Many small business owners understand the importance of SEO management and organic web traffic, but what many don’t understand is that SEO management is not simply a series of settings on a website that will position the domain atop Google rankings.
SEO management is essentially a race, a race to become one of the top designated authoritative online resources for a given search term and field by search engines. It’s in search engines’ best interests to provide good search results because when they do so, people rely on them time and time again. Google simply wants to provide good, reliable search results. When people click on a search result entry and find the website doesn’t fit their search, it hurts Google’s bottom line. So a solid SEO strategy seeks to provide all the appropriate indicators to Google and other search engines that your website is the best authority online for your given area.
You simply can’t do that with a set-it-and-forget-it approach. And there are many reasons for this. One big reason is that competitor websites out there also want to snag one of those top spots on page 1. After all, 70% of all of the search traffic for a given term is relegated to the first page of Google, Yahoo and Bing search results. After that, traffic falls off to 20-30% who travel to page 2 and 5 or so percent who dare venture past that.
Another reason is that Google is always improving its algorithms to ensure it’s presenting accurate results. Many black-hat SEOs out there find ways to get around the indicators Google looks for, and that keeps the search engine on its toes improving the way it evaluates websites. Periodic changes to search algorithms drastically affect rankings, and if your site has a set-it-and-forget-it SEO strategy in place, you will likely be hurt when the next algorithm update takes place. Good white-hat SEOs always keep abreast upcoming changes to Google’s evolving index and the algorithms that curate it. And having an ongoing SEO strategy helps to ensure that not only do you avoid being hurt by impending updates, but that you actually benefit and gain positioning in the new wave of index rankings.
Finally, gone are the days when a single SEO overhaul catapults a business website to page 1 of Google, Yahoo or Bing. The fact is the web visibility space is very competitive. Business websites understand how important it is to get prime poisoning online to attract targeted web traffic. In most cases, one overhaul will only get you in the hunt for organic traffic. Getting to page 1 and sustaining page 1 positioning requires a consistent optimization effort that take competitor SEO strategies, pending Google algorithm updates, fluctuating keyword volume and the whole breadth of white-hat on-site and off-site strategies into consideration.
If you have questions about getting your website to the first page of Google search results and would like to speak with a consultant on developing a strategy for your business, call us at 312.650.5155. We love helping small business leverage the power of digital marketing to trounce the competition!
Want to learn the fundamentals of small business SEO management in an easy-to-follow, online course that offers one-on-one coaching and consulting that not only gets your website optimized, but also leaves you with the skills and knowledge to manage your own search engine optimization on an ongoing basis? Sign up for Proctor Digital’s 8-week DIY SEO Management Online Course. Participants enjoy lifetime access to lesson content, optional one-on-one coaching and step-by-step instruction to website optimization.