Search Engine Optimization -What is it?

You’ve all heard the buzzword Search Engine Optimization (SEO). But what is it? SEO is the process of preparing a website to be ranked high in Search Engines such as Yahoo!, Google, MSN Search, & AOL. If your pages are already ranked, then SEO gets your pages ranked higher. This is not limited to regular searching, but also image searches, local searches and industry-specific searches.

Many factors of a website, including about 43 things on each page, can be optimized.

SEO is an organic process; rankings come from rich keywords throughout your site, vs. paid advertising, which can also influence rankings, albeit artificially (like Google AdWords).

How do you use it? (The Application)

SEO is used on websites in various ways…

• Optimize particular pages to rank well for a specific keyword
• Optimize a whole website for a particular industry, subject, business, or type of product
• Gain high rankings in search engines, including specialty engines like image search or local searches
• To increase the quality of the leads you generate
• To restructure websites into more functional bits of information
• To compare you vs. your competitors
• Improve ’spidering’ of your website

Why it’s so important (The Result)

• An increase in traffic & visibility – the higher you’re ranked, the more people click on your results
• Improved listing clarity displayed on search engines
• Builds better content through redesigning it, improving readability
• Strengthens landing pages for longer reviewing time per browser
• More educated customers before they call your, and faster checkout times for products

Conclusion: SEO boosts rankings, therefore traffic, to your website. The result is an indirect increase in sales or leads.

Example

Do a little research yourself:

• Type in anything on Google, and get some results.
• Take results #5 and #20 and open them up in different windows or tabs.
• Then do a Find: on each page for your keyword that you used for search.
• Is there a difference? You bet there is. There are very few cases where the #5 result is not keyword-rich, and the #20 result is.

Why? Simple: Google has NO WAY of ranking your website if you don’t use the right keywords throughout your website. This is one of many applications of SEO for websites that will directly lead to rankings. This leads to a very simple premise in the online world of SEO marketing:

Keywords = “Google Food”

Google Food is a term we use here at TAC; it describes the absolute necessity of optimizing a website for particular keywords. Without those keywords, you’re site will never be found through search engines.

Pitfalls of SEO

SEO is like any other marketing; you can be devious or truthful.

• Be honest in all your claims
• Don’t use Black Hat techniques – cloaking, gateway pages, hidden text; if you think it’s underhanded, Google does too
• Remember, search engines are trying to recreate the human experience… if a web page is laid out well for humans, it’s good for SEO
• Don’t ‘keyword stuff’ of try to use too many keywords – if the human reader would say, “That sentence does not make sense,” you’re overdoing it.
• Don’t use submission software, they never work as advertised and sometimes can harm your efforts. Instead, rely upon White Hat techniques that make search engines like and rank you naturally

How We Help

We have over 10 years experience in SEO of websites. Experience that translates into greater leads and sales for you. We use a very detailed analysis process for each website and web page to maximize optimization. We also step outside the normal SEO standard and suggest content you should have on your website for even greater rankings and traffic.

We also adhere to strict Best Practices methods, also called “White Hat”. There are many ways to promote websites, but not all of them are effective, and some can hurt your rankings if you play the SEO game too fast or loose.

Resources

• Article: Users and Search Engines Want the Same Things by Carrie Hill