Are you interested in learning about what goes into ranking a website and why is SEO so important for a modern-day business? In 2020 alone it is estimated that over 90% of all web traffic started with a search. The conveniences of modern-day online search have certainly altered the business landscape, but has it been for the better? It wasn’t so long ago where you would open up a physical copy of the Yellow Pages to find a local electrician, drive from shop to shop to search for the best price on a new TV, or buy the latest edition of your favourite magazine to check out reviews on a product before ordering it through the mail.
Fast forward to the present and all the information you could ever want, and need is available via a simple online search. The question is though if you’re a business looking to make it in an increasingly complex digital world, how can you get noticed amongst your competitors online, and what actually goes into ranking a website on search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo?
Ranking a Website and Search Engine Ethics
The reality is, in today’s digital world, if your business wants to be found on the web without continuous advertising expenditure, your online presence needs to rank organically on popular search engines. Google alone holds a staggering 94% of Australia’s online search market, and the difference in click-through rates between the top 3 positions, the bottom of page 1 and being on page 2 can be the deciding factor whether your business makes it on the web.
This poses an interesting question on search engine ethics; Search engines have become the gatekeepers of the web and play a significant role in establishing the position and visibility of a given business in the digital space. Is it right that these mega-corporations that aren’t even based in Australia have that much control over whether your Australian business can be found by your potential customers?
At the very least you’d hope that search engines would provide guidance on how best to optimise your website to help its rankings right? Unfortunately, that’s not the case and the big names in search operate in an often unregulated, non-transparent way. Typical advice given for ranking a website is often vague and hardly helpful like ‘Have your site mentioned in appropriate places online’. When all is said and done, search engines have little to no stake in your business unless you’re willing to continue to pay their advertising costs long-term.
As a business owner, ranking a website in Australia today is completely under the control of obfuscated computer algorithms that dictate how your site should look, the user experience it should provide, and effectively the content it needs to have. To make matters worse, regular updates have the power to completely erase a business from their index, which could easily make or break a business.
With search engines holding so much power over a website’s rankability, business owners often wonder what exactly they need to do to rank well. They do some preliminary research and are met with thousands upon thousands of articles all claiming to be a ‘fool-proof’ way to help improve rankings. It’s no understatement to say that getting to those coveted top positions is far from easy, search engines are far from transparent about what goes into their ranking algorithm and keeping abreast of regular algorithm updates is often a mix of interpretation and trial and error – not something every business owner is willing to spend a good portion of their day on.
That brings us to why is SEO so important and what a Brisbane digital marketing agency can do for your business to help grow its online presence in the ever-changing digital landscape.
Why You Need SEO and Why SEO is Important
The simple fact of the matter is that if your business wants to rank well on the web it needs to follow the guidelines set out by search engines. While there are certainly self-SEO guides on the internet, SEO is a constant and never-ending game of catch up between your business’ rank on the web and the search engine algorithms; When you fall behind by not staying atop of the latest updates, your website can quickly drop from position 2 to position 30 overnight. Which is why you need SEO approaches that are flexible and adaptable.
Ranking well on the internet is fundamentally, at its core, a game of understanding what search engines want and ensuring your website complies with the never-ending algorithm changes. While we, as SEOs, may not be able to directly manipulate the search engine index and its rankings. We have the practical experience to look at the algorithms, understand how they work, and what to do to give your business the best chance of appearing in a better position in search results.
Do we think it’s right that search engines have so much control over a business’ rank on the web? Search engine ethics is certainly a topic of interest to the team at Resurge Digital and one we enjoy having a good chat about. For now, the fact of the matter is, if your business wants to rank well on the web, your website needs to be search engine optimised and continually kept up to date with the latest changes in the industry.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to ranking well on the web, any SEO company that says as much is most likely more interested in your marketing budget than really helping your business succeed. Every business and every industry is different, and that’s where engaging an SEO specialist that works to understand your business and how your website can be best version of itself online to meet the guidelines of search engines.
Interested in learning more about why SEO is important, ranking a website, or search engine ethics? Get in touch with our SEO Brisbane team today and supercharge your business with Resurge Digital.