Every day across the world, millions of people run billions of web searches. These inquiries range from the banal to the abstract. For example, “Why is the sky blue?” is one of the most common questions on Google, but you’ll also find existential musings -- like “What is love?” as another popular query -- and just about everything in between.

How do Google and other search engines find the answers and pages users are looking for? Businesses, news sites, informational sites like Wikipedia and other pages need to help search engines index them. The primary way they do this is through Search Engine Optimization, or SEO. If you’re confused about what SEO is and why it matters, don’t fret. We’re masters of SEO at One Firefly, and today we’ll walk you through the basics of SEO, why it matters and how our marketing team can help improve your business’ SEO rankings.

SEE ALSO: An Introduction To Content Marketing

SEO BASICS

We’ve written about SEO before, but essentially SEO is the process of using keywords in content on web pages that match the questions users are asking online. The more keywords associated with a particular question that appears prominently on a page, the more likely it is search engines will find that page using their algorithms and direct users to that page.

For example, if you run a search for pizza in New York, Google will return results from pages that feature the keywords “pizza” and “New York.” There are other factors that influence Google’s results – geographic proximity, domain authority, etc. – but that’s SEO at the most basic level.

WHY DOES SEO MATTER?

For small businesses like technology integrators, a strong web presence is vital. Online searches are increasingly the most common way consumers look for local businesses. If they can’t find your site, you lose out on that potential revenue.

A clean, professional, mobile-friendly website isn’t enough; you need to make it easy for search engines to find and direct potential customers to your page. Online reviews, which can impact SEO, are also crucial: One survey from Inc. Magazine showed that 84 percent of consumers said they believed online reviews as much as personal recommendations.

HOW A MARKETING TEAM CAN IMPROVE YOUR SEO RANKINGS

If you’re operating a business, you have a million things on your plate at any given time. You simply don’t have the time to go through and do everything required to make your website as SEO friendly as possible.

That’s where a marketing team like One Firefly can help. We’re SEO experts with years of experience helping integrators with cutting-edge services. Using proven content marketing principles, we’ll guide key people in your local market to your website, letting you spend more time and energy running the other aspects of your business.

Our team is ready to implement an array of solutions to improve your SEO rankings, attract more customers, and grow your business. We can build you a new, SEO-optimized website; monitor your online reviews; write custom copy with embedded SEO keywords for your existing site, and so much more.

If your business is struggling to grow or you want to kickstart your marketing plan, please reach out to us. You can call us at (877) 334-1144 or send us a message on our contact page.