So here's the deal. Maybe you were really popular in high school, maybe not. Even if you weren't, you knew who was. You can probably even remember their name now. The most handsome, the prettiest, the most likely to get bit by a squirrel, or whatever your school had. I'm sure you know exactly who they were and may even be someone you Facebook stalk to see what they are doing now.
Anyways, the point of reminiscing is, popular people are remembered, less popular are more forgotten. SEO is the same way, the more people interact with you, then your popularity grows and you rank higher. That is like the really, really, really simple version, but if you were a C student in high school, you may now leave. The rest of this article is for the B+ students that wanted the "how", "why" kind of answers, typically located at the front of the classroom.
Why is SEO Important?
What if you were the smartest, prettiest, most tasty snack for a squirrel in high school, but no one ever saw you? Would you still be the most popular? If no one knew you were there, they would ask their classmates, "who is the smartest person you know?" and the only answer the classmates could provide are from people they actually know.
Everyday millions of people go to Google, or Alexa, or Siri, and ask those computers, " _____________ you know" and those computers will only provide answers based on who they know. Doesn't matter if the smartest person is on the list or not. Just matters, who they know.
Then the computers, however biased they may be, rank their responses from 1 to forever, and then you make a judgement call based on that list of who you agree is the "smartest" in this example.
I'm hoping this is helping, but I'll break it down for the kids in the back passing notes. SEO is making sure you are known by those computers and are far enough up the list that the searcher can decide to choose you. Make sense? Great, let's move on.
So, like do I have to pay to get up there?
Gonna be real honest and up front here, the short answer is yes, the long more complicated answer is yes. How much and for how long is based on how popular you want to be and how quickly.
Here is what I mean, if you want to buy all the cookies for the fundraiser just to say you sold the most, you can, or you can go out and bust your tail to sell them all and really sell the most. That same school yard tactic applies. If you want to skip to the front of the line and buy ads on a search engine, you sure can and can be at the top tomorrow, but it will be the most out of pocket option you have. It also, may not get you the results you think you will either.
According to a recent study done, less than 10% of searchers on Google actually click the ads. That means over 90% of searchers actually skip those top ads and click the "organic", not the type of organics you remember from high school, but the ones that naturally appear on the results list with no money pushing them. Well, no ad money. Don't get me wrong though, the 10% is still a huge return on what it cost to run those ads, as long as you know what you are doing with them. However, the return on the eventual 90% is even more of a return. Patience and quality are the investments needed. Curious? Well, we got you covered.
So how do you organically rank high on a search result? Well, even though it is organic, it can either take time or money or both. Time, this part really depends on the competition both locally and with the keyword used by the searcher. The more competitive, the longer it will take to move even one rung in the popularity ladder. The less competitive, well you get it.
The money side is tied directly to who is going to do the work to get you to move. Meaning, if you are going to research keywords, competition for those keywords, keyword gaps, build relationships for backlinks, correct website technical issues, and write all of the content that ties it all back to you, then you will save a ton of money. Every piece of that you are either unfamiliar with, or unwilling to do, know that you will need to hire someone to do it to move the needle. If you neglect just one of the 4 major areas of SEO then that is 25% of the grade and you will finish with a C average at best.
Enter the makeover scene from any 90's high school movie
Long title for this thought, but I'm sure you just played those scenes out in your head. You know the ones. The girl is over looked everyday, the popular guy thinks she is "just a friend" and he is dating Samantha or whatever. Then prom night she comes in all Cinderella like, and he is shook.
Hiring an SEO partner is the best, most strategic way for you to climb in the rankings. Now, be careful, not all makeover artist are created equal. There will be the ad on Facebook for SEO for like $20-$100 a month with crazy results and some dude paid to say it works, but real talk, they don't. It's like a diet you can eat anything on and lose weight. Just not real.
We will follow-up in a week or two with the things to look for in a good SEO company, but since we wrote this we will start with us.
APEX Marketing Team has invested in the people and tools required to push the needle when it comes to your SEO, or search engine results. We named our company APEX not to land in the middle of the page, but to get us and our clients to the top. Sure, we may use paid ads, but it is only to bandage the gap from starting low and gaining the payoff of the organic in time. See while our Yelp or Google ads are running, we are doing all the work on the backend to ensure the organic is crawling up to meet those ads. When we get there, we can cut the ads, and the client saves the money. It's a balancing act, that we are good at.
For any of your marketing or advertising needs, feel free to reach out to us. We handle SEO, Branding, Advertising, Logos, Content Creation, Social Media Management, Website creation and design, really everything related to marketing. You can contact us at 662-900-APEX, email us at: hello@reachingapex.com, or visit reachingapex.com.