Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a fancy term for how “high” the search engines will rank your site when somebody searches for your topic on the internet. Tis is called Search Results, and you want to have good search results.
There are two kinds of SEO- Organic (natural) and Paid (PPC). To be successful at either you need to invest either time or money.
Let’s talkabout how to rank high in Organic (natural) search results. Here’s what happens:
A searcher types a search term into a search engine that might closely match a description of your website. The search engine then scours the internet and determines which pages most closely match the search term. Then the Search Engines ranks the thousands of pages based on what it thinks are the most appropriate results to the least appropriate results for the search term. This is a huge task because there may be hundreds of “SERPS” (Search Engine Result Pages) for a given search term. Try it for yourself. Go to Google and type in the term “pets”. As of today, Google found about 264,000,000 pages. The term “pet adoption” will generate about 2,600,000 pages.
The ugly truth is that if your website does not end up on the first page, chances are that it will never be found by a searcher. Statistically, over 70% of searchers will not scroll past the first page of Google. Over 90% of searchers will not scroll past the second page. These statistics explain why internet marketers are desperate to get “on the first page” of Google for the search terms that reflect the content of their sites.
There are several strategies for for obtaining a high search engine ranking, but it all boils down to how well the search engine thinks your site matches the search term, and how useful the search engine thinks the site will be to the searcher. It’s not only important for your webpages to be search engine friendly, but also they must have good content, that is useful for the searcher.
I work with clients to determine what key attributes are important for them to communicate about their businesses. I also use several tools and strategies to make websites both search engine friendly and useful to readers.
If it’s important that your website get ranked high, you should call me. We’ll work together and before you know it, your site will be getting the traffic you excpect.
Pay Per Click (PPC)
The other side of Search Engine Optimization is PPC (Pay Per Click). Here is how it works:
A web site owner tries to sell a product or service on the internet. If he wants fast search engine ranking, he can offer to pay a Search Engine (let’s just say Google, since around 70 % of internet searches are done through Google) to put his web site at the top of the search results when a searcher types in a keyword. Then when the searcher clicks the link to take him to the site, Google will collect from the Webs site owner, the agreed upon rate (thus the term “Pay Per Click”). The rate charged is determined by Google, and can be as low as a nickle per click, or as high as $10 per click. The “Cost per Click” (CPC) is determined by things such as how high the site owner bids, how competitive the keyword is, and how useful Google determines that the website is (referred to as the “Google Quality Score”)
Key Words
Search Engines search by key words. Key words answer the question: What words would a searcher use if he were looking for information on a topic (say the subject of your website). So it is very important to know how your prospect”s state of mind should he try to search for your site.
Search Engines use Keywords to find relavent websites, not images, so it is more important (if you want to be found by the search engines) to have “keyword rich” website text. The more keyword rich text you have, the more likely your site will jump to the top of the search engine results. It’s the opposite of the old saying about a picture being worth a thousand words. In the search engine context, a good keyword is probably worth a thousand pictures.
Then there are various types of keywords. A short tail keyword refers to a very broad term (say insurance or pets). A long tail keyword refers to a very specific term (say health insurance agents in Indianapolis Indiana, or cocker spaniel training). The distinction is important because when someone searches using a short tail keyword, he is just shopping, and doesn’t know what he wants. On the other hand, when someone searches using a long tail keyword, he typically knows exactly what he wants and is ready to buy or call someone. There ae typically fewer long tail searches, but those searchers have their wallets out. Marketers should be ready for those searchers.
On Page Factors vs Off Page Factors
A search engines determines the value of your page based on two broad items: On Page Factors and Off Page Factors. As you might conclude, an On Page Factor is something on the webpage that the search engine is looking for. These factors include Title tags, Meta descriptions, internal linking, and keywords. These ae the things that the site designer himself adds to the page to make it visible to the seach engine. Conversely, Off Page Factors are factors that are not on the page, that the search engine uses to conclude that the page is important. The main Off Page Factors are external links to the page. The search engines will evaluate the number and popularity of the websites that link to your page, and if both are high, your page will have a high off page factor rating.
So the question is, which is more important, On Page Factors or Off Page Factors? While nobody knows for sure (each search engine rates pages using different algorithms, and they don’t disclose the detals of the algorithms) most people believe that Off Page Factors account for around 80% of the weighting, while on page factors account for the other 20%.
The lesson is that the more websites that use your site as an information source (if you are considered an “authority site”) and link to your site, the higher your site will be ranked by the search engines.