SEO. Search engine optimization. You’ve heard about it, you know you need it, but why? In this article we’ll go over the basics of search engine optimization and give you some best practices to get started.
- SEO in simple terms
- How does SEO work?
- How do I start?
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SEO in simple terms
What is search engine optimization (SEO)? Simply put, it is the number and placement of keywords on your website. With strategic placement throughout the web copy on your pages, your site is more likely to pop up higher on search engine results pages.
Think of SEO as a lighthouse. With the right aim and strength, potential customers can find you in the fog.
Everyone wants to be #1 on a Google search. There are two ways to appear at the top of a search:
- Pay for advertising
- Have good SEO
SEO benefits are significant. When done well, it increases inbound, organic traffic on your page with very little leg work and investment. No cold calls, no expensive outbound marketing. Potential customers come to you. It is a web strategy with high return on investment (ROI).
How does SEO work?
When you do a search on Google, the search algorithm looks at the words you’ve typed. The results page returns the websites that seem to have those words the most and in the right places.
“Great! I’ll just put a paragraph of jumbled keywords at the bottom of every page,” you think. People actually do this. But, it doesn’t work well. The algorithm is smarter than that. You can actually get punished for “keyword stuffing.”
SEO example
Your kid wants a bouncy house for their birthday party. The first thing you do is open your smartphone’s browser and search “bouncy house San Francisco.”
At the top of the page you’ll see is a series of ads that have paid for top placement. Below that you see websites that likely have strategic search engine optimization. They showed up high in your results because they have the keywords “bouncy house” and “San Francisco” strategically placed throughout their website. Once you know your keyword strategy, your brand can have a top ranking in your industry.
How do I start?
To have an SEO-rich website, there are best practices that you can get started on right away.
Know your website. Most website development software offers backend tools to improve your content. For this blog, we use Yoast plugins, AIOSEO, and extensive industry research to make sure our keyword strategy ranks. What keywords are your customers typing? What search engine are they using? This is all critical information you need to execute a solid SEO strategy. An SEO content strategist can help you here.
Have a blog. Remember that SEO is strengthened by words on a page. Having a blog is a great way to add pages to your website. More pages means more space for keywords.
SEO everything. Your page titles, your headlines, your URL slugs, etc. should all have keywords or keyword phrases in them. They should also follow SEO best practices to rank high.
Good copywriting, not crap. This is a big problem on the internet. There’s a lot of poorly-written content out there. Unresearched, incoherent writing doesn’t provide value to readers. It doesn’t rank well either. Search algorithms are smart. They look for engaging content all the time. Content that is up-to-date and authoritative performs best because readers actually spend time looking at it. If you have valuable and interesting information on your site, you will rank higher. A copywriter can deliver this kind of high-quality content, especially if you aren’t a writer yourself.
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SEO means traffic
Having a website is good, but it’s not enough. SEO is the way that customers are supposed to find you over all the other websites out there. Using SEO keywords and having a targeted strategy helps you stand out like a bright, shiny lighthouse. Remember, it’s not just a collection of random keywords at the bottom of the page. Good SEO content and copy (sales text) takes skill to be engaging. Archer Impact has the skills to create authoritative SEO content for you. Contact us to get started.
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