Basic search engine optimization (SEO) is fundamental. And essential. SEO will help you position your website properly to be found at the most critical points in the buying process or when people need your site.
What are search engines looking for? How can you build your website in a way that will please both your visitors/customers, as well as Google, Bing, and other search engines? Most importantly, how can SEO help your web presence become more profitable?
“Skipping the basics and spending all your time and money on social and ‘fancy stuff’ is the same as skipping brushing your teeth and showering, but buying white strips and wearing expensive cologne,”- Shelby said.
Although the Introduction to SEO session was intended for industry newcomers,
What is SEO, Exactly?
The goal of foundational SEO isn’t to cheat or “game” the search engines.
The purpose of SEO is to:- Create a great, seamless user
experience.
- Communicate to the search engines your intentions so they can recommend your website for relevant searches.
Something that you should know about search engine optimization are follows:
1. Your Website is Like a Cake
Your links, paid search, and social media acts as the icing, but your content, information architecture, content management system, and infrastructure act as the sugar and makes the cake. Without it, your cake is tasteless, boring, and gets thrown in the trash.
2. What Search Engines Are Looking For
Search engines want to do their jobs as best as possible by referring users
to websites and content that is the most relevant to what the user is looking
for. So how is relevancy determined?- Content: Is
determined by the theme that is being given, the text on the page, and the
titles and descriptions that are given.
- Performance:
How fast is your site and does it work properly?
- Authority:
Does your site have good enough content to link to or do other authoritative
sites use your website as a reference or cite the information that’s
available?
- User Experience:
How does the site look? Is it easy to navigate around? Does it look safe?
Does it have a high bounce
rate?
3. What Search Engines Are NOT Looking For
Search engine spiders only have a certain amount of data storage, so if
you’re performing shady tactics or trying to trick them, chances are you’re
going to hurt yourself in the long run. Items the search engines don’t want
are:- Keyword Stuffing:
Overuse of keywords on your pages.
- Purchased Links:
Buying links will get you nowhere when it comes to SEO, so be warned.
- Poor User Experience:
Make it easy for the user to get around. Too many ads and making it too
difficult for people to find content they’re looking for will only
increase your bounce rate. If you know your bounce rate it will help
determine other information about your site. For example, if it’s 80
percent or higher and you have content on your website, chances are
something is wrong. So, you should avoid these.
4. Know Your Business Model
While this is pretty obvious, so many people tend to not sit down and just
focus on what their main goals are. Some questions you need to ask yourself
are:- What defines a conversion for
you?
- Are you selling eyeballs
(impressions) or what people click on?
- What are your goals?
- Do you know your assets and
liabilities?
5. Don’t Forget to Optimize for Multi-Channels
Keyword strategy is not only important to implement on-site, but should extend to other off-site platforms, which is why you should also be thinking about multi-channel optimization. These multi-channel platforms include:
- Facebook
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
- Email
- Offline, such as radio and TV
ads
6. Be Consistent With Domain Names
Domain naming is so important to your overall foundation, so as a best
practice you’re better off using sub-directory root domains
(example.com/awesome) versus sub-domains (awesome.example.com). Some other best
practices with domain names are:- Consistent Domains:
If you type in www.example.com, but then your type in just example.com and
the “www” does not redirect to www.example.com, that means the search
engines are seeing two different sites. This isn’t effective for your
overall SEO efforts as it will dilute your inbound links, as external
sites will be linking to www.example.com and example.com.
- Keep it Old School:
Old domains are better than new ones, but if you’re buying an old domain,
make sure that the previous owner didn’t do anything shady to cause the
domain to get penalized.
- Keywords in URL:
Having keywords you’re trying to rank for in your domain will only help
your overall efforts.
7. Optimizing for Different Types of Results
In addition to optimizing for the desktop experience, make sure to focus on mobile
and tablet optimization as well as other media.- Create rich media content
like video, as it’s easier to get a video to rank on the first page than
it is to get a plain text page to rank.
- Optimize your non-text
content so search engines can see it. If your site uses Flash or PDFs,
make sure you read up on the latest best practices so search engines can
crawl that content and give your site credit for it.
8. Focus on Your Meta Data Too
Your content on your site should have title
tags and meta
descriptions.- Meta keywords are pretty much
ignored by search engines nowadays, but if you still use them, make sure
it talks specifically to that page and that it is also formatted
correctly.
- Your meta
description should be unique and also speak to that specific page.
Duplicate meta descriptions from page to page will not get you anywhere.
Summary
You should always keep SEO in the forefront of your mind, and always follow best practices. Skipping the basics of SEO will only leave your site’s foundation a mess and prevent you from fully maximizing revenue opportunities. These will increase your SEO strategy.
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