When a person thinks of Denver, they bring to mind snow sports and refreshing Rocky Mountain air. They rarely stop to think of the many businesses that provide services to residents and visitors unless they need something from one of these organizations.
Search engine optimization (SEO) ensures a person can find a business in Denver when they need its products or services. The average person doesn't know or care what SEO is, but every business owner must. Search engine optimization is crucial for success in any industry today.
When the internet was young, a business could move up in the search engine rankings by using targeted keywords multiple times in its content. While keywords remain an important part of a company's search engine optimization strategy, many other variables play a role today in where a site lands in the search engine rankings.
Google wasn't the first search engine designed for the internet, but today it is the biggest. In fact, it continues to dominate the search engine landscape. Statista reports it controls 83 percent of the market. Why is this important?
Nobody can say for certain how often Google updates its search engine algorithm, but this process is ongoing. When the search engine giant launched, it updated the algorithm a few times each year.
Google appeared to open a zoo in 2011 and added new animals to the menagerie in the following years. It released the Panda update in 2011 and the Penguin update came just months later. The Hummingbird and Pigeon updates launched in 2013 and 2015, respectively.
Today, the algorithm undergoes thousands of changes in a single year. Some updates are small and affect very few sites. Other updates, however, affect every site that appears in the rankings.
A business owner would spend most of each day monitoring these updates to ensure their company remains in compliance. However, most owners don't have the time to devote to this purpose unless they own an SEO company. For this reason, they turn over the monitoring of these updates to a third-party provider.
A Denver resident may know of a small local business because they pass it each day. It's the consumer across the state, nation, or globe that remains unaware of a company that offers exactly what they wish to buy that search engine optimization targets.
Search engine optimization helps this business get in front of the desired audience, regardless of where each audience member is.
A high ranking increases the authenticity of the business. The company pays less to draw in new visitors while receiving more traffic to the site. As a result, the business sees a higher return on its investment.
Google wants to provide each user with relevant results while ensuring they have a good user experience. High rankings bring in more qualified visitors, ones ready to purchase the products or services offered.
Denver businesses face certain challenges. They must find the balance between marketing to those who live in the city year-round and visitors who come to see the beauty of the area and engage in snow sports and other exciting activities. When doing so, they must consider more than the user experience.
Every site needs to be mobile-friendly to ensure it reaches the broadest audience. Internet users frequently turn to their mobile devices rather than a laptop or desktop when they need information about a business.
Eighty-five percent of American adults today own a smartphone and over 62 percent of website traffic today comes from these devices. A site that isn't mobile-friendly won't receive much of this traffic. An SEO professional designs the site with these mobile device users in mind.
Once the user arrives on the site, they want relevant, engaging information. When creating content, a company must know the search intent or what the visitor wishes to learn during their interaction with the company.
Provide the information they need while ensuring it adds value to their lives. They wish to solve a problem and the content should show them how to do so. If it fails in this endeavor, they won't return to the site when they have a fresh problem to solve.
SEO advisors work with clients to determine what information visitors might look for. They determine which keywords internet users employ in search queries and how best to implement those keywords into the overall marketing plan. This ensures visitors receive information relevant to their queries.
Make it easy for the visitor to expand their search by using internal and external links. Internal links redirect the visitor to another portion of the site that provides information on the original topic.
This may be a page that delves further into an unfamiliar term or it might be a product page. Internal links help a user navigate the site quickly and easily.
In addition, a site may use external links to redirect visitors to authority sites. External backlinks build brand authority while helping the site develop new relationships. The site then reaches new members of the target audience.
The key lies in finding authority sites for links. Visitors don't want to visit a commercial site that will try to sell them something if they haven't discovered the solution to the problem they are experiencing. An SEO specialist helps clients find sites that add value without being overly promotional.
These are only a few of the many elements that a business owner must consider when developing a marketing plan. As many other factors play a role in a site's ranking, a business should work with an SEO provider to ensure they don't overlook any factors and their site moves up in the search engine rankings.
SEO specialists handle many tasks behind the scenes. Visitors and countless business owners don't know these tasks exist or how they affect the website ranking, but the specialist does.
The SEO expert handles back-end elements, including web spam and domain issues. Many of these tasks require the person to be familiar with CSS and HTML programming. Headings, image optimization, and schema markup are other tasks this expert will take on.
The business owner should look at the site as if it is a stage production. The owner can tackle one or two roles in the production. However, they need a supporting staff to take on other roles, just as the actors on stage have a lighting and sound crew, set designers, and more.
The SEO specialist takes on those tasks the owner or principal actor cannot, so everything moves smoothly. The visitor to the site only sees the completed website, much as the audience in a stage production only sees the polished production.
One mistake many new business owners in Denver make is they create a website and assume they did their work as it relates to this task. Website development, however, must be an ongoing process.
When a company updates the site regularly, it shouldn't need a complete redesign of the site if team members find problems. Updates to the site are sufficient in this situation.
However, a neglected site might need a complete overhaul. Working with a Denver SEO specialist eliminates this concern, as the specialist monitors and updates the site as needed.
Business owners want quality services at affordable prices. However, factors other than price need to come into consideration when making this selection. What elements should a business consider when choosing who to partner with for this task?
Experience and a proven track record of success are two things every business owner needs in an SEO specialist. Talk with the specialist to learn how they approach SEO and what steps they expect to take to move the site up in the search engines.
The latest trends need to be included in this conversation. However, trends aren't a one-size-fits-all solution.
An SEO provider should only adopt a trend if they feel it will appeal to the client's target audience. In addition, they need to determine whether the trend will appeal to local customers or international ones, depending on the company's customer base.
Every business needs a solid online presence. This holds for small and large businesses, those that have been in operation for less than one year, and ones that have been around for a century or more. Search engine optimization levels the playing field for every business today.
Price is a consideration, however, when a business invests in any service. SEO services aren't one-size-fits-all and providers recognize this.
Business owners find they have a range of services to choose from at a variety of budget levels. This allows them to grow their organizations without doing significant damage to their budgets.
Denver is home to over 730,000 individuals and another 17.7 million people visited the city in 2019. The average age of residents is 34 years, and half of all adults in the city have a bachelor's degree or higher.
Every one of these individuals is a potential customer. With the right SEO specialist, a business can ensure these individuals find the company when they need something it offers. Partner with an SEO specialist and watch the business take off.