What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Really?
Published on October 15, 2013
When consumers use a search engine like Yahoo, Bing, or Google to find the answer to a question, a solution to a problem, or a product or service to fill a need, as a business owner, you'd like them to find you first. You can do that with SEO.
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the art of getting your content discovered by people looking for it. More specifically, it is the the practice of making your Internet-based content (websites, mostly) more accessible, more easily discovered, by people (consumers, web surfers, etc.) searching on the Internet's search engines.
I intentionally referred to this topic as an art. To be sure there is some science here, but there's a good deal of gray area. Moreover, it is a moving target! The target is moving for a couple of key reasons (and countless minor ones):
- The World Wide Web, and other Internet-attached content, is made up of billions of pages of information, and each day it is growing. Making your website discoverable is like putting a small mark at the end of a branch of a young tree, and coming back each spring to find that same branch. Surely it has moved a bit, many leaves have fallen off, and many more leaves have regrown. Finding the site isn't as simple as it once was.
- Secondly, the rules of the game are continually changing. Search Engines like Google change their search algorithms (the code, or set of rules, used for matching results to an individual's search criteria) constantly. They have new code releases every 3-6 months, and make numerous tweaks in between the major releases.
So how do we ensure success when we want consumers, future clients and customers, to find us on the Web?
Content is King for Search Engine Optimization
Notice, first of all, that I keep repeating the word content. Sure, I could buy a thesaurus (that would be a silly thing for a Geek to do, they're standard on every computer!), but then we might miss the point - the more content you have on your website, the more content you have to be discovered. We can be scientific on this point, the more content you have on your website, the more traffic you get.
The more content you have on your website, the more leads you receive.
It isn't quite as simple as writing a bunch of articles or blog posts, although that would be a good start. The search engine's job is to match web surfers with the content they really and truly are searching for. You don't simply want to write content to get in front of them, but if you have something they're looking for, you certainly want them to find that out. That comes from creating relevant content to put in front of them, and giving them the tools to connect with you (such as: calls to action, contact information, signup opportunities.)
Search engines reward fresh content. And we've seen that they reward lots of it. They reward sites that are shared by other sites, and by other consumers on social media. They reward unique and quality content.
Backlinks Kill SEO Productivity
Search engines often penalize purchased backlinks. Backlinks are links from other website on the Internet that lead back to your site, and have long been a mechanism for increasing your search engine ranking. This isn't because your site offers more value to web surfers, but simply because someone "ran" around and added links everywhere.
The search engines of the world wised up and said "we don't want to reward this behavior, it doesn't serve our end customer", and in many cases they are now able to downgrade the "offending" site.
If you want your website to show up on searches, the bottom line is: don't blacklist yourself. Don't buy backlinks.
The bottom line?
SEO is fueled by relevancy of content, and activity on the scene. If you continue to openly market yourself as a helpful and reliable source, activity has been shown to generate, and search engines will pick up on that fact.
Need help getting started? Unsure how to begin a blog, or market yourself as a valuable resource? Send up an e-mail or give us a call and we'll help.