Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
What is SEO?
SEO is an abbreviation for "search engine optimizer." I am a SEO and I have been certified by Bruce Clay to optimize websites. The thing is there are so many people claiming to truly understand Search Engine Optimization that they promise things that are just unrealistic! In short a good optimizer can look at your web site and guide you on the very best way to structure your site to begin to address the changes needed to compete in your marketplace.
The days of adding meta tags are over. When a search engine sends a crawler to visit your site they look for certain things. They look for themes, relevance of content, site architecture and structure, the links going to and from your web site and the density of keywords on your pages.
It would be to easy to say you can be number one with a few changes because the truth is you must examine your site, then compare it to your competitors, then start to see where you rank and then start the process over again. To SEO a site is a process not a one time project.
Things to be aware of:
- A good SEO firm will include you, guide you, and educate you on the process. Any firm that will not tell you exactly what they are doing in my opinion is pulling the wool over your eyes. You should not have to link to your SEO Firm or have their name on your site unless you want to.
- If an SEO firm guides you on content writing then it is your content. Keywords are an interesting thing – I can not say how many customers have been told they can buy a keyword. This is simply untrue! SEO and PPC are two completely different ways to be seen on the internet. I do consulting for both SEO and PPC and the goal of anybody who spends money on PPC should eventually spend on SEO because the goal is to have consistant good traffic at the lowest cost.
- Organic traffic is free!!!!!!
How do you get your website to rank?
First you need a decent site. If you do not know if you have one, a good firm will tell you very quickly. If I take on a new client the first steps I take is to really analyze the goals of the client.
What do you want from your website – I have seen service agencies use their site like a brochure it tells about their staff and how they got started in business and how to reach them but lacks in covering the product they really want the consumer to know about.
Step One – Analyze Customer Needs.
Step Two – Analyze Clients Curerent Site.
This process varies in time due to the size of a website and the goals stated above.
Step Three – Analyze Competitors Websites.
Once these steps are fully flushed out the work plan begins. Most firms start with one concept, page, and group of keywords so the flow begins. To rank is one thing to rank in the top 4 pages consistently is another. Be aware to stay on the top takes a lot of work.
