Importance Of SEO For SMEs In Nigeria

If you are quite acquainted with the world of technology, you probably would have come across the term SEO, which stands for Search Engine Optimization; and yes, you may not grasp its meaning, but we’ll help with that and just why it should be relevant to you.

What is SEO?

SEO is a process done, albeit meticulously, to help increase the performance of your website, boost your visibility online, which will do well to help people, users of the internet, easily find you when they search for keywords that relate with your website.

It is without a doubt that the world today is digital, globally, and Nigeria isn’t left out. And as you know, or may not know, there are many individuals who, before making any purchase, they go online to check for whatever product or service it is that they are interested in, and many at times, the results generated by the search engine would influence the buying decisions of the individual, and if your website isn’t employing any SEO techniques, then your website sure will be missing out from the traffic that you deserve.

SEO puts your products and services on the search radar of buyers, and if they make searches and your website does not come up in that search, then you might as well not exist in the digital world. And for this reason, SMEs and other larger enterprises need that visibility so they can get the traffic that would lead to more revenue for their company.

What Else?

There is something called ‘Keywords,’ as has been mentioned earlier. These are things that people go online to search for. These are words or phrases that pertain to your brand.

These are words or phrases that potential clients would type into their search bars on their favorite search engines to get a particular information.

Your Content Matters

“Content is king,” they say. And what this means is that you do not just put out any content you feel is okay, you need to put out high-quality content that is shareable and useful to users. You need to create content that is engaging and make sure to share this on the various social media platforms that your brand may be on. The more people get to see it, the more people get to share it, and the more visible your brand becomes.

Although having the knowledge of SEO and employing its techniques on your website can be very rewarding, but SEO is not as breezy as you might want it to be, it is quite complicated. And for this reason, you might choose to not do it yourself and outsource it to external bodies, like an SEO specialist or an SEO company, so they would handle everything SEO.

If you choose to do it yourself, then there are a few things that you would need to know:

  1. Never Plagiarize: On the topic of content, which has been stated earlier as important, you would need to put out contents that are unique and not copied from another website.
  2. Do Not Overuse Keywords: This is something that can cause you to get punished by a search engine. What you want to do is make sure that the keywords you use should appear unforced and eased into your webpages.
  3. Labels and Titles: You should always make sure that your content and pages are always titled, make sure, too, that your images are well labeled, and if you know anything about alternate texts in images, then you should make sure that you pay attention to those as well.
  4. Links: Make sure never to add links to pages that are not connected to what it is that is being discussed. Ensure that the links you use are to the appropriate pages.

Did you know that Google gets over 100 billion searches per month? Imagine the volume of searches on this giant search engine. Now imagine if your website was among those that got some of the traffic. You sure would not want to miss out on an opportunity like that. But if you want to rub shoulders with the competitors, there are a few things that you would need to do. Let’s give you some of those below.

Make Your Goals Realistic

Instead of you just targeting a very popular keyword, you should make sure to use keywords that actually relate to the content on your website that you know will give great search results, and are also less competitive.

Pay Attention to the Searches of Potential Clients

Your having to find the right keywords can be quite tasking, especially if you still do not know what those in your niche market are searching for on the internet. And this is where you do well to find out what it is that they want, what it is that they spend their time searching for online, steering your attention away from the noise on the internet, that is, targeting too popular keywords.

Take Advantage of Social Media

This is one place where your website can gain all the visibility that it is needing; this vast space where people are constantly sharing information, following trends, and so forth; here is where you get to make your business gain visibility, and for this reason, you must make sure that your content is relatable or engaging at the very least. Your content should be unique, appealing, and the keywords should be relevant. Use social media platforms that are in line with your company’s brand, you do not have to get on all of them.

Reviews and Recommendations

Many company’s have a section on their website that is dedicated to their clients’ testimonies, you could do that. But this will only work if you get your website out there for people to see you. Today, Google has made it easy for people by displaying the reviews of a particular brand’s clients online. So, when you search for a product, you can click on any brand and see what people are saying about it, this you can do, too. You could have past clients and new ones leave a review of your company there, this will go a long way in boosting your business’ reputation.

 

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