Why SEO?

If you have a website, blog, or squeeze page that you would like to have ranked higher on search engines, SEO is your best friend.  While it sounds simple, it can actually get very involved very quickly.  Here are the basics of SEO and how you can use it to your advantage to boost your website in search engine rankings.

What is SEO?

If you have any type of website, you have more than likely heard search engine optimisation  (SEO). SEO is essentially the process that affects your website’s visibility in the unpaid results of a search engine. It is extremely important if you are interested in getting new leads, customers, and sales. If you don’t think that SEO is important, ask yourself when was the last time you went past the second page on a search engine, or even the last time you clicked a link not within the top 3 search engine results?

Why Should You SEO?

SEO is essentially one of the best forms of free marketing on the planet. The better you rank in the search engines, the more people are going to be able to find your page. Keep in mind that there are many millions of searches for things every single day. Heck, you may have even found this page by using a search engine.  But that is what makes SEO so important. It’s not because there is a ton of traffic, but rather because there is a ton of highly targeted traffic of people looking for your particular niche.

Think about it like this: if you sold elephant jewelry, would you rather put up a billboard so everybody with a car in your area would see it, or have your ad show up online every single time someone searched for elephants or elephant jewellry?  Chances are it’s the second one. These are the people who are coming in with commercial intent, meaning that they are actively searching for what it is you are offering them.

How Do You Use SEO?

When it comes to search engines, there is nothing bigger than Google. So if you really want to boost your website rankings, you must play by Google’s rules.  While their algorithm for ranking websites is constantly changing and adapting itself, there are some basics to keep in mind.

For starters, Google loves high-quality information that is relevant to what the searcher is looking for.  This means that you want to continuously put relevant content on your website that relates to your niche.

Second, Google loves keywords. A keyword is what somebody will search for in the search engine. For example, ‘weight loss’ is a keyword.  So you would want to incorporate the term weight loss into the content on your website.

Finally, be sure to link your website to relevant ‘power’ sites.  This means sites like Facebook, Wikipedia, CNN, etc. Those sites already rank higher on Google, which means that they are more relevant. By linking to those sites, your website will be viewed as more relevant as well.