SEO today requires a combination of factors to get your site to rise up the rankings in Google. One of the most important and easy to remedy factors is on page optimisation which is giving Google want Google wants. If two sites have the same back links and social media but one has neglected their on page optimisation, then the site that didn't optimise properly will be the one that falls behind.
Have you heard of Google Panda? When Google has a major algorithm update they name them after an animal. This is a "tradition" going back to 2011 and Panda was the update that went after sites that were not complying. If you have on page issues or poor site structure that will certainly be holding you back in the rankings. The positive news is if your site has an on page issue it is not that difficult for us to detect it but it can be time consuming to fix the problem. If your on page optimisation is near perfect then you will require less back links to get high rankings in Google.
Off page SEO is about getting other sites preferably in your industry to give you a link from their site to yours. This is called back linking and it is much more difficult to do than it sounds to earn links naturally. But back links that come from quality sites in your industry are the number one off page factor that will make your site punch its way to the top of the rankings in Google.
A Facebook page, Twitter account, Youtube account, Google + and LinkedIn are some of the most popular social media networks that businesses use today. Using social media correctly will have a positive affect on your business. What could be more positive than interacting with a happy customer of yours on facebook or twitter. Good news travels far and fast these days.
With the proliferation of Smart Phones, IPads and other mobile devices the percentage of your customers that are viewing your site from a hand held device is increasing. This is a government article current to December 2014. Your site needs to be mobile friendly. With most sites this is not a biggie but some require more effort than other sites.
Matt Cutts a Google Engineer was the first to mention site speed as a ranking factor in 2009 and Google started factoring in page speed in 2010. In February 2014 a patent Google had submitted relating to web page speed was granted. Page speed is not a major ranking factor but it is definitely better to have your site complying with Google patents than not to. Unless your page is very slow to load it is generally an inexpensive problem for us to fix.