When no less than 70% of customers search the company they’re considering buying a product from before they make their final decision, SEO is a must. You could lose a huge amount of customers if your business is hidden between the many pages of search results.

To begin, aim to generate more traffic to your website and increase your sales. When creating your website, insert a good amount of relevant keywords into your content. Discover which relevant words your customers are searching for and which ones your rivals are using. To make the process easier, use Keyword Planner or a similar program.

Once your business website is optimized, turn your attention to content marketing. You’ll appear closer to the top of the first results page if your content is interesting, credible, and between 300 and 3000 words long. Turn yourself into an expert on the subject to keep your audience coming back for more. Not only will your SEO ranking be higher, but you’ll also naturally expand your reach through social proof.

Incorporating links into your content can also make your company more visible online. Make sure, however, to only include links to legitimate, well-respected sources that your target audience would likely visit outside of your website. Link building in a sneaky, dishonest way or with untrustworthy sources can result in lost sales and business penalties.

It’s important not to forget about the ever-growing practice of social media marketing. Even though the amount of interaction your social media posts receive is not a factor in your SEO ranking, using three or more social media sites makes you more relatable, directs more potential customers to your website, and gives you the ability to talk to your audience in real time.

You can’t expect to optimize your search engine result ranking once and watch your sales increase for years after; only well-done marketing campaigns can stand alone. SEO is constantly evolving, as are the interests and needs of consumers. Don’t give up on SEO, and it won’t give up on you.