Search Engine Optimization: The Importance of SEO for Your Business

One of the most important advertising spaces in digital marketing is the Google search results page, and search engine optimization (SEO) is an affordable and effective way to get there. A successful SEO strategy involves creating unique content using relevant keywords that search engines recognize, but only to an extent that does not compromise the quality of brand messaging or user experience. So, it’s a delicate art, but an important one to master to gain new customers.

What Is SEO?

SEO is the pairing of technical knowledge of how search engines work with quality content that consumers need. When websites answer questions with relevant information and optimize this content with common keywords people use, it helps content appear more often, and higher up, on search engine results pages. That is why search engine optimization is vital for directing people to your website, and by extension, helps promote your products and services.

Importance of SEO for businesses

SEO is vital for business, because the ongoing optimization allows companies to gain visibility while generating traffic, leads, and conversions without spending much money (a few subscription fees for search engine optimization tools, and whatever your content budget is, e.g.)

“SEO is how people find your business online if they don’t already know your brand name and you’re not paying for Google or social media ads,” explains Michelle Symonds, an SEO specialist at Ditto Digital. By ensuring that your website is displayed when someone does an online search relevant to your business, companies find new customers from the right locations, she adds: “That is why it’s important for any business.”

Crawling, Indexing, Ranking: How Do Search Engines Work?

Search engines work like a digital librarian, explains Symonds. First, bots scour billions of pages to identify new content and changes to existing content, which in the SEO world is referred to as crawling. Once a business’ page is crawled, the search engine uses keywords and topics to organize content in an easily retrievable database of all the information on the internet, or an index. Finally, when someone goes to the digital librarian or search engine with a question, they can find the most relevant content from this index. This determines a website’s rank in search engine results.

“Ranking uses complex computer algorithms, comprised of hundreds of different factors, to decide the order of the web pages retrieved for any particular search query,” Symonds says. A number of Google Core updates have informed these algorithms in recent years.

What Are the Most Recent Google Core Updates and How Do They Affect Search Results?

Helpful Content Update

Introduced in 2022 to reduce spam and irrelevant backlinks, the Helpful Content Update was refined in 2024 to prioritize quality content and user experience over low-quality, keyword-padded pages. These updates “rewarded genuinely helpful content and cracked down on unnatural links,” says Paul Jozsef, founder of the marketing agency Digital Practice. Likewise, they built on Google’s ranking system, which emphasized expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-A-T) by adding another E to the equation: experience, or E-E-A-T.

AI-generated Spam Update

In March 2024, Google updated its algorithm to crack down on websites scaling content with AI and AI-generated spam. This update also targeted sites using expired and irrelevant domain names to manipulate the algorithm. These major changes also reduced the search relevance of “low-quality, SEO-first pages,” Jozef says.

Product Review Update

The product review update in February 2023 rewarded detailed analytical product reviews that, again, reflected experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. This update also penalized vague reviews and forced marketing professionals to update content with more details.

How Is AI Affecting Search Results?

SERP Snippets

AI-generated SERP (search engine results pages) snippets — i.e., the quick summaries that appear at the top of these pages — have reduced organic traffic among users looking for quick, surface-level answers because they can get that without leaving the search engine page. Still, customers looking for more detailed information need to see your SERP snippets at the top of search results to click on your website. So, creating content that emphasizes experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trust is still essential for SEO.

AI-powered Search Engines

AI-powered search engines like ChatGPT and Perplexity have changed how people look for information. Although Google’s indexing capabilities make it easier to optimize for keywords, ChatGPT doesn’t crawl or organize information the same way. Instead, these search engines rely on large language models to answer questions. As a result, companies should create conversational, personalized content geared towards intent-based searches when optimizing for AI-powered search engines.

Optimization Efficiency

AI-powered tools like Surfer SEO can provide fast, detailed analysis of keywords, make content recommendations, and analyze user data for better audience targeting. These tools can also quickly generate content. However, because the Google algorithm favors originality, AI-generated web pages produced without human editing and oversight are more likely to harm a company’s SEO strategy than help it.

4 Types of SEO Techniques

On-Page

On-page SEO is a type of search engine optimization strategy that refers to everything a company can control on its website. This includes content quality in general, but also keyword usage, headings, and other meta tags, internal linking, alternative text that describes images, and URL structure. Correctly optimizing these elements can all help improve rankings.

Off-Page / Link Building

Off-page SEO is about getting other credible websites to link to your site in their relevant content, also known as backlinking. Collaborating with other businesses and content creators by using their links or providing opportunities for guest blog posts can help boost backlinks.

Local

Local SEO is essential for local, physical businesses. It ensures that when people search for a product or service nearby, they know where to go. The best way to optimize local SEO is to create a Google Business profile to gain online reviews and research local keywords to incorporate into relevant content.

Technical

Technical search engine optimization involves anything related to how your website functions. To improve technical SEO, companies need to make sure their websites are efficient and easy to use. This also includes optimizing code to provide search engines with additional information and decreasing page load time.

SEO Best Practices

By implementing key SEO best practices, you can enhance your website’s visibility, attract organic traffic, and ultimately drive business growth. From strategic keyword research to technical site improvements, a well-executed SEO strategy is crucial for cutting through the noise and connecting with your target audience. Here are some recommended practices.

Crafting High Quality Content

Since the Google algorithm de-prioritizes vague pages that overemphasize keywords, creating high-quality content is the best way to optimize for SEO. That means content should address your ideal customers’ pain points and educate them on how your products and services can solve their problems. Quality content should also be driven by E-E-A-T principles. Incorporating customer reviews, testimonials, case studies, backlinks, and expert insight can highlight experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness and boost your website’s ranking for relevant searches.

Utilize Long-Tail Keyword Searches

Long-tail keywords are phrases with three words or more that are more descriptive and indicate that the individual searching is further along in the marketing funnel. Longer-tail keywords tend to have lower competition as well, so they can lead to higher rankings and conversion rates. For example, a parenting brand may use long-tail keyword searches like “best strollers for babies” or “how get a newborn to sleep” which can tell business more about user intent. Tools like Semrush can help businesses research long-tail keywords with higher search, and lower competition and keyword difficulty.

Embrace AI, But Don’t Depend On It

With more consumers going to AI-powered search engines for answers instead of Google, adapting to emerging technologies like artificial intelligence has become an inescapable aspect of SEO. To optimize for AI search, focus on long-tail keywords that emphasize user intent. Creating informative content that clearly answers queries, incorporating multimedia, and adding code to your website’s HTML that describes content, can also improve AI search rankings. Although AI can generate content, both Google and AI search engines deprioritize general content that lacks expertise and human oversight. At this stage of innovation, it’s best to utilize AI to expedite content research and outlines.

Think Locally

It is becoming more competitive to rank for national or international search terms, but local, personalized search terms can improve SEO, especially for small to medium businesses (SMBs). By creating a Google business profile and filling out each section with detailed, accurate information, adding images, and engaging with customers through reviews can help companies optimize for local SEO. Tools like Google Keyword planner can give brands insight into what keywords and phrases the local audience is using in their searches.

Maintain Authority

Once your website is ranking well, it’s important to keep that positioning by maintaining authority. Investing in PR outreach can help brands network with other reputable sites, who can link to your content. Boosting your backlink profile communicates to Google that your company is an authority on certain topics, and should be ranked higher than sites with fewer backlinks. With more overhead, businesses can put a portion of their ad budgets towards original research, case studies, and expert testimonials. Backlinks combined with a strong E-E-A-T content strategy is an effective way to stay on top through SEO.

SEO Tools

Google Analytics

Google Analytics (GA4) is a free tool that helps brands see where their website traffic is coming from, such as organic search, social media, paid ads, or other referrals. This helps with identifying which channels to focus on optimizing. Other tools like Google Search Console can be integrated with GA4. This shows what queries and keywords consumers are using to find your site. Businesses can then create content that speaks to these searches, which can boost rankings and SEO.

Semrush

Semrush has a database of over 25 billion keywords, providing valuable insight into what people are searching for related to a certain subject area. This tool also helps brands identify trending topics and which high-volume keywords have lower keyword difficulty, to improve content strategies and overall SEO.

Ahrefs

Like Semrush, Ahrefs helps businesses identify important keywords. This comprehensive platform also provides insight into what keywords competitors are ranking for, showing opportunities for optimization. Ahrefs also helps with critical backlink analysis by tracking the number and quality of backlinks on your website, flagging broken backlinks, and identifying areas where anchor text could be improved for SEO.

Surfer SEO

Surfer SEO analyzes top-ranking pages and makes recommendations based on the keywords and structure of top performers. The AI-powered resource also identifies keyword-rated words to enhance search further and gives content a score to gauge relevance and highlight areas for improvement.

How to Measure SEO Success

Ranking

Appearing higher up in search results is the goal of search engine optimization, so where your content ranks is a clear indicator of SEO success. The higher your ranking, the better your content’s chances of getting eyes on it, which tends to increase organic traffic.

Impressions

Impressions, or the number of times your website appears in search results, is another valuable metric for measuring SEO success. Like ranking, impressions directly impact brand visibility and overall reach. Experts agree that anywhere from 500 to 1,000 impressions a month indicates your SEO strategy is working.

Click-through Rate

While ranking and impressions indicate whether your website is showing up in search results, how high up it is, and how often, click-through rate (CTR) shows how many people are clicking on it. A high CTR is a sign that your content is relevant and engaging, whereas a low CTR with good ranking and impressions can be an opportunity to re-strategize about the quality of your messaging.

Organic Traffic

Organic traffic, or the number of people visiting your site without targeted advertising, is a good signal that your SEO strategy works. If your website is ranking well, receiving a sizeable number of impressions, and people are clicking on content, this should also be reflected in organic traffic.

Key Takeaways

SEO is a marketing technique that combines knowledge of what search engines prioritize with unique, informative content, so it ranks higher on results pages: It’s vital for educating new customers about your business when searching for solutions online. Search engines like Google rank content that emphasizes experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness higher than vague websites that rely on keywords only. Advances in AI are making some aspects of optimization easier, such as keyword research, but innovations like AI summaries of SERP snippets can reduce CTR. Certain metrics, such as ranking and organic traffic, inform companies whether their SEO strategy is working or should be reassessed.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

SEO vs. PPC: What’s the difference?

SEO refers to the organic process of getting your website to rank higher for searches related to your content, products, and services. This is achieved through creating high-quality content that naturally incorporates relevant keywords frequently used in Google searches. Pay-per-click, or PPC, involves paying for ads or sponsored content to appear at the top of search results. Both marketing strategies have similar goals — mainly to appear on search engine results — but SEO does not require much overhead to get started.

What role does content marketing play in SEO?

Content marketing involves strategically creating and sharing information that helps people, but does not promote a brand directly. The goal is to educate consumers, and when done correctly, content marketing gives businesses more authority on particular topics, which boosts visibility in search results. Thus, effective content marketing is essential for SEO, and the strategies work best together.

How do I conduct a link audit on my website?

Conducting a link audit is easy with tools like Google Search Console or Ahrefs. Compile your link data before examining each link individually and identifying any broken links or areas for improvement. Finally, create an action plan to fix issues, such as updating and increasing backlinks and internal links.

How does SEO affect or contribute to performance marketing?

Although performance marketing refers to paid campaigns, effective SEO strategies can enhance these efforts by increasing the number of people who enter your marketing funnel.

How frequently should I update my content for search optimization?

Since relevant content is a vital part of search engine optimization, experts recommend conducting updates every few months at a minimum. However, updating content as often as possible, even weekly, is optimal. Content should also be promptly updated for SEO if there is a sudden decline in traffic or rankings.