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A key component of how your site looks and behaves is how well it is optimized for SEO. But what is SEO, and why does it matter? As someone in the heavy-duty repair industry, this may not be something you’re too aware of, but that’s ok because, by the end of this page, you’ll be fully aware of why an SEO-optimized website is crucial for your business.
Introduction to SEO
Before we get into why SEO matters for you, let’s have a quick look at what it actually entails.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a strategy that enhances your website’s visibility on search engines. If someone Googles “heavy-duty brake repairs,” then a site optimized for SEO will impact how high up on Google’s rankings it will appear. The higher up in the rankings, the better, with the top three sites in each search getting 68.7% of the total clicks.
Although there are many components to a well-optimized website, some of the main pillars include:
Keywords: Relevant keywords that match potential search queries and appear throughout your site.
Content: High-quality, engaging, and informative content that should always answer the user's questions and provide value.
Backlinks: Links to your website from other sites. These are how search engines know you’re a trusted source of information.
Site Architecture: User-friendly, well-organized designs that make it easy to navigate, optimized for mobile, and fast loading speeds.
How Search Engines Assess Your Site
Although an SEO-optimized site should always put the user experience first, search engines like Google or Bing will assess your site to determine where it belongs in the rankings. They use bots to crawl your site and get a taste of what it’s all about. Your site’s pages are then indexed and will appear in the rankings based on a range of criteria.
How SEO Has Changed
Over the years, search engines have become more sophisticated, and the criteria for what makes a site worthy of ranking in their eyes have changed. It used to be more about volume than anything else; take keyword stuffing as an example.
This would involve mentioning your keyword at every opportunity throughout your content. The problem is that it sounds terrible, though. Take this, for example:
“If you’re looking for axle repairs, then we offer axle repairs to fit your axle repair needs. These are comprehensive axle repairs to ensure your axle is repaired, and you will not need axle repairs again soon.”
How bad was that? But back in the Wild West of SEO, that was what worked and would skyrocket your site to the top.
Now, after a series of different algorithm updates (hilariously named after animals like pandas and hummingbirds), these practices no longer work and instead penalize your site. It’s in the search engine's best interest to reward high-quality websites, not garbage ones hacking the system.
Nowadays, SEO is an umbrella term for a more holistic approach, knitting together various components that put the reader first and easily provide value.
Key Benefits of an SEO-Optimized Site
Now that you know what SEO is, it’s time to explain why you need an SEO-optimized site for your business.
Benefit 1: Increase Visibility, Ranking, Traffic and Sales
Increased visibility and everything that comes with that is the most vital benefit of an SEO-optimized website. The higher you are in people's search results, the more likely users will click on your website. These clicks are all potential customers actively searching for what your heavy-duty repair shop has to offer.
Even the smallest of margins has a huge impact. Moving from second to first can see your site's click rate improve by 74.5%, while moving from 10th to 9th will increase your clicks by 11%.
Having SEO-optimized content on your site can not only increase the amount of traffic that comes to your site but also its quality. Having 1000 people visit your site each week is great, but if they’re not the right audience, these won't translate into sales. Apart from looking good on a graph, this traffic is pointless.
Optimizing your site’s content to target a much more granular audience may only see 150 people pay a weekly visit. But if they’re actively looking for and, more importantly, buying from you, a less impressive graph is worth it.
Benefit 2: Enhance User Experience (UX)
Even today, people are creating and optimizing their websites and content to appease the search engine gods. This is an awful approach to take and should be created with customer experience in mind first. Bots second.
Site architecture is a key component of both SEO and UX. This means having your site structured logically, making it easy to navigate and find the information the visitor needs.
The content you post should also follow this logic. Easy to read, broken up by subheadings and short, informative sentences (like this page). This helps both search engines and customers easily digest the words on the page.
Have you ever clicked off a site because it took too long to load? Well, you’re not alone. 47% of users expect a maximum of 2 seconds of loading time for an average website. You might have the best repairs for 200 miles, but if your site takes too long to load, nobody will ever find out.
A user quickly clicking off your site is known as the bounce rate. Consistent, rapid bounce rates are huge red flags to search engines and will cause your site to plummet down the rankings.
UX should go beyond merely complying with SEO. It should be there to ensure someone on your site can find what they need with minimal fuss. It’s called user experience, after all.
Benefit 3: Build Credibility and Trust
The higher your ranking, the more likely you’ll get a click. It’s not just because people are lazy (although this is a factor), but they also assume that if you’re at the top, you’re more trustworthy than everyone else. Think about it: when was the last time you scrolled past the top three sites, let alone the depths of the rankings?
If you’re consistently at the top of the rankings, especially if you appear there for multiple search queries, this will only increase your credibility in users' eyes.
Authority is perhaps the most important ranking factor for search engines. They only want to reward the best of the best, not poorly designed, slow websites full of spelling and factual errors.
Following SEO best practices like securing high-quality backlinks from already authoritative websites, creating high-quality, relevant content, and putting the user first are all ways to build recognition and trust over time.
Benefit 4: Gain a Competitive Edge
We won’t mention how the higher you are, the more clicks you get again; we’ve done that enough. But if you and another repair shop offer the same service and you’re one place above them in the rankings, chances are you’ll get the click while they sit there waiting for the phone to ring.
It really is that simple.
Benefit 5: Local Engagement
Local SEO is a whole different concept that requires a few extra, more specific considerations. Your repair shop probably relies on two types of customers: local-based businesses and those passing through the area needing attention.
Either way, your site must follow local SEO best practices to capture these customers. These include localized keywords, Google Maps, and Google My Business optimization. Ensure that your name, address, and phone number (NAP) are consistent across your site and other areas of the web.
Benefit 6: Cost-Effective and Scalable
Although a bit of time is needed to get an SEO website up and running, once it’s all established, it’s a cost-effective alternative to paid media. The latter will only work so long as you keep feeding it with money; SEO isn’t like that. An SEO-optimized website will maintain and grow its performance, even with less time and resources going towards it.
That’s not to say that no upkeep is required, and a consistent posting schedule is needed to scale your operations. But compared to paid media, it’s far less expensive and easier to maintain.
If you already run paid ads, that’s great because SEO is the perfect complement to these, especially search engine PPC campaigns. If your PPC ads are at the top of the page and you’re also taking the top organic spots, that's more search engine real estate your business will occupy.
Before You Go…
So there you have it; you’re now fully aware of the importance of an SEO-optimized website. Today, optimizing a website for search engines and users is as important as the tools in your repair shop. This isn’t a nice-to-have; it’s absolutely essential.
You could set up your website and optimize it yourself. But do you really have the time for that? Of course you don't; you’re too busy keeping all of those other plates spinning!
So why not leave it up to the experts?
At Dieselmatic, we’ve got years of experience building SEO-optimized websites for heavy-duty repair shops like yours across North America. Whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been in the game for decades, we’ve got something for you. Just tap the button below now to get in touch and level up your repair shop with Dieselmatic.
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