Everyone is yelpin’ and hollerin’ about search engine optimization. But what exactly is search engine optimization and how does it benefit me? SEO (search engine optimization) helps you get your site seen. To be exact, SEO refers to the practices in which you undergo in an effort to increase your sites traffic specifically from search engines. It also encourages great content from creators and content that is tailored to solve the problems of the searcher. In this post I am going to focus on what you can do right now to optimize your sites, simple ways to raise your search rank and pull in more engaged visitors.
The best part about search engine optimization is that anyone can do it and the costs are low or free. You can of course spend money on different SEO tools which can really help you or your brand site build traffic and ranking on the major search engines. The 3 major search engines used in the U.S. are Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Yahoo and Bing are both owned by Microsoft. Search traffic is so valuable because the first place people go for information is to the search engine. In this beginners guide to SEO, MOZ goes over all the details to beginning your SEO journey. MOZ recognizes 3 types of searches. The “do” searches account for searches that are of a transactional nature. These searches include queries such as buying a cake or watching a specific music video. The next kind of searches are the “know” searches, searches prompted because of a need for information. These searches might be a need to know what time the sunset starts or Argentina’s capital city. The last kind of searches are the “go” searches. These are navigational and used when a searcher is trying to get to a particular site such as the Facebook or Amazon home-pages.
Coupon guru Groupon conducted a short experiment to measure the impact of search engine traffic. The experiment lasted only 6 hours and was achieved by deconstructing the site. Groupon recorded that approximately 60% of their site traffic was derived from search engines. Although Groupon’s well established stature in the mobile/web based market may not relate directly to your small cake shop’s website or your everyday blog there is still a possibility that this statistic is close to or not far from that of your own.
This means that possibly 60% of your site traffic is derived from search engine usage.
SEO’s importance to increasing your site traffic is evident, but where does this put you? What do you do now?
Understand Your Ideal Searcher
I know that you are still wondering how you can optimize your sites easily and effectively. I found a bit of insight from this article from USA Today which focuses specifically on SEO for Google. The article talks about 5 ways to improve your search rank and presence. The first being to understand how the searcher searches and to use the same language when creating your site content. For example, if you were the owner of a cake shop in Portland, Oregon you might want to make sure to have the words “Cake” and “Portland” clearly stated in your site. Location is especially important for small businesses. When you understand your ideal site visitors needs you can better assist them via SEO and create more site conversions. You can also make sure that you understand and know how to use the following terms:
- Keywords: when search engine crawlers are reading through your website content you want to make sure to have key search terms scattered throughout your site. This goes along with knowing your audience and making sure to use keywords authentically, this means no forcing in keywords unnecessarily. A great way to find the keywords that are actually worth using is by checking out the keywords that pop up on your Google Adwords. You can input your site url to see which keywords come up without paying for anything.
- Titles: make sure to use titles with keywords and font hierarchy. This makes it easier for crawlers and searchers to understand and organize your content.
- Content: in order to pop up in your ideal audience’s search results you need to create content that provides value. This is content that makes readers want to share with others and if your content is being shared then your rank will go up.
- Link: adding links to your pages creates more visibility to your site. It also adds value to your traffic’s visit. Getting others to link your content from their sites is like SEO gold. A big ‘no-no’ is link buying and if you are caught by Google your rankings will suffer immensely.
Create a Blog
Creating a blog is a great way to engage your audience and optimize your search engine rankings. You can add links from your website and social media sites to create more traffic and brand awareness. Post often and create content that is of value to your audience. Valuable content naturally ranks higher on search engines than half-assed content no matter how many keywords are spewed throughout.
Another simple and easy way to optimize is by always adding tags, links and categories to all of your website posts. For example, if you were the cake shop owner that posted a pumpkin spice cookie recipe on your blog sometime in October and then shared the post through your social platforms adding links and tags like “Cookies” “Recipe” “Pumpkin-Spice” “Halloween Cookies” will help searchers find your sites easier while simultaneously increasing your SE rankings.
Analyze and Measure
Again I must stress the importance of tracking your SEO efforts. How will you know if your efforts have been successful if you are not tracking and measuring them? A few simple numbers that you should track monthly are:
- Direct Navigation: this is traffic that comes directly from typing a url into the navigation bar, bookmarks, email links and untraceable links.
- Referral Traffic: this includes traffic that comes from links on other sites, social media posts, promotional, and other trackable links.
- Search Traffic: this is traffic that comes from any search engine small or large.
You can use these metrics to compare and analyze your current SEO processes. You can then find better ways to appeal to your traffic and increase your rank. You can find other great advice for SEO metrics on this blog by Positionly.
Constantly Improve
You wont see results right away. In fact, your SEO efforts may not see results for a very long time. Repeat these efforts to always stay on your SEO game and eventually your hard work will pay off and you will start to reap the benefits. It is good to constantly look for ways to better optimize your SE presence. Link building is another important skill to keep in your tool-box and here is the next guide you should check out by MOZ.
Jaclyn Celine 