What is SEO?
SEO, or search engine optimization, refers to the process of getting “free,” “organic,” or “natural” website traffic through the search results of search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo.
For example, if you were to search for a specific keyword in Google Search, your website would be listed on the search engine result page in a set position for that particular search phrase. The better you optimize your site, the better position, or higher ranking, your website will appear on these search engine result pages.
How do the search engines rank or position your website in the search results?
The search engines position or rank your websites in their search results by calculating thousands of factors using a set of rules. This set of rules is known as an algorithm. Each search engine like Google, Bing and Yahoo use a unique and specific algorithm.
Here are some factors that are known to be in the algorithm of the three major search engines, Google, Yahoo and Bing that will help you rank better:
- Page speed
- Mobile Device (Smart Phone, Tablet, etc) friendliness
- Keywords, or text, on your website that are tailored to your industry
- Website structure
- Quality title and description tags
- Quality of content
- Other websites linking to your website
- Quality of links pointing to your website
- Social signals – shares, tweets etc.
- Age of website
- The user experience of your visitors
- Frequency of content updates
- Images that are understandable to the search engines
- Linking your website out to quality websites
- URL structure of your pages
- URL name of your website
Here are some algorithmic factors you should NOT do that will hurt your rankings:
- Automatically generated content
- Participating in link schemes
- Creating pages with little or no original content
- Cloaking
- Sneaky redirects
- Hidden text or links
- Doorway pages
- Scraped content
- Participating in affiliate programs without adding sufficient value
- Loading pages with irrelevant keywords
- Creating pages with malicious behavior, such as phishing or installing viruses, trojans, or other badware
- Abusing rich snippets markup
- Sending automated queries to Google
The easiest way to think of the right way to implement search engine optimization for your website is to follow this statement from Google about the best practices for SEO; “Make pages (websites) primarily for users, not for search engines”.
Now that you have a grasp on what SEO is all about, the next step is figuring out a strategy for your search engine optimization plan to increase your websites free organic traffic. Please feel free to call or contact us and talk with one of our SEO experts to make the best possible SEO strategy that fits your business needs.
