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An Introduction to SEO
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is part art, part science. Don’t let the term confuse you. SEO is simply the mechanics and tools of helping seekers find your business site via search engines like Yahoo or Google. They also find you via other sites and blogs and building relationships in social media land helps also. You an have a professional site review done, but most of the tweaking can be done by you, and it is generally free and easy.
Anything you do using your business persona online can help drive traffic to your site. This can include social media sites like your LinkedIn profile, commenting on an industry blog, a blog post you’ve written, or business articles you’ve submitted to directories. Whenever a customer looks for a company like yours, the more activity you have online the more likely you are to be found. THAT is SEO.
Search engines search for keywords. Keywords are those key terms in the text of your site or blog that define your business and what you do. When you look over your site, notice areas like About Us, What We Do, even Contact Us for content you improve. And when it comes to blogging, keep in mind that just saturating your posts with keywords is NOT effective. You must have something to say that is well-written to entice readers to actually engage with your site.
Tinkering with your page categories and headings can actually improve the amount of time a potential customer spends on your site and how “deep” they go (how many different areas they click on). Subtle changes like changing the word “Categories” to “Topics” on a site have made a significant difference for famous writers like Tim Ferriss. Experiment, through watching your site analytics, to see if changing “About Us” to “Who We Are” makes a difference on attracting readers to new areas of your page.
By adding a blog to your company Web site and blogging consistently one or more times per week, you automatically improve your search engine optimization. Why? Blog posts, generally just 300 words or even less, have a broader variety of topics and keywords for search engines to find. For instance, if you own a
Embedded in your Web site or blog are tiny pieces of code called meta tags. These tags provide information about your site that search engines look for. While your company is Joe’s Heating and Air, your site meta tag might be “heating and air, keeping you comfortable for less”. It may be you never offered input on this when your site was developed. Ask it to be changed and watch your analytics to see if traffic changes.
You’ve seen many sites, or you have one, that opens with a flash animation sequence. These are fun but actually confuse search engine crawlers, causing them to overlook your site. You can certainly add flash features, just save it for another page or don’t use them at all. A well-crafted and designed home page with the right information and keywords is enough.
There is an easy way to both improve your traffic and build rapport with other site owners on the Internet. It is called hyperlinking. Adding links to other sites or blogs on yours associates you with the traffic their site generates, adds solid content to your site and offers you the opportunity to interact with other site owners. Additionally, they are likely to link back to your site, giving you visibility with a whole new group of readers.
When someone goes online to find a business, search engine optimization facilitates this process. Business owners should have some knowledge about how this works and what they can do to improve their rankings on major search engines. It is simple and we provide suggestions that you should be able to implement yourself for little or no cost. It isn’t hard to learn but the payoffs in increased traffic can be significant!
