Yes, on-site optimization, (SEO), is important for your website because:
- Your website content should be written with necessary keywords and phrases that will allow your business to get found in Internet search results. Use conversational language in your content, not keyword stuffing for search engines. In fact, keyword stuffing will get your site penalized in search results, so don’t do it!
- Your website should include internal linking to other pages on your website that pull people through the sales funnel and convert viewers into leads. It doesn’t matter if those leads use your contact form or call your telephone, a lead that comes from your website is the result you want from your website. Whether you convert the lead to a customer is a function of your sales technique, not that of your webmaster.
- Your website should be regularly updated with quality content. Content is what keeps your website ranking in search. Don’t build a website and abandon it, it will quickly fade away as it will be replaced in search by your competition.
- You or your webmaster should be regularly monitoring the internal framework of your website by using Google and Bing webmaster tools to ensure your websites internal structure is correct. That would be using proper meta tags, alt tags, H1, H2, etc. and the list goes on. Also, keeping components like templates, plug-in, php, etc. updated. If you don’t understand this, you might consider hiring a webmaster who will do it for you.
Social media is necessary to your website because:
- Google now ranks websites based on their social components. Do you have social media platforms? Are you regularly updating those platforms? Are you updating your platforms with what Google considers relevant information for your audience?
- Google trusts websites with an active social media presence and will place your website higher in search results than your competitors based on this. A website with zero social media is considered less trustworthy.
- Search engine algorithms change frequently and relying on SEO alone will one day prove to bring your website down in search results. One day you may be on page 1 position 1 and with the next algorithm change you might be nowhere to be found.
- Social media marketing is a way to market your business by driving people from social to your website. Remember, your website is the only place on the Internet that you can control, so use it well.
- Social media marketing is an important component in your social relevance. That is, your current customers now have a way to stay connected to your business if you are sharing, engaging, and commenting. People researching your business and that of others will consider your business more stable by having a social component that is updated consistently and engaging.