What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization is one of the most important aspects of online marketing.  In an earlier post I talked about branding yourself online using a blog.  Well, if no one ever sees that blog then it is really not very helpful.  In addition to your blog, you need to have a webpage or capture page where you can send people to that contain the product or service that you are marketing.  Just as you want people to find your blog you also want people to find your marketing website.

There are two ways to help people find your website through Google. … One is Pay Per Click search or the paid advertising that is on the right side of the Google search page results, and the other is the organic search results which are what are on the left side of the page.

It is on the left side where SEO (Search Engine Optimization) comes into play.  Rather than pay to get your site on the first page of Google, you need to optimize your website so that Google sees it as relevant.  This relevancy will put you on the first page for your key words if … the sun is shining, all of the planets are exactly aligned and you are projecting pure thoughts.  But seriously, it does seem that you have about that much control of it!  You may even feel powerless, but you are not, you just need to learn what makes Google find you and “see” you as valuable and relevant.

There are some things that you can do to your site that are extremely important to do, and I will list those here, but something that you need to know is that this only accounts for around 25% of what Google is looking at in terms of your site.

This is what Google is looking at:

1. The Page Title – It should focus on your keywords
2. Your URL – It should also focus on your keywords
3. Headings – You should have several
4. Text – To look for content and how the text is formatted, such as the emphasis put on bold type words etc.
5. Description – It should be relevant to the page

The other 75% of the decision is made from the off page, or links to your website/blog.  This is harder to control but obviously very important to figure out.  First Google looks at you site to evaluate how important or relevant your site is and gives it a score.  This score if from 0-10.  Something that is interesting about this scales is that it is exponential, that is to say, that it is more difficult to go from 6 up to 7 than it is to go from 3 up to 4.  So, the higher you go the harder it is to move up.  For Google to decide to move you up or not, they are looking for what other people think of your site.  If others are linking to it then they see it as a recommendation.  To get those links you need to promote your site through other sites.

There are many ways to do this, but you should probably start with the website directories.  Look around until you find ones that looks like they are in good shape and maintained.  Another way is to partner with other companies or sites that you do business with and have them link back to your site.

To have your site linked back to, it has to have good content and you have to be active.  So now we are back to the basics, you want to have content on your site that is interesting and/or helpful, this will cause people to link back to your site.  To be active you need to be on social sites, reading and posting in other blogs, answering questions in forums or even in wikis.  You could even send out press releases about an event or new product that you have.

Finally just a few other pointers, each key word needs its own page, do not put all of your key words in one post and then send all your traffic there.  Your posts should be specific to the key word.  It is not the length of the post that matters on your blog but the number of pages.  If you want to use flash on your website, some is OK.  However, do not use it a lot, Google can not read the flash so it does not add to the site in terms of Google ranking.  Lastly, where you host your site does not matter, it is all about the URL.  There is a lot to learn and it is best to find a good resource and study it well.  Now go get optimized!!!

I hope that you found this helpful, leave me a comment and let me know.

Kathy Sammons

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