Search Engine Optimization can be one of the most powerful and lucrative ways to grow your business online simply because you receive a never-ending stream of free traffic.
If you rank high on Google for specific keywords (ie: Best Dentist in New York), you probably will never need to advertise online ever again.
That being said, ranking high on Google (or any other search engines) takes time and is considered part of a long-term strategy.
If your business is not doing anything to rank well on Google, perhaps now is a good time to start.
Google's Goal and how ranking works
Google's end goal is pretty simple - "To organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful".
That is their mission and taking that into account, all their search engine's algorithms will be centred around that goal.
While there are many different factors Google takes into account when it comes to ranking a website/webpage, here are the high order bits:
- Relevance
Your website/webpage content has to be relevant to the search terms/keywords a person typing in. In other words, your page should have the right keywords people are searching for (ie: "Denist" and "New York")
- Popularity
Google characterizes "popularity" as the number of "Backlinks" pointed to your website/webpage. Backlinks are basically links from other websites linking to your website. The more ORGANIC backlinks, the better (do not try to spam links from other sites as Google will penalize you).
- User Experience
Websites that present information in a simple and effective manner tend to be prioritized over websites with bad experience. Google generally identifies this by: - The website's overall structure and color scheme
- Font sizing and Readability
- Clutter (too many images / page breaking / mobile compatibility / ads)
- Dwell Time (time users spend on the site)
- How fast a website loads
- Trust
As of late, Google has begun prioritising "trust signals" as a major factor in page ranking. In other words, Google favors brands and anything that has a higher level of trust. For example, BEAMSTART (brand) has a higher chance of ranking than "How to make money dot com" (not a brand).
How to get traffic from Google (or other search engines) faster
There are generally 2 ways to get more traffic to your website from search engines:
- Ranking higher
- Having many pages that get some traffic each (long-tail)
- or achieving both
So the SEO formula is simple:
- More quality content pages = more traffic
- More links to your site = higher ranking
My suggestion is to just do both - create lots of content regularly and constantly promote your site everywhere (share it on social media, other websites, forums, etc.). Ensure you have a functional website that loads fast and is easy to navigate, and continue to build your brand by getting media coverage, endorsements, link-backs, and more.
These activities can be time consuming, but when done diligently over a period of 1 - 2 years, they can bring phenomenal results.
