Coupled with the fact that SEO changes only slightly less rapidly than the weather, it can be downright overwhelming for a business to know where to start promoting their website's products and services in search engines like Google and Yahoo. So, if you're an SEO newbie looking for a place to start, or cannot afford to waste advertising dollars on suspect SEO, here's a quick tutprial at good Search Engine Optimization (SEO) basics.What Is SEO?
Even the most beautifully-designed site won't do you much good if potential customers can't find it. That's where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) comes in: SEO helps ensure your site is more visible in the search engines, drive qualified traffic to your website, and convert that traffic into actual customers.
In short, SEO ups your website's rankings in the search engines by making the pages within your site more attractive to the search engines. The more attractive your site is to Google, the higher its rankings in the search engine results pages. And the higher your rankings, the more likely users will visit your site. Obviously, a site with a result on Page 1 of Google is going to get more traffic than a site buried on Page 3. If your site is missing from the top search results, then you essentially dead when it comes to your ability to generate new business and add revenue to your business.
Let's take a look at some stats:
* Over 4.3 billion Internet users
* Over 85% start at a search engine and look for their desired products and services using key words
* Less than 20% will go beyond the top 10 search engine results
* Top 10 results get 85% more traffic than all those in the thousands of other pages after them
In addition to obtaining better rankings in the search engines, SEO is effective in several other areas as well:
* Branding/establishment of your business as an authority
* Pre-qualified lead generation
* Easily tracked ROI
* Cost savings compared to other promotion mediums (i.e. glossy brochures, yellow pages ads)
Key Components of Effective SEO
SEO consists of several key elements that work together to generate increases in a website's rankings, traffic and conversions: Keyword Selection, Copywriting, Link Building, HTML Optimization and Analytics.
Let's take a look at each element in more detail:
Keyword Selection for SEO
The foundation of any SEO campaign is good keyword research. That's because targeting the right keywords is essential to getting your SEO on the right track. If your sell Rolex ladies watches, then you're going to want to rank in the search engines for the phrase "Rolex ladies watches" and other similar phrases (Rolex Womens Watch, etc.).
You might be hitting the wrong target: If your keyword research is off and you target the wrong keywords, then you may not get visitors who want what your site has to offer. That's why you need to make sure that your site is properly optimized for the most-searched-for keywords related to your business.
Copywriting for SEO
Getting potential customers to your site is only half the battle; you've got to convince them to buy. That's where persuasive copywriting comes in. Be sure to tell people why they need your products or services and include conversion points throughout the site. The search engines like content, so you also need to optimize your copy to include your keywords.
This includes things like descriptive product pages, built-out content like biographies, news sections, etc. One important point to remember is to keep your most critical content "above the fold" - that's the area that's visible to your users before they have to scroll down.
Link Building
Link building is like one big online popularity contest, and the search engines like the popular kids. Your success in the search engines depends, in part, on the amount of relevant incoming links to your site.
Of course, having lots of good links also drives customers to your site, which is a good thing, too. Links can come in various sources, including directories, business partners, organizations, social media sites, and much, much more.
HTML Optimization
These are things that the user does not necessarily see, but the search engines do. Title tags, header tags, Alt tags, Meta-descriptions -- the search engines want your site's HTML to be descriptive and clean.
Search engines want to know exactly what your page is about; they don't want to sort through a bunch of extraneous code to figure it out. That's why you'll hear SEO experts talk about the importance of having clean web site code and how to use CSS to make that happen.
Measuring Success
No SEO campaign is complete without analytics. After all, if you aren't measuring things like traffic, link popularity, and conversions, then how do you know if your SEO strategies are working? Programs like ClickTracks and Google Analytics help make the number-crunching a little easier.
Conclusion
SEO is more important than ever because it maximizes your advertising dollars. If you want to have an effective SEO campaign, you need to include all of the five SEO elements listed above.
The summaries above just scratch the surface on these topics, and there are certainly other more advanced SEO strategies that can benefit your site as well. These building blocks, however, are the ideal way to get your SEO campaign working for you.For expert Search Engine Optimization as well as other top strategies to get the most targeted visibility for your marketing dollar, call Promise Productions at 972-822-3587.
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