Do customers in the market you serve have a hard time getting good information? Don’t worry—you’re not alone.

Anyone who uses search engines to navigate the web (i.e., everyone!) has learned what a tangled one it can be. While it may not be a dream when you go to do some online shopping on your personal time, it’s an absolute nightmare when you think about how your prospective customers find information about your business.

That’s where search engine optimization, or SEO, comes in. Many clients come to Blue Creative Group looking for help in developing a business strategy, and some are a little surprised when we suggest an SEO audit of the company website as an early stage in the process. The simple reason is this: How your site shares information can indicate the focus of your business. Clients who consider X to be their core business are often surprised to find that the way their site is built indicates that their strength lies in Y and Z.

The SEO audit is the first step to getting back on track. Solutions that come out of the audit can be as basic as moving some core business content closer to the home page, where it is more easily found. Another idea may involve regular updates of fresh content, targeting search terms that your clientele uses regularly.

For our clients, we develop a plan to create innovative content that will be aligned with a company’s values and market presence. Oddly enough, some of it may have nothing to do with your specific company, but instead will focus on your approaches to business or your understanding of the greater market. We don’t always know what the content will be, until we better understand the market through the SEO audit.

Google and other search engines routinely alter and update the algorithms that direct how each and every search works. An SEO audit will provide detailed information about what to include in site content: lists of keywords that will direct searches to your business, and possibly metatags to apply to the site content behind the scenes. Incorporating keywords and phrases into content that fulfills the promise of these search terms will make search work better all around.

While metatags have recently fallen out of favor with many search engines, thanks to a widespread SEO technique that involved “stuffing” a site with metatags to garner better search results. We think it’s wise to pay attention to all of these tools. It’s good to be ready should metatags come back in vogue, particularly when using them properly to point search towards strong content.

This content can stimulate organic traffic within the search engines’ most recent algorithms. It may serve to educate site visitors on recent trends in your field, offer insight into how the diverse experience of your team helps them offer their unique perspectives, or even share case studies that show how you manage things a little differently, and why. Content can vary from videos to blog posts to whitepapers to social-media tie-ins. Similarly, the tone must fit the medium, and it all will carry the core focus spelled out in the SEO audit.

I’ve never understood people who can’t bear to look at the content of their own website. To me you’re ignoring the most basic gut instinct there. If you don’t like it, why should anyone else? We get that and strive to create interesting content that works within the SEO parameters. Maybe it will make visitors to your site laugh every now and again, or think about a topic in ways they never did before. There’s nothing wrong with any of that!

A good content plan means your business can benefit from using the knowledge of SEO to your advantage and bring organic traffic to your site. The people conducting these web searches have never heard of you or your company, but are searching for the products or services you offer—in short, they’re new customers!

That’s the best part: A content plan created from a recent SEO audit will drive the right kind of traffic. The audience that finds you is looking for what you do. A smart content plan doesn’t just find those customers. It also puts forth your team as the experts they are, and serves to educate the audience you reach. The result is an informed customer base who understands why they are talking to you. And isn’t that what we all dream about?