Do you want a piece of the “Google pie” but you’re not sure how or where to get started? Then stay on this page and let me help you learn more about optimizing your equine website for Google – more commonly known as SEO.

So, you’ve made a beautiful website for your equestrian business. You’ve spent time, effort and you’re ready to see results. Then it dawns on you – there are no visitors! It’s a dull moment when you discover there’s no incoming traffic on your website!

In this blog post we will discuss the digital practice called SEO, why it is important and how it can help your equine business be discovered online.

What is SEO?

First things first - SEO is short for Search Engine Optimization

 Colloquially it’s called SEO though.

But what is it and what does SEO entail?

Well, you probably know by now that Google is the leading search engine for inquiries about anything and everything and that’s why it’s always Google that you optimize for when you work on SEO. However, there are many other different search engines in the world where you also can work on your SEO performance. Bing, Yahoo and Yadex to mention a few but let’s stick to Google for now.

Okay that’s the overall background – let’s get down to the nitty gritty!

Once you’ve entered a search query in Google you’ll get different results.

For instance, if you type in jodhpurs Google will show you something like this: 

Usually at the very top of the page you will see 4 ads. These are all ads that other businesses have paid for to obtain top spot – the business pays per click to be exposed in this top position. The same goes for the product ads which you’ll usually see on the right side of your screen.

All of these ads are managed through Google AdWords but are not related to search engine optimization (SEO).

 The other results that Google will show you are what we call “organic search results”.  You don’t pay Google for these positions instead they’re defined and achieved through a number of other parameters in Google’s algorithm.

It’s important to understand that you cannot manipulate with the organic search results simply because Google’s purpose is to show and expose the best websites on page 1 at the top in order to match the user search query and needs.

For example if you’re searching for “horse feed” you’re not going to be interested in finding or landing on websites for “sunglasses”. This is why Google’s algorithm functions as it does – its main purpose is to find a connection between the content of your website and the search queries that people look for.

So, what if you’re one in a million of websites that revolves around the same topic or product? How does Google know and more importantly how does Google define which websites should be shown on the top of the page?

The answer is SEO!

 When you work intentionally with SEO you are working at directly improving a website to suit the needs of the search engine user (your potential customer) and indirectly you’re intentionally working on improving it f for Google to rank your site organically above your competitors.

The importance of ranking on the number 1. page in search results

 There are plenty of businesses these days who are of the opinion that it’s enough to be on social media and not that necessary to include Google in their digital equine marketing strategy .

However, when people enter search queries about products, places and services they are searching for a specific solution. In this moment of search people are usually open for purchasing or for viewing ads. However, when people are browsing social media posts, they’re usually not looking for a specific product or service and you need a far stronger and convincing message to convinced them to make a purchase.

That’s not how a website works though.

The search engine aka Google is still the most important source for equine webshops– no matter where in the world you’re operating from.  

How many clicks 1. Page search results receive:

Think of Google as the concierge in a five-star hotel – the concierge’s first and foremost purpose is to fulfill your needs. Google has the exact same purpose. So it will always opt to deliver relevant search results as possible.

 Just imagine that you are positioned as number 1.for the keyword “ dressage trainer” and that there’s about 10,000 monthly searches for this term. That would mean that you would receive 3173 unique visitors per month who is interested in your services! However, if you are ranked as number 10 on page 1 then you’ll only receive 309 visitors. Imagine what will happen if you’re not even ranked on page 1? (numbers are estimates).

This was the first blog post on SEO for equeestrian businesses online. I hope you found it helpful when it comes to understanding why you should invest in SEO. Stay tuned for the next posts about technical SEO and the importance of link building.

Have questions?

Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me or leave a comment below.