What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - Placing Your Website at the Top of Search Results

Search engines seek to provide people with the best and most relevant websites for their search terms. Where there are more relevant search results, the search engine becomes more successful and reliable.  Even if your business offers the best services in your marketplace, it might not rank where it deserves to rank - at the top of search engine results. This is where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) comes in. SEO is the process by which certain strategies and techniques are used to show search engines, such as Google, that your website belongs at the top of the search results.

Keywords - Using the Right Keywords The Right Way

Major search engines use computer programs called ‘spiders’ or ‘crawlers’ that analyse web pages and index them according to keywords. If you do not use the right keywords in the right places, these programs fail to determine what your website is actually about. Although some keywords will naturally appear in certain places of your website, an SEO expert will help you to use important keywords throughout your web pages to improve your website’s ranking.

When using this strategy, you must remember not to get too excited and overdo it by inserting keywords in as many places as you can. If you do this, a search engine might mark your website as spam because it will think you are keyword stuffing.

Link Building - Showing Your Website's Relevance to Search Engines (e.g. Google)

Link analysis is another way search engine spiders will determine the quality of a website. If a website has a large number of other websites linking to it, most search engines will assume the website is relevant and good quality, and thus, award the website with a higher ranking in its search results.

Please note, link schemes will not work. Search engines will penalise you if you attempt to increase your ranking through buying/selling links, excessive link exchange or using services from a link farm...just to name a few ways.

Links are successfully acquired in a number of ways, but the best way is to create content that is interesting, relevant and linkable. When you hire an SEO expert in Brainerd (or anywhere really), the expert ensures that you receive relevant links from other websites that rank well in the search engines. This is because search engines often use the rank of a linking website to determine the importance of the link.  (Think of Wikipedia.)

Page Design - Pages that are Search Engine Friendly

When it comes to SEO, page design should never be underestimated. SEO experts know how to design pages that are search engine friendly. They build and/or edit your website to make it easy for search engine spiders and crawlers to read and index.  For example, while Flash and JavaScript offer great design options, spiders are blind to any text contained within them, creating a missed opportunity for points in page ranking.  In contrast, well-organized pages with relevant information will not only please your page visitors but will also be picked up more easily by search engines.

Climbing the SEO Ladder - You Need Time, Expertise and Effort

Getting your website to climb in search engine rankings takes time, expertise and effort. Hiring an SEO expert means your website will be placed higher in search results, positioning you at the fingertips of potential customers and clients.

Contact us today to learn more about why your business needs an SEO expert or learn to become an SEO expert yourself.