Despite the vast majority of people now being computer literate to at least some degree, the concept of search engine optimisation is still foreign to many. Tell someone you own a search engine optimisation company, and you’ll likely be met with a vacant stare.
Google’s 10-Minute Guide to SEO Basics
But search engine optimisation is at play every time you punch a search into Google. If you were under the impression that every Google search produced an entirely random assortment of results- understandable, really, when your search for images of kittens playing with string yields a slew of girls writhing on poles- you’d be sorely mistaken. There are companies who exist primarily to assist businesses in lifting their web rankings. It’s a more complex process that you might imagine.
What Is Search Engine Optimisation?
Updated for 2012: The Beginner’s Guide to SEO
The official (wikipedia) definition of search engine optimisation (seo) is ‘ the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the natural or unpaid (‘organic’ or ‘alogorithmic’) search results’
The order of results presented to you by Google is based on many factors, including the popularity of the search term amongst the people who do the searching, the relevance of the keyword in relation to what the searcher is looking for, and the use of keywords and phrases in page titles. Keywords and phrases within the body of the text also play an important role.
How To Use SEO Basics For Your Business
SEO Basics that Helped Double Organic Traffic and Sales Overnight
So how is this of relevance to your business? Quite simply, if you want higher brand visibility and increased traffic to your website, you need to get acquainted with the basics of SEO.
First off, you need to try and persuade industry related websites to link to your page, preferably highly regarded ones. Linking to spammy, low quality websites will only hurt you, much in the same way as eating a box of KFC cannot compare to eating an organic grain fed bird in terms of benefiting your health. I appreciate that it’s a bit too early in the morning to be talking about KFC. I feel rather ill myself for mentioning it. But you get the point. Inbound links from other blogs and websites will assist the search engines in finding you and learning what your web pages are about. Links provide vital signposts to your website. Search engines pay close attention to how many links you have courtesy of respectable websites.
Packing your website with as much as informative text as possible is also vital. The search engines help the customers to find what they want by seeking web pages that have a lot of useful and helpful information about that particular product or service. Informative text is what the search engines are looking for, so give ‘em plenty. Animations and graphics, while cute, are of approximately zero use in assisting search engines to find you.
Research Counts In SEO
In This Bright SEO Future, Don’t Forget The Basics
You also need to do some solid research regarding what the keywords and phrases customers looking for your product or service will be using. It’s not always as obvious as you might imagine. Those keywords should be included at regular intervals in your web content: but not so much that you start to look spammy and sly (as you may have noticed, If you study SEO enough you will see the word ‘spammy’ A LOT.)
These are just some of the most simple examples of what SEO is all about. Your business can sink or swim based on a search engine ranking, particularly, of course, if yours is strictly an online business. It’s terrible to think that hard working, reputable businesses might flounder and disappear simply through ignorance of SEO techniques. If you’d like more advice about how to get your business to the top of the search engine heap, see our other articles on SEO
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