Basic Knowledge: What is SEO?
Before I got into the web business, I always thought of SEO as a complex and intimidating process, that I would never understand. However, as I started to investigate, what is SEO, it’s not that difficult to understand at all.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is correctly setting your site up so that the search engines (Google, Bing, and a few others) can easily see who and what you are, what you do, and what you’re selling, if anything. When you can understand that, you’re on your way to being able to profit from it.
The other important concept is that of KEYWORDS. Since Google can’t read your mind, it has to find the keywords, which are the key phrases that people use when searching for different things. If you have those keywords, such as “Green Bay dentist” in all the appropriate places, such as the titles of articles, pages, and web-addresses, and given the right amount of accentuation (such as heading tags, bold and italicized) then Google will know that your website contains the information (products, services, etc.) that the searcher is looking for.
That’s it.
Now, that’s not really it, because there are other factors that come into play such as:
- Location
- Relevance
- Authority
- Mobile-friendliness
- Fresh content
- And about half a dozen more….
…. that truly optimize your site, and put you ahead of the competition, that is, on the first page of Google, as we like to say it. SERP’s are the search engine results pages that you want to at top of on page number one.
Locally, that is, for a specific city or town, this is relatively easy. Truth is, if you put any amount of time, money, and energy into search engine optimization, it is only going to set you ahead as far as your name brand awareness, accessibility, and your profits.
SEO is not an over-night process, but it’s not that slow either. You can have your site optimized and climbing up the SERPs in a relatively short time, a few weeks to a few months, maybe sooner.
Posting ads, such as on Google, Facebook and YouTube, can be effective; but, they stop working the minute you stop paying. This is the key feature of SEO, optimized pages come up to the top for years and years.
Ads are great, don’t get me wrong, but they are what is called interruption marketing. They come up when you’re scrolling through Facebook when you’re bored, when you’re trying to watch cool videos on YouTube; they interrupt your entertainment, as it were, like a commercial. We’d much rather be watching our show than the commercials.
SEO is key when the potential client is looking for specific information, products or services. HE WANTS WHAT YOU GOT RIGHT NOW. This is the best type of search to aim for.
At GrowthDev, this is the type of website optimization that we do for our clients. Of course, you should never put all your eggs in one basket, a good portfolio of SEO and other marketing, including ads, is the ultimate goal. A good combination is going to deliver ten times your expense.
Content Creator online for 25 years, specializing in web design, traffic generation services, and overall business optimization. I specialize in making the complex ideas easy to understand and help make them profitable for other creatives and entrepreneurs alike.
