Now it’s time to tackle an often used but seldom understood service that we offer. Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is the process of organically appearing on the first page of Google searches. Why Google and not Yahoo, Bing or any other? Frankly speaking, Google is the only one that matters for two reasons. Statistics show that Google searches make up around 90%-95% of all internet searches conducted. How do we know this? The answer to that question leads us to the second reason to choose Google. Most of the other search engines, if not all, have agreements with Google to use their search data including Microsoft and others. In 25 years or so they have become the undisputed leader by a lot, not even a little, so we all play the game to try and beat their system. We could take out ads, and many marketing functions do, which cost money to buy your place at the front of the line where it says “Ad” next to your name.
SEO then is how to “rank” at the top without the benefit of ads. That said, SEO can be expensive (though not as much as advertising) because it takes time and effort to do what’s necessary to be on the first page in those coveted few slots. Be aware that a good SEO effort takes 3 to 9 months to be successful and you must keep going in some fashion to keep that ranking solid. To many companies, it’s worth it as the difference between someone clicking your site on the first page is exponentially higher than if it were on the second page or greater.
There are three components to Search Engine Optimization success plus one overriding factor which should happen as a result and is the key to it all. First, a website trying to rank highly must have OnPage Content (typed that way on purpose). This means the content on each page of your site should reflect what the site is about and/or what the page is about. This is done by picking keywords or keyphrases for each page and making the content match so the key phrase for this page is “search engine optimization” since that’s what the article is about. Second, the site domain and keywords associated with it must generally match what the site is about. So, we can’t have a site that is supposed to be about helping small businesses have a domain, or conversely a site full of content, about cigars or dogs or music. An article or two about those things is fine as long as it relates back to the theme of the site.
The final component for good search status is the hardest to come by, but maybe the most important. A website wanting to be noticed should have good “referring links/websites” or Backlinks as they are commonly called. That is, you want other sites writing posts or articles or pages which reference your site. It takes time to find the ones which are a good fit, and those sites have to be generating traffic to come to your website as they, like customers, should be referred to have success. This brings us to the “secret sauce” of SEO which is traffic. Google won’t bother to come to visit (crawl) a website unless it notices traffic going to it in much the same way that you choose the good restaurant by how many cars are in the parking lot. The more people that try it, the more it attracts Google’s attention so it comes in, samples the food, decides it’s good and the experience was good and friendly, and it goes and tells its friends. This is a little over-simplistic but you get the idea hopefully that all of these aspects above create or drive traffic to your website which in turn moves you up the ranks to the first page.
So that is SEO in a nutshell. Three variables to get right to create the secret sauce and get you noticed by those who are looking for what you have. We offer different levels of SEO at all but one of our core systems. The Digital Works System offers a full SEO experience with all features above present. The Website Works and Profit Works systems offer “SEO-enabled” websites because the sites we create are already optimized for SEO efforts so much of the initial work is done for you. If you want more info or to see if what we have is a good fit for you, PM, E-mail, or call us.
