Using SEO (search engine optimization) on your website is a crucial part of any marketing campaign. This is how you can help your business be seen when somewhere searches for your product, service, or niche – the better your SEO, the more visible you will be on search engine results. When you are on the first page, and ideally at the top, you’ll find many more people are willing to click through to your site, and once they’re there, assuming your products and services are of good quality, they should buy. This will clearly lead to more sales and better profits, and your business will grow.
Yet simply putting an SEO strategy in place and then leaving it alone, following the rules but not checking whether it’s making any difference, is a big mistake. Without testing to see if your SEO strategy is working, you could be missing out on knowing what the changes are you need to make to improve things. Therefore, read on to find out what to look out for to see if your SEO strategy really is working.
More Traffic
One of the biggest giveaways that the SEO strategy you or your SEO agency has in place is working is an increase in organic traffic to your website. Organic traffic – visitors that find you themselves and not through paid advertising – is the best kind of traffic for your business since it costs nothing. Therefore, any sale that comes from organic traffic means an automatically higher profit. Not only that, but if someone has found you through a search engine, it’s because they were actively searching for your products and services, and again, this means they are much more likely to buy from you.
If your SEO strategy is working, you’ll see an upturn in organic traffic. If you don’t currently measure this, it’s time to implement a tool such as Google Analytics or even a simple visitor counter on your site. If you use WordPress, there are plug-ins available to give you a breakdown of how many visitors you had, what they were looking for, and where they found you.
Your Content Is Being Shared
When your content is shared, more people are going to see it. One person sharing a blog post, for example, will mean that all their friends and followers will see it. A handful of shares from this second level, and even more will see it, and as this goes on, and you receive more and more shares, there is even the possibility of going viral.
If you notice that your content is being shared more, and shared more widely, then it is likely your SEO has something to do with this change. After all, your original visitors won’t have found your site without good SEO practices in place.
You’re Ranking Well
It’s a good idea for any business owner to search for their own business on Google from time to time. You’ll be able to see if there are any positive reviews you can use for your marketing or any negative articles that you need to deal with.
You’ll also – perhaps more importantly – be able to see if your business is ranked high in the search engine results. Don’t just search for your business name, but use various keywords that you want to rank highly for. Where are you on the list? If you’re not at or near the top, your SEO isn’t working hard enough.
