Simply put, Search Engine Optimization helps search engines find you on the web. Good search engine optimization ensures that your site ranks high in search results. Why is that important? Because it’s the top results that get the most traffic. If you’re not being found at least on the first page, you won’t see the traffic you want. It’s better to be in the top 10 results, and if you can secure a number one or two spot, you’re in terrific shape.
Search engine optimization, or SEO, involves a few different things:
- Keyword research. This involves researching and choosing the most appropriate targeted keyword phrases related to your site.
- Well-written, targeted content. You’ll use your keywords in your page title, meta description, meta tags, navigation, and in your content.
- Link Building. Google loves links, so you’ll want to develop a strategy to get quality inbound links to your site.
How do these elements help search engines find you?
Search engines use complicated formulas called algorithms to determine what comes up in search results. A search engine may use hundreds of factors while ranking the listings. Algorithms differ between search engines, as well. You may find a web page that ranks #1 in a particular search engine but #200 in another search engine.
By the way – these algorithms are kept top secret, and they change frequently. It’s the search engine’s job to provide visitors with accurate search results, so by keeping this information secret it keeps things real, and spammers can’t clog those results.
Tip: Don’t pay someone to submit your sites to search engines.
A common misconception is that you need to submit a new website to the search engines. This is simply not true, so don’t ever pay anyone money when they offer to do this for you. Search engines have “spiders” who crawl the web regularly and will find your site on their own. It typically takes a few days to a few weeks for the search engine “spiders” to completely crawl your site. If you want to speed things up a bit, a few quality inbound links from a well established site will help the spiders find you a little quicker.
How can I do SEO if I don’t know how?
You can do the research yourself and make the changes to your site, or you can hire someone to do it for you. It really depends on your goals and your budget. SEO can take up a lot of your time, but it’s also expensive to hire someone to do it for you.
A good search engine marketing and promotion company will review your site’s plan and make recommendations on how to improve your traffic and rankings. It’s not uncommon for your search engine optimization expert to work with your web designer to build an integrated plan right away so that all aspects of design are considered at the same time. Some firms also provide ongoing consultation and traffic monitoring. By monitoring your traffic you can see what’s working and what’s not.
P.S. – If you’d like some help with your website and don’t want to pay a fortune, contact me!
