You’ve heard these acronyms flying around. But what the heck are they? Why do they matter to you as a small business or website owner? They matter because we live in a world where Google is a verb (not just a company).
The Internet is the first place most people, including your potential customers, will go to search for anything they’re looking for. The bottom line is that you want them to find you!
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is the process of controlling how your website appears in organic (unpaid) search results, as well as improving your organic search ranking. In other words, on which page and how high up on the results each of your site’s pages (the title and description) will appear.
Still confused? It might help to think of it this way: SEACRH ENGINES have their own language And you want organize your website in a way that search engines understand so that they can provide you with the best possible results for your keywords.
Intro to SEO
The best way to tackle SEO is to first get started with creating your website and your content, then to start optimizing. Because, at the end of the day, it’s user who will be reading your website.
The goal is not to sound like a robot so that the robot understands you. It’s about finding a balance between the reader and the search engine bots so that those looking for your products and services can find your website easily.
After you’ve finished creating your website and added content, you are ready to start optimizing. Here are four basic action items to consider:
1. Content
The best thing you can do to create a great site is to start with great content. Tell people about your business or products in a clear and concise way that will make them interested. Include hd images that are related to your products or content.
Think about the sites you shop on. Do you prefer to interact with sites that are visually pleasing and easy to navigate? Does your site contain enough information to entice a site visitor to make an inquiry or purchase decision?
Have a friend (or two) read what you’ve written and see how it’s laid out. Try to find people who don’t already know what you are trying to accomplish for a clean perspective. Ask them specific questions like “what do you think I’m selling?” or “where, on the site, do you want to go now?”
3. Metadata
Once your URL’s and page names are in place, you should edit your metadata, or the information about your pages. The page titles and descriptions within your metadata are what control how your page information appears in search results. It also allows you to specify important keywords for your site or business.
For your images, you’ll want to include a description of the image in the ALT tag. Search engines cannot read the picture, therefore, you will need to add a short description of the image in the tag. You can also include your keywords in these tags.
4. SEO Tools
There are plenty of SEO tools available to you that can help you optimize your SEO, like Moz.com or Jungle Torch which scans all your pages and tells you where to make changes or improvements to help your search rankings.
You receive a grade for every item and can click each one to see the errors. For example, you might have forgotten to put alternative text on your images, or missed a Meta tag on one of your pages, or maybe you need more content. As you fix errors, you can rescan your site periodically to see your grade improve. And don’t forget to publish your site when you are done
