I meet with small business owners as a graphic designer all of the time and I am constantly explaining what SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is…..so, I though it was time to write a blog post answering this very question:
What the Heck is SEO?
First, check out this three minute video that explains SEO in simple terms with illustrations. I always love to start with You Tube when trying to learn more about something. I am a visual person, so I learn better this way. (Mind you, try to stick with the professional videos…there are a lot of wackos out there on You Tube land)
Now, a definition from Wikipedia for all of you that don’t care for video explanations:
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine’s “natural” or un-paid (“organic”) search results. In general, the earlier (or higher ranked on the search results page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine’s users. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search, academic search, news search and industry-specific vertical search engines.
As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work, what people search for, the actual search terms or keywords typed into search engines and which search engines are preferred by their targeted audience. Optimizing a website may involve editing its content, HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines. Promoting a site to increase the number of backlinks, or inbound links, is another SEO tactic.
I know enough about SEO to steer my clients in the right direction and give them sound advice, but to answer the tough questions I turn to the experts….my friends over at GoBeyondSEO here in Charlotte, NC. They specialize in SEO and internet marketing so they totally know what they are talking about. I love what they have to say over on their site….
So you have a website, awesome! But is anyone actually finding it?
Getting ranked in the major search engines, begins with doing proper keyword research. Don’t leave this to chance. If you get ranked for a term that doesn’t have any traffic, you have wasted a lot of time and energy. Make sure you get your keywords right!
So, what have we learned here today? Well, you can build it (your website)…but that doesn’t mean people will find it.
