What is SEO?

Understanding SEO Basics harnesses your marketing dollars.

There are two types of marketing on the internet. Paid marketing, which we are all very familiar with as it constantly pops up when we don’t want it too, and then there is non-paid marketing. Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is the marketing discipline that focuses on the non-paid marketing. SEO is place where creativity meets technology. Its sole purpose is to zero in on growing a website’s organic visibility in search engine results pages, or (SERP)s.

A lot of business owners look at SEO as a necessary confusion. All of them know they need to advertise on the internet and they know that SEO is an important part of this advertising process. Yet, many barely have enough time to make advertising decisions, let alone, understand all of the nuances. But by the end of this post you should know enough to know if your website is performing like it should.

Does my website Really need SEO?

Yes, it does. And if you think otherwise then I salute you as your website quickly sails to the bottom of the results page. It’s no secret, web traffic is driven by major commercial search engines like Bing, Yahoo, and Google. SEO is the paths and roadways that these search engines use to navigate your website to understand what it is about and decide if the content is what users are looking for.

Here Are Five Basic SEO Factors That Need Considering When Building Website Authority

There are actually well over 200 SEO factors to consider for good quality SEO, but this post is for the beginner and you don’t need to know them all. The following are the five most important factors that you, as an entrepreneur, can check for when building your own website, or having someone do it for you.

Great SEO Blogging Content That Entices and Informs

Content & Keywords: This is by far the most important part of your website. Your keywords need to be targeted to accurately represent each page as succinctly as possible in one to four words. This is so the search engines can readily establish what each page is about.Your content needs to be readable and relateable. It should take your keywords and inform your audience, enticing them to stay longer on your website there by giving you a better chance at converting them. Just stuffing a key word over an over into a page with no regards for readability is the quickest way to lose rankings.
Site Navigation: Sometimes just the smallest bit of code can be out of place with your website and it can keep the search engines from crawling it. To test if your website is “crawl-able” by the search engines copy and paste something from the very bottom of a page into the search engine. If the results bring up your exact match, then your webpages are crawl-able. Some other ways to boost this is to have a “Site Map” on your website. This is a quick index for the search engines to read.
Meta data & Backlinks: Meta data is an important part of content. It is the first thing that the search engines look to on a website. This information is found in the title tag, alt-tags in pictures, and in the summary that shows up in the SERP. All of these have to be adjusted individually. The search engines automatically fill these in with the first 50 words of a web page, but that doesn’t always have the right information. Backlinks are links to other pages on your web site and links to other websites and blogs. Backlinking to your own page shows belief in your own website, but backlinking to other sites is far more important. This shows that you trust these sites and are willing to vouch for them on your website. Search engines take this very seriously and it holds weight when establishing authority.
Foot Traffic: This factor is one of the easier ones to understand. The more people that you have come to your website, the better you look to Google. Another foot traffic factor that Google considers is how long each person stays on your website. If you have a bunch of people, but they are only staying for ten seconds this will negatively impact your ranking. So, focus on content to keep them reading.
Off-site Factors: These factors are difficult to control. Off-site factors consist of how many times someone else backlinks to your site and how many times your blogs, or web pages, are shared. Here are a few tips to help your website’s reputation: Offer to write a blog for a well-known company in your industry, get your website on another company’s directory, or create content that people want to share.

SEO Basics are easy to understand, but they will take a lifetime to master, especially when the powers at be are continually updating the search engine algorithms. Use these indicators to begin tracking your progress as you begin to make your way to the top of the search engine results page.

Start Optimizing your Website to Perform Better
Call 864-905-8132 for a Free Consultation, or
CLICK HERE to contact us online.

You have more control over Local SEO Ranking than you think.

Local SEO is a Puzzle You Can Unlock

It’s no secret that your website is your most powerful online marketing tool, but in order for it to be successful you have to have it properly optimized for Local SEO. This will ensure that you appear high in the search results when local clients are in need of your local services.

On page factors are content, pictures, and blogs that potential clients can read, view, and interact with. After a little bit of practice with web development, you will be able to implement many of these on page factors yourself with very little effort.

On Page Factors to Boost Local SEO Rankings

Domain Name: The domain name of your website needs to accurately reflect your business and your business’s location. For example, “taxaccountantinclinenv.com” lets Google know that your business is a tax service available in Incline Village, Nevada. Whereas “goodnumbercrucher.com” is memorable, but it doesn’t tell you anything about the business. If your current domain does not accurately reflect your business, you may want to consider changing domain names.

Keywords: This is the backbone of any good SEO plan, local or national, You want to make sure that your keywords are as reflective as your domain name. They should accurately sum up your business and services. You will want to use one keyword per page of web copy, or blog. Your keywords will also need to be placed in the title, sub-header or H1, picture captions, meta data, and in the body of the copy at least five times. Never just shove them in at random. The keywords should be incorporated into the copy naturally for clients to read.

Contact Information: Everyone knows that it is important to list your business’s name, address, and phone number on the homepage and contact page, but to give your website the Local SEO boost that it needs this information should also be incorporated to every page of web copy.

Local Link Building: Building Local SEO links requires more research than a national SEO campaign. Not only do you want your links to be authoritative, but they have to come from business, or organizations, in your area. One of the best places to turn to is your Better Business Bureau, Chamber of Commerce, or other organizations like the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada, if you live in Northern Nevada. You may have to dig a little to find a rule, code, or article that relates to your business, but the links are invaluable.

Local Living: One of the best ways to show that you and your business are a part of the local community is to write about local events, places, or sports teams. Writing on topics like these make for enjoyable reading for your prospective clients and boost search visibility as a local business.

Ensure your spot at the top of the Local SEO Search Results Page
Call 864-905-8132 for a Free Consultation, or
CLICK HERE to contact us online.

Organic SEO Solutions

SEO and Keyword Research for Websites to Rank Higher

SEO Basics: Search Engine Optimization for Beginners