The internet is a big place, with close to 1.7 billion websites as of October 2018. That statistic grows every single minute, so how is your little website supposed to stand out as a big fish in the pond?
The answer is simple: search engine optimization. Known as SEO, this is a digital marketing technique that can help boost your online presence and visibility. But how do you utilize SEO correctly and ensure your website gets in front of potential customers? Here’s a quick introduction to search engine optimization to help you get started.
What is SEO?
Think back to the last time you did a Google search. What did you search for and how many websites did you click through before you landed on one you liked? How many pages of Google did you search? Chances are, you didn’t look very far through Google, and you clicked on a website on the first page of search results. Have you ever thought about how those websites landed in those high-up positions, compared to similar websites? Well, they have good SEO.
In short, search engine optimization is a combination of many different factors with the goal of placing your website higher on search engine results. When done correctly, it can result in customer conversions and drive more traffic to your website.
How does SEO work?
Search engines utilize tools known as spiders, crawlers, or bots to search the web and index new websites. These computer programs are designed to visit every website on the internet and check what’s going on via algorithms. While only the search engine devs know precisely what the bots are looking for, we can make safe estimates based on what’s successful in SEO. These bots respond to keyword relevancy, multiple website pages, meta descriptions, title tags, backlinks, and HTML.
What factors go into successful SEO?
There are many things which go on in the background of your website that can have a positive impact on your website’s SEO. Here are a few of them:
Keywords: These are the most important words you put on your website. They are what describe your website when it is crawled (aka indexed) by search engine bots, and they ideally match what potential customers type when they’re looking for an item or a service. For example, if you are a bakery in Springfield, Illinois, some relevant keywords would be “wedding cakes in Springfield Illinois”, “cookie delivery”, or “dessert trays”. When creating your website, think of what your potential customer would search for if they were looking for a company in your industry.
Onsite content: You can’t just have keywords on your page without any context. It is important to write relevant content so your keywords look natural and not forced. Plus, if your clients are coming to your website, they are most likely looking for additional information on what you offer, and this is a great way to give them exactly that.
A diverse backlink profile: In order to be seen as a trusted website in your industry, the bots need to see that other websites are linking to you and that you are linking to them. Consider it this way: if another website feels that your site is authoritative enough to link back to in their own content, it gives you credibility in the online world. Additionally, a multitude of links tells the bots that your website and its content are real (and not spam) and have valuable information for readers.
Of course, these factors only scratch the surface of what it means to have a successful SEO campaign. Search engine optimization changes all the time, so it requires patience to fully see the results you’re after. Think of the process much like the stock market — you get out of it what you put into it.
No matter the state of your website’s SEO, whether you’re a beginner or you’re a few months in to working on your website, it’s very possible to rise up the ranks of Google searches. All you need is some dedication, patience, and a trustworthy SEO expert such as Link Graph, and you’ll be climbing the SEO ladder in no time at all.
