A brief introduction to Search Engine Optimization.
There are so many websites online. For every product, service, or piece of information that you could be looking for, there are hundreds of websites that fight with one another for your attention. So, how do you manage to make your website stand out above the rest so that someone decides to click on it?
You optimize it!
What is SEO?
SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization” and refers to the process of improving your website and online content so that your business gets found on Google and other search engines by people looking for the products or services you offer.
The goal of SEO is to increase the quality and quantity of website visitors so that they are more likely to convert. SEO is a long term strategy that, when done right, can significantly increase organic website traffic and conversion. Organic website traffic refers to website visits that don’t come from paid sources such as Google Ads or banner ads.
How does it work?
Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other search engines use bots to crawl all the pages on the internet and collect information about the content of those pages. Then, these are put in an index where they’re analyzed by algorithms that use many ranking factors to help them decide which pages show in what order in search engine results pages (SERPs) for a specific search term.
There are many ranking factors used by the algorithms, including load speed, keyword usage, social metrics, traffic data, brand reputation, content uniqueness, quality of inbound and outbound links, etc.
Search Engine Optimization works by making improvements both within the website and outside of it so that you can satisfy as many of those ranking factors as possible, therefore securing a higher ranking for your website in the SERP for relevant search terms.
There are two types of optimization: on-site SEO and off-site SEO.
On-site SEO
This type of SEO refers to improving the content and the source code of a website. This involves researching what and how people search online when they look for your products or services, and using that information to create content on your website that will fit their needs.
The source code improvements refer to cleaning up the backend of your site so that you have a website that loads quickly, has all the correct tracking, has optimized images, and runs smoothly. Google likes websites with neat and organized code!
Off-site SEO
Off-site SEO encompasses all the work that you do outside of your website to improve the perception and authority of your site, with the ultimate goal of signaling to Google and other search engines that you have a trustworthy website with valuable and relevant information.
This process entails getting other reputable websites around the internet to link back to your pages and promote your content, therefore “endorsing” the quality of your site.
Why is it important?
Simple. Good SEO provides your website, and therefore your business, with the visibility it needs to break through the online clutter and attract potential customers that search for products, services, or information online.
SEO is our specialty. While many web designers are intimidated by SEO or offer it only as an add-on for extra $$$, we believe that good SEO is so essential to the success of a website that we include it in every web project. In fact, we build our whole web design and development strategy around the SEO potential for your specific site.
There is a lot to Search Engine Optimization. We will cover other aspects of it in future articles, but for now take this as your brief introduction to the concept and some of the ideas behind it.
Do you want to learn more about SEO and how it can help your website stand out from your local competitors? Get in touch with us and lets chat! We can perform an SEO audit on your current site or put together a website proposal that will maximize your SEO potential and help you get found on Google.