Given that online sales are all the rage these days, running a responsible, SEO-optimized site is a must for every business trying to turn some profit. And more than some.

It’s no secret that the survival of a business is directly linked to its ROI, which is closely linked to sale, which are, on their part, linked to the brand’s online visibility.

Because current trends are in favor of online marketing, a variety of strategies encompassing email marketing, social media exposure and communication on multiple levels is usually devised to help businesses compete against the growing competition.

In 2017, e-commerce contributed $2.3 trillion in global sales, making SEO all the more important.

How come?

It’s quite simple, really. Poor SEO means potential customers won’t get to discover your business and that’s a huge no-go.

The main issue with SEO is that it’s not a constant category. It evolves constantly, with Google changing the rules of the game regularly. No doubt the giant is trying to protect its profits in paid ads, but that still doesn’t mean that quality content will be side-tracked.

Quality content is still the determining factor in a business’ performance. Brands that have gained customers trust can count on return visits and multiple purchases by their loyal clients, but they have gone a long way from optimizing their websites to perfecting communication with clients. That’s why it’s imperative to schedule content for your monthly calendar.

Good SEO Travels Fast

Every SEO expert will tell you that SEO optimization is a constant struggle with the ever-changing rules of the game. They will also add that the proper use of keywords on a continual basis will do wonders for your brand’s visibility.

Many businesses use dirty tricks by overdoing keywords, which is what you absolutely must not do. There are such things as blacklists, and they are here for a good reason. They protect websites that have been built with great effort from poorly optimized rewritten websites attempting to take a shortcut to success.

There are numerous SEO tools that will help you with website optimization. The absolutely recommended ones are Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Ahrefs, Sitebulb, SERanking and various plug-ins and extensions (i.e., MOZbar and SEO Minion).

In order for SEO to be used to its full potential, a couple of rules need to be followed.

SEO Increases Inbound Traffic

SEO increases inbound traffic better than any paid ad ever could. Organic search generates 65.72% clicks as compared to, say, 3.82 % clicks witnessed in paid advertisements.

As mentioned above, good SEO uses clever keywords in a proper measure and in the right way. What does it mean?

Firstly, keywords should be well-researched. There are numerous tools that will help you with that task, and it is also a good idea to compare competitors’ keywords with your own. You don’t want to use generic keywords, as too many businesses operating in the same industry will also use them.

Keywords should be featured in title and header tags, meta and image descriptions, and body copy — the full package.

The best types of keywords to use are location-based keywords and long-key keywords.

Location-based keywords will result in Google showing your site in the specific area. If you deal with tax services, an example of a location-based keyword could be “file your taxes online in Bitter Lake, Seattle.”

Long-key keywords are used in a similar way. They help your business stand out from the competition in that they describe the offer in a bit more detail. Thus, an example for a long-key keyword if you offer online fitness routines could be “online kettlebells workouts for beginners.”

SEO Builds Credibility

Here is where quality content fits in: if your website features poorly researched and written (or rewritten) content, chances are, it won’t stand out at all. Neither will it help your brand build credibility with the customers.

That’s why it is important to always publish only relevant, professionally written and well-researched content, so that website visitors will know you are trustworthy. Quality content directly affects your website ranking. More visitors mean greater credibility, which will in turn keep new visitors coming. To increase inbound traffic, add internal linking.

Finally, guest posts have proven to be a great strategy in this regard. Links coming from other websites show Google that your site is trusted and reliable and will also increase the visibility of your brand for people reaching it from other websites.

There are a number of tools that will help you create better content, including:

• HubSpot's Website Grader - grades the content and boosts optimization
• Feedly - a RSS feed tracking industry-relevant topics
• CoShedule - analyzes blog post headlines and titles and provides feedback on length, grammar and keywords

Hanging Around

By publishing only quality content, you will ensure that your website remains a reliable source for customers yet to come, as well as the first choice of your existing customers. That is something paid ads could never do.

Simply put, SEO-optimized content has eternal quality, whereas paid ads put the website in the spotlight for a limited time. Organic search results will keep getting better as long as your website remains credible and trusted. If you do your SEO right, that can be forever.

In short, rather than spending money on paid ads, aim to establish your brand as a trusted source.

Managing the Costs

On the topic of costs, in addition to increasing organic search results by using SEO to its full potential, it is also a good idea to increase your social media exposure. In fact, these two strategies are closely related: the more posts you share on your social media profiles, the more people will read your SEO-optimized content and browse around.

The best thing about social media exposure is that you get to interact with customers directly. Read their comments and apply their feedback for the best practice.

Remember that it is the customers who make your brand more successful, so it is only natural that your brand grows in accordance with customers’ suggestions.