Why Isn't Your Website at the Top of the Search Results?

What Is SEO and Why Is It Important to You?

SEO (search engine optimization) is an online marketing discipline that focuses on increasing visibility in organic/non-paid search engine results. SEO encompasses everything that can be done to a site/blog to drive traffic, improve ranking as well as increase awareness in search engines.

It is however important to note that SEO isn’t just about building sites/blogs which are search engine-friendly. Although SEO has many technical tasks i.e. making sure your site has the right keywords, SEO also demands that you build your site with your audience in mind i.e. creating high quality website content, ensuring your site is responsive (can be viewed properly on mobile devices) etc.

Focusing on your audience is an important aspect of SEO since search engines consider related factors i.e. popularity of site content when ranking. 

Focusing on giving your website visitors a great experience on your site is therefore as important as handling technical aspects of SEO such as making sure you include the right keywords at the right places in the right quantity (keyword optimization).

Why Your Website Needs SEO

Since you already know what SEO is by now, let’s focus on 3 main reasons why your site needs SEO.

1. Search Engines Are the #1 Source of Traffic Online

This is undoubtedly the most important reason for performing SEO. Search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo control most of the internet traffic. What this simply means is that people are more likely to find information online using search engines than using any other sites. 

As a result, you need search engines to get traffic on your website. Although you can also get traffic via social media sites, search engines are the number one source of organic/non-paid traffic online.

This is a fact regardless of the kind of website. Google controls 80% of all search traffic. Yahoo and Bing are a distant 2nd and 3rd place with a 9.5% and 8.5% search engine market share respectively. 

Considering most people look for information online via Google, you can’t afford to ignore SEO if you are keen on getting any website traffic. In fact, there’s absolutely no reason for having a website or blog which doesn’t get traffic. SEO is therefore inevitable if you have a website.

2. Search Terms (Keywords) Have Extraordinary Value

Although search engines have complex algorithms which factor in very many things before ranking websites, search engines are built around search terms/keywords or simply; the words that search engine users are most likely to type on the search box when looking for information online. 

Without SEO, your website can never have the right keywords. As a result, it would be impossible to find your site online via search engines regardless of the site having high quality content.

Keywords help website owners get targeted traffic i.e. website visitors who are actually interested in your products/services. There’s absolutely no need of getting plenty of traffic from people who aren’t interested in what your site has to offer. The importance of keyword optimization as a part of SEO can’t therefore be overlooked. 

Keyword optimization is the best way of getting valuable search engine traffic which in turn results in higher conversion rates. Without SEO, your site can never have the right keywords. SEO through keyword optimization also ensures proper keyword placement and keyword density which are vital for making it easier for search engines to find your site online.

It’s important to note that including the right keywords isn’t enough. You must place those keywords in the right place on your site. You also need to ensure the keywords are in the right quantity since search engines penalize keyword stuffing (including too many keywords). 

There’s more to keyword optimization. This is precisely why this task should be left to experts. If you aren’t an SEO expert, it’s better to outsource this task to an expert since search engines penalize bad SEO efforts.

3. Search Engines Need Help

Although search engines are really smart, they still need help. Google continuously improves search engine technology in an effort to improve search results. There is however a limit to how search engines operate. 

Although the right SEO efforts can guarantee you lots of traffic, the wrong SEO moves can bury your website deep compromising visibility. SEO strives to make it extremely easy for your site to be found and ranked highly on search engine results. Without SEO, a great website (in every other aspect) can be rendered useless even when that’s no entirely the case.

In a nutshell, as long as search engines like Google control online traffic, SEO is an inevitable task/process for all website/blog owners keen on gaining competitive advantage. 

The internet has become very competitive and website owners performing SEO perfectly are enjoying an outright advantage. Don’t be left behind. Learn how to do SEO (if you have the time, patience and technical capabilities) or find someone who can do it for you perfectly!

My SEO Services Included with the Website Design: 

The Extra Work I Do

So you’ve discovered the importance of SEO and you want to hire an expert, how do you proceed?

First and foremost, I would never advocate for anyone to do their own SEO if you aren’t an expert. This is simply because the effects of bad SEO are detrimental. Google penalizes and even bans websites with bad SEO. It’s therefore advisable to hire an expert to be on the safe side.

With that said, it is important to note that SEO companies/experts are usually vague when discussing what they will do for you. Part of the reason for this is because they don’t really do much to be honest.

I do way more than your typical web designer and I have the proof and a long list of satisfied clients to show for it.

All the extra work I put into SEO helps almost all my customers show up on the first page of Google. Being on the first page of Google means more traffic to your business. 

Below is a sneak peek into the extra SEO work I do for my web design clients who are interested in SEO services;



1. I do thorough research: I utilize every single resource at my disposal to choose the best URLs, keywords, research on the business, industry and competition. For instance, I go ahead and take the time to research the kind of articles and content that should be created to gain traction with our chosen keyword phrases.

2. I create better URLs for my customers

Unlike most SEO experts online today, I utilize URL SEO strategies which result in better SEO results. For instance, on top of doing basic SEO, I go ahead and match old URLs to new URLs and then I use 301 redirects to inform Google that site pages have been permanently moved to a new location. This ensures that the ranking factor that the site already had with Google is maintained. It’s a lot of work and time but I still do it.

3. I monitor the health of my clients’ websites constantly

I utilize tools like Google Webmaster tools to get reports about the health of my clients’ sites. This allows me to discover and act on any issues arising promptly. I am able to do this using robot files (robot.txt files) which I create and upload to Google and Google Webmaster.

4. I guide Google on what to consider when ranking websites

I don’t just do basic SEO and leave everything up to Google. I submit the sitemap.xml document to Google so that Google knows what to index on the website. I also go ahead and tell Google to ignore certain low content pages so that the overall ranking of the website is not lowered. Most SEO experts don’t do this which is why they don’t deliver exemplary results i.e. 1st page Google ranking.

5. I optimize all website content perfectly

SEO is a very complex process which needs a foolproof content strategy. Unlike most SEO experts, I don’t offer a half baked content strategies. For instance, I markup all content perfectly with meta-descriptions, title tags, heading tags, alt tags etc. to ensure Google doesn’t have any problem finding the content and indexing it properly to reach targeted visitors. I also go ahead and ensure all meta tags are included in the code of all pages.

As part of my social media content strategy, I also put in open graph tags for many customers who want Facebook to read and display their pages with the proper images. I also create internal links on all content pages within the content document to help customers find information as well as tell Google where to find our pages.

The above information just gives you a sneak peek of what I do for my clients. My clients definitely get more value for their money.