Search Engine Optimization gets bandied about as a term left and right. But what does it really mean? As the field itself grows, so do successful strategies and philosophies surrounding the topic. But the essential tenets seem to remain the same, no matter what newfangled idea has taken hold of the internet community.
What is Search Engine Optimization?
SEO, or search engine optimization, refers to the ways that your site is ranked by search engines. Your ranking determines where your website appears on the results page when people use search queries to find products, answers or services online through search engine sites like Google. In fact, Google tends to set the industry standard for SEO and a lot of what we know about how to successfully execute a good SEO strategy is by deciphering how their algorithm, or formula to determine ranking, is applied.
What can SEO do?
SEO makes your website more visible to potential customers. A number one ranking is the golden key that everyone is SEO is reaching for, but making the first page of search results can be an impressive and hard-won feat. Appearing in the top 3 results is a goal worth striding towards, as research shows that almost 50% of the clicks on search results go to these positions. But top search engine optimization looks at more than merely where you show up on any given page. Top SEO is targeted to get the right customers to view your page.
What can good SEO do?
Evaluating an SEO strategy with depth also brings into consideration the quality of people brought to your site. If you run an artisan cheese shop in Wisconsin, it will do you little good to rank in the top three search results on “the Green Bay Packers.” Your customers might be local, but they’re not buying what you’re selling. Instead, you’d fare much better if your website was on the first page of results for “impeccably aged parmesan” in a non-localized search. Which means that you’d reach interested customers likely to purchase your curds in Florida, rather than football fans looking for a foam cheese-wedge to wear to a game. In this way, quality over quantity is significant.
Keywords are important
There are no two ways about it, good keywords are at the foundation of a top SEO strategy. Keywords are the terms used in the search box on search engine sites. It is vital to know which keywords are important for your business. That helps your website appear before customers that are looking for what you’re providing. Every industry has keywords that vary, so do the research for your own.
Stay up to speed
As our world continues to get faster and faster, our patience appears to shrink. Studies on the length of time users will wait for a page to load is around three seconds. Perhaps it is because of this that Google announced this year that site speed will be a factor in their ranking algorithm. This also applies to mobile speed.
Acknowledging mobile first
Mobile capability has become increasingly important in the past few years and will likely continue to dominate SEO ranking in the future. Most sites these days are viewed on a mobile device and Google has an entire “Mobile First” philosophy that prioritizes mobile sites over those intended for desktop viewing. For this reason, it is of the utmost importance that your site is mobile ready.
Creating top content
Really good SEO strategy is ongoing. That means the initial content of your site must be clear and engaging, such as your customers will want. It also means peppering that content with those keywords that are integral to your industry. This is how your site will initially begin to rank in results. However, as a site ages, it’s still important to stay on top of things. This means continuing to evaluate keywords and changing up your content as necessary. The good news is that this is doubly important — new content or tweaks to your site make it rank higher to those web crawlers, who are loathe to deliver out of date information to their searchers and rely on updates to ensure that they’re recommending fresh content.
Leave it to AuDSEO
Here at AuDSEO, we’re constantly keeping every aspect of SEO in mind so that you don’t have to. Let us take care of all your SEO marketing needs while you attend to the important work of providing the best hearing health care.