There are few thrills greater than seeing your business at the very top of the Google search returns. How can you escape the desolation of second page search results? You know that if a searcher has to scroll down past the "fold," you are effectively lost among the other "2,034,516 results". If you've got an online presence for your business, gaining that top spot could mean the difference between Easy Street and No Man's Land. As they say, the road to business failure is paved with un-optimized content.
So what sorcery is involved ? How does SEO work? And why is organic search engine optimization so damn hard?
Online marketing companies who do SEO for a living can supply you with a hideously long list of reasons, so we've kept it to a few:
Search Engines are Fickle
Every search engine is vitally interested in showing users the best, most relevant search returns known to man. This is one reason why the list of criteria for sorting out websites changes regularly- Sites that are serious about being found will think about what search engines want to see, and take pains to provide it. Criteria change as well, so complacency is not an option. Search engines have no sense of loyalty. Either you are paying attention to all the details or you're not. And if you don't, then you're suddenly the minivan driver whose prom date chose the guy with the Mustang.
This is also true of graphics and metadata. How these are handled can make a big difference
Organic Search Engines Hate Clones
If you have content that is exactly the same in two or more places, either on your own site or somewhere else on the web, Google knows. Points are deducted for copying, so cloning large chunks of text is out. Also- beware of those who grab your stuff and pass it off as their own! Most online marketing companies will use a bit of programming to check the internet for clones, like Plagiarism Checker or Copyscape.
You can Lead a Horse to Water…
Let's imagine your company at the very pinnacle of a Google search results page. Numero Uno for you! Time to sit back and start shopping for a yacht, right? Not so fast. Your visitors need to find a highly usable and efficient website at the end of their click. This is where design and SEO come together as strange bedfellows. Get your site ready for company by streamlining, simplifying, rearranging, and generally making your website a pleasant experience for visitors.
Target Practice
They don't call 'em target keywords for nothing! They really are important, and including just the right one can also mean the difference between competing with two other businesses or two hundred. Keywords are so important that quite a few tools have popped up just to help you research them. You still have some tough decisions, though, about which ones fit your exact intentions, focus and message.
For a long time, online marketing companies would simply "stuff" a page with keywords, either at the bottom of the page or in text the same color as the background, but the robots got wise to that. Now the problem is to include your keyword enough times to look appealing but not too many or you'll be on the naughty list. Oh, and the keywords have to be in the right places, such as titles, URL's, bulleted lists, headlines, media meta tags, and link anchor text.
Let There Be… Content!
As we mentioned previously, original content is a major turn-on for search engines. They really like newer stuff. If you have a great website with a lot of recycled old text, images or video, you haven't made much of an impression. Write an original blog, or post bios of your employees, or current photos of your work and make Google swoon.
Getting along with Spiders
Like any other arena of human interaction, there has developed an ethical system around SEO complete with boundaries between OK and not OK. Tagging content with instructions seen only by the prying "eyes" of robots can be legal or illegal, depending on a few variables. Showing content to search engines while showing something else to users is tricky.
The Upside of Heavy Traffic
The proliferation of new traffic sources is here to stay. We are in a Cambrian Explosion of possible channels to your business that goes way beyond Social Media. Thorough SEO takes into account the sheer fecundity of the internet and adapts as needed.
Analyze THAT!
If you're still not climbing the search result ladder, why not? This is where you need to take up that metaphorical pick and shovel. Drill into any and all data on what's happening between search and your website. Who's visiting? What are they looking at? Where did they come from? Where do they go after they visit me? Are they linking to me? Why not? This question-asking is where your inner two-year-old comes in handy.
This is just a sampling of what SEO experts in average online marketing companies deal with. The main thing is to get your website found and moving up the search engine popularity charts. You may not have the clout that major brand has, or a personal relationship with a Google exec, but there's still a lot that can be done in terms of organic search engine optimization with your budget, time and goals.
United WebWorks has been at this for a while and we would be glad to unravel the mysteries of internet marketing for you! Visit us at United WebWorks.com or call 912-231-0016 today!