SEO is something that business owners have heard over and over again. Although it’s an acronym that is used over and over again, very few understand what it really means and how important it is to their marketing campaign. SEO is something that has to be understood in order for it to be a tool that works well.
SEO stands for search engine optimization. Search engine optimization simply means that a search engine bot can easily look at a website and read it. This is something that is very important to business owners that want to increase the traffic on their websites from search engines. These business owners want to increase their organic traffic because it’s more opportunity they have to create more revenue. SEO is something that is an ongoing effort and should be a priority for those that rely heavily on organic traffic.
SEO Unplugged
When a business owner puts a website together and launches it, they expect their website to help increase attention to their business and give them more opportunity to make money. Those that work with professionals to launch their website and fill it with relevant content have heard of the importance of good and consistent SEO practices. These business owners have learned they will need a team of professionals to maintain a search engine optimized website at all times. Those that don’t work with a specialist will have to learn about SEO alone and how to build a successful team through trial and error.
There are many things that make up a search engine optimized website. SEO is more than specific keywords and phrases. There are many things a search engine bot looks at when combing a website before giving it a rank. Most of these things are tied to good SEO practices. Most business owners don’t realize their ranking is based on more than specific keywords and phrases.
When a search engine bot goes to a website, they are programed with certain algorithms. These algorithms can be very complicated and they aren’t always the easiest thing for people that don’t specialize in SEO to understand. Based on the contents of a website, inside and out, a bot will rank the website. There are specific things a bot looks at when ranking a website: keyword density, META tags, titles, inbound and outbound links, website traffic and content.
SEO Put Together
Most novice webmasters have never heard of these terms. These terms are important and have to be addressed so that SEO works in their favor.
Keyword density- This is the number of times a specific keyword appears throughout the website and content. As of now, 1-2% density is best. Anything beyond that can be considered keyword stuffing and a website can be penalized.
META tags- This is a piece of HTML code that is placed into the header of a website, normally after the title tag. These tags aren’t normally seen by the website users but they do tell search engines what’s on the website.
Inbound and Outbound Links- Links are very important. Inbound links are links that are placed on other websites that direct people to the website. These links help tell the search engines that people trust the site and that it’s an authority site. Outbound links are links from the website that point to another site. The trick about using links is to make sure these links are of good quality and lead to a good site.
Content- The phrase “content is king” is very true. A website that doesn’t have good content has nothing to engage their visitor and there is no reason for that visitor to come back. Search engines will penalize a website that doesn’t have relevant content or any content.
A successful SEO campaign takes time to put together but it’s a campaign that will leave a webmaster in the top search engine results.