What Does Better SEO Mean? Here’s How We Define It and the Growth Data to Back It Up.

SEO is hard to define, especially if this is your first foray into the digital marketing world. SEO, or search engine optimization, is one of the most important cornerstones of any digital presence. Whether you’re starting a new business or looking to revamp a longstanding one, improving your SEO–or starting yours off with a solid foundation–is key. With that said, what does “better SEO” even mean, generally speaking? More importantly: what should it mean for your business? At Maintain, one of our biggest goals is to help our partners maximize the efficacy of their SEO, creating content that both appeals to search engines and resonates with audiences. Let’s take a closer look at how that’s done.

SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of making your website turn up as high as possible in search engine results for keywords that pertain to your industry and the goods/services you offer.

OK, that totally sounded straight out of Webster’s. Here’s the people-friendly version: SEO is helping your website get seen by the people who most want and need to see it. It’s all about meeting your target audience where they are as they search for services that you can provide. Simply put, SEO is being one of the top 10 results for “best dog grooming in Tampa” if you’re a dog groomer in Tampa. It’s having your website turn up as the top result for “craft cocktails near me” if you’re an upscale bar in a given area. It means creating content–in the form of blog posts, web pages, videos, eBooks, and much more–that shows search engine bots you’re the best option they can display to audiences who are looking for your services.

SEO is an ongoing process. Whether you’re a brand-new small business who hasn’t even built their website yet or an established pillar or your community bringing in regular traffic, there’s always more to be done when it comes to optimizing your digital presence. In a digital world where thousands of new competitors emerge daily, not managing to stay ahead of the game when it comes to SEO means quickly falling behind.

Luckily, there are plenty of pros out there whose job is to make sure that doesn’t happen.

We pride ourselves on being those pros for a few reasons, not the least of which is recognizing what takes lots of business owners years to figure out: SEO is a full-time job. By understanding the scope of work it takes to really deliver on SEO, we’re able to come up with realistic, sustainable work scopes that help our clients get where they want to be digitally (and beyond).

As a digital marketing agency who prides itself on knowing its stuff, we’d be remiss not to mention that the best SEO is the kind that’s done by a team of dedicated professionals who use continuous data in order to make the best decisions. With that said, if you’re not at a point where you can bring a talented agency on retainer, there are a few things you can do to make the most of your SEO.

• Google My Business. Create a GMB profile and fill it out completely. Upload professional photos and ask loyal customers to submit reviews.
• Blog consistently. Search engines love websites that are constantly updated. Establish yourself as a thought leader and share valuable knowledge while looking better for search engines.
• Develop new landing pages for your website based on the most popular services you offer and your locations.
• Add “hiring a marketing agency” to your shortlist of priorities and work to get there as soon as you can, if it’s not possible yet. A marketing agency is an invaluable resource when it comes to your SEO (and so much more).

We don’t just say that working with a marketing agency is useful because we are one. As an agency, we are able to see over and over just how deeply a team of professionals can impact a business’s digital presence (and success).

Because SEO is a never-ending project, it’s critical for a business to have a team of professionals in place who are constantly measuring data about its digital presence. Then, it’s important to use that data to map out strategies that bolster thought leadership, attract audiences, and drive growth. That’s exactly what we do, and it hasn’t just worked out well for us; it’s been instrumental for our partners.

And here’s the thing: we can show you better than we can tell you. To see how we helped a St. Pete doctor’s office increase their customer intake by 1200%, click here. To find out how we helped a junk removal provider elevate their brand and grow their business, check this out. These success stories do more than toot our horns; they demonstrate how a marketing agency can work wonders on your SEO, accomplishing what an entire in-house team of professionals could do for a fraction of the cost.

What does “better SEO” mean? That answer is always changing, because SEO is a never-ending process. With that said, we hope the answers we’ve provided here will help you chart the best possible course for your business. To brainstorm just what that course might be, click here and schedule a free consultation with us.