What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a multi-tiered form of Internet marketing which maximizes the visibility of your brand’s Internet search presence. When searching or shopping online most Internet users begin in one of a few places, usually their Internet search engine. The major search portals are Google, Yahoo!, and Bing. But there are many others, including Ask!, AOL search, Excite, Hotbot, Duck Duck Go, Dogpile, Go.com, etc.
How does SEO work?
Search engines use software called “crawlers” or “spiders,” which scour the Internet’s web pages taking snapshots of each page and moving on. These web crawlers read the Internet for the search engines and help formulate your search results. The objective of SEO is to make the web crawler read your site as favorably as possible, storing it as a reputable web page. This is based on several factors. Some of these factors are the quality of the site’s text, the amount of active links to and from the site, the variety of sites being linked, how often the site is updated, and the amount of traffic the site receives.
SEO entails broadcasting quality content on the web (in the form of articles, blogs, videos, press releases, and social media updates) to maximize your brand’s search engine visibility. SEO is accomplished through many different techniques.
Click here to access Moz’s Beginners Guide to SEO.
The most common SEO techniques are:
1) Build a website for your brand and fill that website with quality text, focusing on the use of terms and concepts that are popular and relevant to your brand.
2) Index your website(s) with the multiple search engine directories.
3) Create and maintain a widespread social networking presence. (Facebook, LinkedIN, Twitter, etc.)
4) Periodically publish articles relevant to your brand online. (Blogging)
5) Distribute press releases regarding any notable developments regarding your brand.
Where Does SEO start?
You will begin by formulating a list of terms and concepts that users are most likely to type into searches to find the brand you are selling. This list of words and concepts is gathered like a cloud around your brand on the Internet, making it more visible. For example, if you sell organic produce in Atlanta, then some common search terms and concepts might be “organic produce atlanta,” “local fresh fruit atlanta,” “organic vegetables atlanta,” “sustainable produce,” “sustainable fruits and vegetables,” “best quality atlanta produce,” etc. Your unique list of words and concepts is then extrapolated by our writing and web design team into a body of quality, keyword-rich content. Optimized content is then strategically published and linked online, integrated with social networking accounts, to increase your search engine optimization.
How long does SEO take?
SEO is very effective, but it is not a magic spell. SEO is the product of comprehensive design and consistent online activity. The first stage of an SEO campaign begins with quality content creation. Content must then be distributed on the web gradually, to simulate the organic growth of a popular web presence, generating links, comments, and online discussions about your brand. SEO is an ongoing process. You can not optimize your web presence then leave it like a billboard on the side of the highway. Your ranking on the web is largely based on your consistent activity on the web. Websites, blogs, and social networking accounts (like Twitter, LinkedIN, Facebook, etc.) must be updated periodically or they may become less optimal.
So I’ve built my site and begun broadcasting my quality content. Now what?
Since SEO is a kind of stealth marketing technique, search engines try to block SEO that is too aggressive. Search engines are always updating techniques to filter and block suspicious web pages – “spam” trying to get to the top of searches through marketing rather than relevance.
For example, one technique at search engines’s disposal is called by some “the sandbox effect.” A newly built website, which has been registered with Google’s directory, is kept in the sandbox for several weeks after its appearance on the web, lowering its search index ranking, for as much as 8 weeks or more. If a site suddenly appears on the Internet with a swarm of links, social media accounts, and web optimization, it is likely to be spam, and may remain in the sandbox longer. That said, effective SEO is gradual and consistent. Your SEO content must be bled gradually out onto the Internet, simulating typical development of online interest in your brand, building into a highly visible body of content.
SEO is not a temporary gimmick. It is the way your company communicates with the Internet. Setting up a Lara J Designs comprehensive SEO campaign requires skilled web design. But once a quality SEO campaign is off the ground, it can theoretically be maintained from your iPhone.
