Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
Search Engine Optimization, always referred to as "SEO", is the responsibility of the website design firm that develops your website. Then why is it that 9 sites out of 10 suffer from "SEO neglect"? Either the client didn't know how to make sure SEO work was performed OR the web development firm didn't really know what to do. Whatever the case, we can all agree that having a website that looks good and functions well is worth nothing if potential clients can't find it by typing keywords into a search engine.
AN EDUCATION IN SEO
As a business owner or representative, you have enough on your plate. And while you don't need to know how to optimize a website, you should know how SEO works on a basic level. Search engines rank every website on the Internet based on certain criteria, like keyword depth, site traffic and inbound links. The idea is that if a site has a lot of content about a particular topic (including products and services), the more relevant they believe it will be to the user who's searching for it. Makes sense, right? They use site traffic and number of inbound links to determine popularity. For example, search engines usually have the highest amount of traffic because people use them first to find what they're looking for. Search engines also figure that if a ton of other sites include a link to your site, your site must be very helpful for the topic(s) you cover.
Google, for example, uses a mathematical algorithm to determine how it will rank search results each time a user performs a search. That algorithm changes fairly often because, inevitably, a few companies figure out how to trick Google into ranking their site higher than it should. So, it's a protective measure to keep search results relevant. This may be more than you need to know, but if you take anything away, remember these rules:
#1 - A lot of good content, with a keyword density of 6-10% (including headers), is the best way to increase rankings.
#2 - The more links you have pointing to your site (social media, etc.), the better! (See: Inbound Marketing 101)
#3 - There are meta tag parameters for title, description and keywords: stay within them.
#4 - Linking to interior site pages makes it easier for spiders to crawl and index, especially from the homepage.
#5 - Don't try to trick the spiders; Climbing the ranks legitimately is better than being black-listed.
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