Are you interested in increasing your business’ search engine presence? Do you want to turn up in the search results when customers are looking for the products and services you offer?

With a sound search engine optimization (SEO) strategy, you can build a strong search engine presence, making it easier for your customers to find you.

But before you go out and hire an SEO company, there are some things you should know. These are the 7 essential things every business should know about search engine optimization.

1. Not all SEO companies are the same—You might think about just hiring the first SEO company you come across. Don’t. Not all SEO companies are the same. In fact, there are some very shady SEO companies out there plaguing the industry. That’s why you need to take the time to research your options. Find an experienced SEO company that has a good standing in their industry, and schedule a consultation so you can talk to them and ensure they’re legitimate.

2. SEO takes time—No matter how good your SEO company is, you’re not going to end up on page 1 for every keyword you’re targeting within a couple of weeks. Good SEO takes some time. You have to stick with it, because if you have hired a good SEO company, the results will start to appear within a few months. And once that happens, you’ll really begin seeing all of the benefits of search engine optimization.

3. SEO is more than just keywords—Yes, the foundation of SEO are your keywords. But SEO is more than just stuffing keywords on your website. SEO extends into the architecture of your website (the way it’s built) all the way into offsite marketing measures, like link building.

4. SEO is an ongoing process—SEO isn’t a one-time task. You don’t just "SEO" a website and forget about it. You have to constantly work on building links through content marketing, targeting new keywords, tracking the latest trends, and more. It’s this constant work that will help to vault your website over the others in the search results.

5. Results must be tracked—You have to track everything. Your SEO company should be able to track your keyword rankings so you can see them improve over time. Furthermore, you should have analytics on your website so you can see how visitors are arriving and what they’re doing once they get on your site. Track everything!

6. SEO is meaningless if visitors don’t convert—Look, having a website that gets good rankings in the search engines is nice. It really is. But if visitors aren’t doing anything once they get on your website, it’s all for nothing. The best SEO companies understand that websites need to be setup in a way to maximize conversions so that your visitors are taking action (e.g. making a purchase, contacting you, scheduling a consultation, etc.).

7. Quality always trumps quantity—This goes for all phases of SEO. Quality trumps quantity when it comes to building links back to your website. Quality also trumps quantity when it comes to choosing keywords—a highly targeted keyword is better than a generic phrase that might attract more traffic.

Keep these things in mind when starting an SEO campaign for your business.