Search engine optimization (SEO) involves crafting a website so that it ranks well in Google’s search algorithm [SEO also applies to other search engines, but Google is the most important].
Websites that rank well will show up at the top of Google’s search engine result pages (SERPs). Sites that don’t rank well will show up further down the list.
Since web searchers are an impatient lot, it is important to be among the first few results Google delivers for your targeted search terms. A recent study showed that the top three search results get a whopping 77% of total clicks. Some terms can be very competitive, so it is not always possible to get into the top 3 results, but if you are not at least on the first page of search results, then your chances of being found are quite low.
Not all businesses necessarily rely on search traffic, but if you are in a business where you need people to be able to find your website easily via Google searches, then SEO should be a top priority for you.
How Does SEO Work?
SEO involves trying to understand what factors search engines use to rank web pages and then crafting websites to excel on those factors. There are two general types of factors to be considered:
- Technical elements, including sitemaps, URL strings, HTML tags, image attributes, webpage loading speed, meta descriptions, and numerous other factors
- Content elements, including, most importantly, the informational content of your site, but also including design, navigation, and other elements that increase usability of your website
- Site authority, which Google measures largely by evaluating the number and quality of inbound links to your site from other websites
The overarching idea is that you want to build a website that provides visitors with a more relevant experience than others site in your field. If you are providing the best experience, then, over time, Google will generally choose to list your website high in the search engine results. On the other hand, if your website provides a poor user experience, then it will be listed lower in the rankings.
It is fairly easy to test if your site is doing well (or well enough) in SEO simply by trying some search terms that are relevant to your business and seeing where your site shows up. When doing this, it is important to use terms that are reflective of what ordinary searchers are likely to use (as opposed to people who already know you or your product). For example, if you sell a medical product with a specific brand name, don’t search for your product brand name. Instead, search for the general category your product belongs to (e.g., search for ‘mobile phones’ vs. ‘iPhone’). [Note: Google, in particular, personalizes its search results per individual, so you need to do the search on a computer that is not yours or you need to open a private browsing window. If you don’t, Google may show you search results that are heavily biased by your prior search behavior.]
How We Can Help You
Webdot Marketing can help you achieve better SEO performance. This will translate into higher search rankings and more traffic for your website.
Here are some of the things we can do:
- SEO audit. A detailed review of your website to assess the current state of your SEO performance. This involves an in-depth review of both technical and content factors that affect SEO performance. It also includes a review of your inbound links. Finally, it includes identifying some of the search terms that are most relevant for your business and then quantifying how well you are performing on those terms.
- Keyword analysis. Keyword analysis involves identifying what keywords are most relevant to your business needs and then assessing what can be done to get you better performance on these terms.
- Content analysis. Content analysis takes a careful look through all your website content to determine how it matches up against your target keywords. The idea is to figure out if your webpage content does a good enough job delivering content that ties into the terms web searchers would be using to find your business.
- Technical tune-up. This type of work involves making behind the scenes changes to your website that will help you perform better on the more technical elements of SEO.
- Content tune-up. A content tune-up involves reworking the content on your site to provide information that is more closely tied into your target keywords. This work can involve editing existing pages to amp up the keyword targeting. It can also involve adding entirely new pages designed to be highly focused on specific keywords. In some cases, it may also be advisable to remove some content – e.g., where an existing page covers too many topics which dilutes overall impact.
- Link building. You don’t have full control over who links to your site and who doesn’t, but you can take steps to encourage people to link to you (or to remove links from spammy sites that are hurting you). You can also proactively create content on other sites that may include a link to your own website. We can evaluate your existing inbound links and identify options for generating additional links.
Please contact us and let’s talk about how we can work together to make your site kick butt.