Search Engine Optimization?

Or Why You Should Always Have Search Engine Optimization with your Website

According to Wikipedia: “Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the “natural” or un-paid (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results.” Wikipedia – SEO article

Search engine optimization or SEO is a internet marketing strategy where the goal is to achieve the highest results possible for different search terms in search engines such as Google, Yahoo! or Bing. That much is clear, but, how does SEO work?

How does Search Engine Optimization work?

Search Engine Optimization is composed of two main sections of work, on-page optimization and off-page optimization.

On-page optimization refers to all the work done on the website itself. This includes user friendly URLs, meta-tags and structural design. However, the most important element for SEO is content, in fact, it is said that “Content is King” on the web. Content needs to be well written and with the end user in mind while also considering a proper structure for search engines to understand the content and index it properly. Most business owners struggle quite a bit with writing content, adding to that considering that it needs to be user focused and search engine friendly certainly doesn’t make it easy.

Off-page optimization is mostly about link building. Link building is generating links in other websites that point to your website, preferably with the right link text (the text the user actually reads). As simple as this sounds, the real trouble begins when you find out that not only isn’t everyone happy to give links to your website, and many cheap techniques may actually get your website penalized or banned. Contrary to what some bad SEOs will have people believe, having a page full of links to other pages, link exchanges and only registering your website on search engines (as in, “we’ll register you in 300 search engines!”) have little to no effect on ranking. For some more detailed examples of these “gurus”, check out “SEO expert pick up lines that are an absolute warning“.

You should always have Search Engine Optimization on your website. Simply because without optimization no one will ever be able to find you and this means less traffic, less potential customers and ultimately, less sales.

So, what can a website / business owner do?

Focus on your product, clients and business. When writing content, think of your users, of the things that you would actually tell your customers, or better still, think of the information your customers need to make an informed decision. Another alternative is to write content that tells people who you are, what you do and how you do it.

For the rest, it is always best to get a reputable SEO firm to help your business achieve its goals.