What is SEO?

If you have a website, you’ve probably heard the term SEO, or Search Engine Optimization. SEO is the process of optimizing your website to make it rank high on search engines, like Google. Everyone with a website wants their website to appear as high as possible for more visibility, which translates into more traffic on their website, and eventually more sales. SEO is imperative for a business to invest in to boost their search engine rankings.

On many general searches with a search engine, it is now common to see high ranking website that are paying for the position. These are paid advertisements, and they will be marked as such. Don’t confuse these with SEO. SEO is organic and strategic based on keywords, build of your website, and more to move you up in rankings.

The Search Engine Algorithm

Showing up at the top of search results will not happen overnight (unless maybe you pay for it). SEO takes time and trial and error. Search engines all have their unique (secret) algorithms that have been studied by SEO experts.

What shows up in a search result will vary from person to person, location to location. Search engines learn about you from previous searches, location, etc. This makes SEO very strategic and every site unique.

SEO Strategy

There isn’t one strategy for all websites. Each website/business will need to know their customers and target market. What problem are you solving for them? Why are they on the internet searching? What keywords will they use in their searches? This will help your organization prioritize and analyze keywords, phrases, and topics your website will be known for and rank for on search engines.

Factors of SEO

As mentioned above, you’ll want to know things like keywords and key phrases your target audience is searching for, but this is just the beginning and will help you navigate other key factors in your SEO strategy.

These factors can be broken down into two categories — on-site and off-site optimization. On-site is more in the website developer control than off-site optimization.

On-Site

Factors that are on-site begin with your website foundation—the build of your website. Items to consider are website structure (what pages link to which pages), URL structure (are your URLs too long?), page load time, mobile responsiveness, and correctly using metadata such as page title tags and headers to help search engines “crawl” the website.

Search engines are “crawling” websites which means they are scanning them for relevant and easy to navigate content. Once a business has figured out their target audience and what problems they are helping solve, their website should cater to that content. It should be related to the prioritized keywords selected when developing an SEO strategy.

The more accurate content shared on a website related to a topic, the more trustworthy and authoritative your website will become. It is also important to keep websites updated and providing new content regularly to build creditability. This is important for elements in the off-site optimization and helping a website move up in search engine results.

Off-Site

While these factors are less in the control of a developer, they are still important. Backlinks (links to your website from another website) are a big factor for your SEO strategy. Higher authority websites are better, especially if they link using keywords, but how can you get websites to link to your website? Build relationships! Network with others in your industry to see how you can partner together to benefit your target audience.

Another important off-site optimization tool is social media. Similar to backlinks, you can share content from your website and followers can easily share, creating more visibility for your site. In general, search engines are monitor social media channels and well for influence and content to show in search results, which means when reputable pages or influencers share your content, the better the ranking!  

Does my website need SEO?    

If you want people to see your website, then yes. SEO should be considered when building your website and when developing your digital marketing strategy. You’ll want to develop relevant content and often to share first on your website and then on social media to help drive traffic to your website. If you aren’t driving users to your website, what purpose is your website serving?

Getting started with SEO

SEO will need to be a priority when you are developing a website, doing target market research, building marketing strategies, and creating content. It seems overwhelming, but SEO takes time and trial and error.

When you are going through marketing strategies, it is best to determine some key performance indicators (KPIs) to help measure success of your efforts. You’ll want general goals and detailed KPIs to test your SEO efforts. It is ok not to try everything at once, because you’ll want to see what is working and what isn’t working for your efforts. You’ll also need to give your strategy time, as moving up in search engine rankings will not happen overnight.

If this is overwhelming, there are many options to help organizations large and small work on their SEO. For instance, many website builders that small organizations use such as Wix and Squarespace have SEO tools built right into their features. It is important not to ignore these! They will walk you through the steps you need to take to improve your website for SEO.

There are also many certified SEO experts that can help you develop a strategy, implement a strategy, or do an analysis on your website.

Recently I became SEO certified through HubSpot to help my clients with their website. Adding this certification to my resume with my background in marketing and graphic design is a perfect addition to help my clients grow!