How does SEO work & what value can it add to your business right now?

SEO focuses on three main things to get that top spot, often called a high ranking or organic result (meaning it’s not a paid advertisement):

• Relevance (Keywords & Content): This means making sure your business listing (your website) is clearly about what people are searching for. If you sell “red leather shoes,” your website needs to actually use the phrase “red leather shoes” in its titles, headings, and descriptions. This will ensure that search engines are clearly labeling your business in the directory with the right category.
  
• Authority (Trustworthiness): This is about how much the search engine trusts your website. If lots of other high-quality, respected businesses (other trustworthy websites) link to your website, it tells the search engine, “This place is legitimate and helpful!” This is like getting positive reviews or endorsements from other well-known companies.
  
• User Experience (Technical Factors): This ensures people have a good experience when they arrive. Also, it is important that they are given direction so they know what to do and take action rather than just clicking around and possibly leaving your site. If your website loads quickly, works perfectly on a phone, and is easy to navigate, the search engine will reward you. This is like making sure your physical business is clean, easy to find, and has great service—the search engine wants to send people to places that will make them happy.
  

The main goal of SEO is to get free traffic from search engines and other web sources, because the higher you rank, the more people will actually see & click to your website. Additionally, if your website is not optimized well then you are very likely losing customers to your closest or biggest competitors.