Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
-
What is it?
-
Why do I need it?
-
What if I don’t use google?
-
What if I don’t do it?
-
How does Social Media apply to SEO?
-
How does Blogging apply?
-
How do you know?
-
How do we measure the results?
-
How long does it take?
-
Can I actually be lowering my ratings by doing it wrong?
-
Can I just copy someone else’s article?
-
Do I need to purchase google ad words to get my site to the top of the search engine?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
-
What is it?
Definition by Wikipedia
Search Engine Optimization is a term that google coined. Prior to that it was simply called “search engine rankings”. Sometime around 2009 Google put into place a new standard for search engines. This standard looked at more than keywords and meta-tags and started actually looking for experts in their field. This means the search engines had to look at more than just what you told the search engine. It had to look at what is happening with the information. Are the articles being published, by whom, where, why, how frequently, and how consistent is it.
These articles that you share over social media are a large part of what the search engines see. The consistency and the fact that the world wants to know this information makes it more relevant, and the search engine declares that important. This means that the content needs to be constantly updating and changing. If there isn’t new information, than the old information dies off and is forgotten. We live in a dynamic internet age. The days of the archived information is over. We need to have living content.
-
Why do I need it?
The obvious answer: To get better results
The not so obvious answer: To keep your competitors from getting better results
The incredibly un-obvious answer: Company credibility
When you have higher rankings in the search engines, people tend to make the subconscious connection that you are clearly better at your job than the one that has lower rankings. We also know that people won’t scroll past the 3rd page to find you. So when you are trying to get out there, you need to be in the top of your field. And let’s face it, google knows everything. If you aren’t on the top of the google list, than you aren’t at the top of your field…. at least that’s the average users point of view.
-
What if I don’t use google?
Your client’s do. Your children do. In fact about 75% of the internet users do. So if you aren’t using google… Your missing out on the extensive search engine that google has put together to give you the best results. More importantly, your limiting your results to the self proclaimed experts in what your searching for instead of the proven experts.
-
What if I don’t do it?
People will still find your website. You will hand out business cards, you will have links from other websites that you negotiated for. You will have a few hits here and a few there. And let’s face it, the web isn’t your only marketing arena. But your web presence could be better. This isn’t just something that you should do because you want to spend more on marketing. This is making your web presence known, establishing yourself as an authority on the web, and keeping your name in front of clients and potential clients so that you are a well known entity. It isn’t a miracle cure. It is a tool that is easy to overlook.
-
How does Social Media apply to SEO?
Social Media and SEO are integrated in a lot of ways. Not only does the search engines look at how frequently your information is being shared, it also looks at the number of comments it gets, and its generating source. When your article is shared on facebook, the search engine acknowledges it. When that article is shared again and again, the search engine starts to acknowledge that this is important. After a few times of this happening, you start to become an authority. This doesn’t mean sharing someone else’s article. This means sharing an article that is unique to you. While sharing others articles on your facebook page is good for that other person, it doesn’t increase your search engine placement.
-
How does Blogging apply?
Blogging is similar to the rest of the social medai outlets. Only blogging happens on your website. Other people can share the content. So can you. You can create your article, post it to your website and then share it over your social media so that others can read it and share it as well. Blogging is a large part of getting your name and your words out there. So why does google think that you are an authority if you are sharing your blogs? Because if you are sharing your blog and people are reading it, then you must have something important to say. And if people are reading it and re-sharing it, then it must be important enough that others need/want this information.
Does your blog have to be 6 pages long with 20 points and filled with advertisements and popups that annoy the readers? No, absolutely not. In fact, I can spend a few minutes with you teaching you how to do a very productive and very effective blog in just a few minutes. This makes it easier for you to write, more interesting for your readers, and keeps your information accurate and informative without being puff pieces.
-
How do you know?
I have been doing this since 1989. I have watched the internet move and change and come alive. This is not just my passion but it changes rampantly. That is what keeps me interested in it. I have mastered many skills. Most skills, once you have mastered it, you are done. You can do anything with it that it can do, but there is nothing left to learn. Part of what I love about SEO and web marketing is that it’s constantly changing and growing.
I have a multitude of successes in this area. I have taken websites from a 28% ranking up to a 96% ranking. That wasn’t a 1 time occurrence. Most commonly, I get a website that is in the 35-42% area and after working with the owners, we can get it to a 80%. Not everyone is willing to do everything it takes to get to a 95% ranking. Many people get to a certain point and either quit, or they don’t see the need to go the rest of the way. If they do all the things that are recommended, the site can to all the way to the top.
-
How do we measure the results?
We have several methods to measure results…. Google analytics – this tells you the analytics for your website and with some guidance, you will be able to evaluate what is happening, how users are getting there, what they are looking at while they are there, how long they stay there, if they are reoccurring users or first time users, what areas they are accessing your site from, etc.
New clients from the web are always a good indication that you are higher up the rankings.
Do your own google searches from a clean machine. Since your browser tends to remember your searches and what you have looked for in the past, you won’t get an accurate representation of the search engine results unless you clear your cache first or you use a machine that hasn’t done the search before.
-
How long does it take?
Any time you make a large change to your website, you will drop in rankings until google has had a chance to review the changes and measure the results. Redesigning your website will make you drop in ranking and first and then as it is evaluated, you will climb back up the rankings. This can take 6 weeks or so. This is one of the more difficult areas to work with simply because the results can take so long. It also means that accurate tracking of changes to the website are incredibly important so that you don’t forget what changes were made when while waiting for the results. And usually clients get impatient and start making more changes while they are waiting for the results, thereby making their rankings drop more and more without intending it to. Once things even out you will be able to evaluate the changes and then make smaller changes based on the results. The less drastic the change, the less the drop in rankings will be. Much of the time there is a trial and error method that is incorporated into the SEO. This is because many competitors are using the same methods for placement. So something new and different has to be incorporated to give your business the winning edge.
-
Can I actually be lowering my ratings by doing it wrong?
yes, Yes, YES, and YES
There are certain things that you can do to make the search engines very angry. They love consistency. They hate inconsistency. The search engines seem to think that you are more important if your data is shared. They don’t like it when your information is stagnant, unchanging and archived. The search engines don’t like all big words on a page that the average reader doesn’t comprehend. It doesn’t like plagerized material. There are lists of other things that will actually cause your SEO to fail so bad that google will start to place you further down the list. So far down that in certain instances, it will not put you in the search engine at all and it will black flag you from being accessed by the search engine. (That doesn’t make you part of the dark web in a cool way).
-
Can I just copy someone else’s article?
Google does check for plagiarism on the articles you share. It also looks for citations though. So if you have permission to quote an article you can. Although it is best to link to the other articles and keep your words yours. You can summarize another article, and you can discuss it. But you are always better off to just keep your words yours. There are also plenty of plagiarism sites out there that you can run your documents through to make sure that they are not plagiarized or categorized as such through the search engines eyes.
-
Do I need to purchase google ad words to get my site to the top of the search engine?
No – while that is one way to get ahead of your competitors when all else has failed. Once you start down this track, you can’t get away from it. Unfortunately, to the advanced user it looks bad. If you have to use ad words to get the attention of your clients, than you aren’t doing it right. If you are in an industry that all of your competitors are eating up the front page with ad words though… unfortunately, you will still need to use them to stay in their league. Google doesn’t limit how many people can use the same adwords, so it makes it a highly competitive market for some. If you sell ball point pens and 65 other companies have ball point pens in their adwords…. you will need to be in that list to appear on the front page. Once the ads on the front page are finished though, you still want to appear high in the rankings to give your ad-words credit. There are enough advanced users on the web now, that this a real market credential to consider.