, and if you don’t even know what action you want them to take, it has not done your business any good to be ranked number one.
Now that you understand the most important part of SEO (remember, that’s the goals part) I would like to give you some actionable steps that you can take to make sure your SEO effort is focused. If you have been marketing for a while none of this will be new to you, but it is a great refresher.
Action Items
- Set specific goals. I mean really specific ones. If your website has a contact us link, do you want prospects to send you an email, fill out a form, or buy a specific product?
- Set a value for that goal. How much is it worth, in real dollars, to get an email from someone who wants to buy from you?
- Focus on those specific goals. If my (fictional) music store “Steve’s House of Six String” has a goal of selling electric guitars, I should not waste any time with generic terms that might direct my traffic anywhere else.
- Track it. Work with a tracking tool, like Google Analytics, to monitor your efforts and make changes as you go.
Feel free to tell me what you think about all of this in the comment section below.
