If you have found this, you probably already have an idea of what SEO is. For everyone who does not know what SEO is, allow me to explain!
SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization.” This is a much more modern practice than you might expect, what with how everyone and their mother uses it now. The way it works is interesting, and wholly unique to the ever-expanding digital market, so keep it in mind when you are preparing to make your own website!
“But what is SEO,” you might ask? Well, it is a whole system baked into how search engines like Google and Yahoo work. Have you ever wondered why certain things pop up first on your search results? Other than (or perhaps more accurately, working alongside) frequent online traffic, the primary way this happens is via Search Engine Optimization.
The way it works is simple at first, but extremely complicated once you start digging more into it. There are multiple layers to the SEO web, so keep the following things in mind when trying to optimize your website yourself.
First, you need to understand “crawlers.” These are the digital moles that dig around for websites and put them on the front page. These crawlers use intricate algorithms and systems to find relevant content to a specific search result, then put that content on Google’s pages. The more frequented a website is, the higher up on the list it goes, and the earlier in the search results it appears.
Now that you know what crawlers do, you need to know how to influence them. As I just mentioned, if your website is frequented a lot, it will appear more. But ugly formatting and poor design will not attract any eyes, so you need to make sure your website is built attractively. No amount of optimization can polish a lump of dirt, after all.
With a good-looking website built and ready to be found, you need to next focus on “keywords.” You have probably already baked a few keywords into your content already. Your pizzeria website will obviously include the word “pizza,” which means Google will definitely find your website when someone searches for “pizza.”
What makes keywords important is the other kinds of words people use when searching for things. Say you are a pizzeria in Omaha, and you want to use keywords so that people can find your website. You might include many such words like “pizza,” “pizzeria,” “Omaha,” “local,” or “delivery.” You also should not worry too much about Google promoting your content to people in Omaha; location services are already a part of the search engine package, so as long as you include your location in your website, you will be easy to find.
After that, you will want to adjust your content, so it is relevant to more than just your own website. What I mean by this is, your beautiful website will not gather the traffic needed to jump up the ranks if you do not promote it. Use social media, blog posts, and other forms of subtle advertising to place your website’s URL in different locations. The more places you are, the easier you are to find.
On that note, make sure your URL actually looks nice. Nobody wants to click on something that looks like a virus, so stay away from random strings of numbers and letters and try to keep the important keywords in your link. “Omaha Pizzeria”, or something like one of the websites found here, should appear in the URL, perhaps.
There is much more I could go over, but this is enough for now. With these basic tools, you too can use SEO to meet your online goals! Except… it is just not quite enough, is it? Maybe you have done all the above, but something is just missing? This is where SEO experts can come in.
SEO Professionals
There are many, many, many businesses that provide Search Engine Optimization services. These companies may be entirely online, or they could be local. But if you want to narrow down your search, here are a few handy tricks.
First, you should know if your website promotes online or offline services. This will determine your audience and will help you figure out if you need to promote locally or globally.
If you mostly provide offline services like cleaning or delivery, you will want to use local SEO. Local SEO services are based a lot on what you have available to you in your area, but there are plenty of options. If you want your pizzeria to be the biggest in Omaha, websites like https://searchific.com/omaha-seo/ are more than ready to make your content seen by those in your area, while not necessarily promoting to the world at large.
Global SEO is for those whose website promotes online services, or offline services that can reach global consumers. For more global SEO services, you can simply look at some of the multitude of online services that guarantee they will get your website to the front page of Google. They are numerous and hugely different in quality, so look into each one before committing to a choice.
These SEO professionals may also provide more general advertising or marketing services. A lot of them promote their “lead” finding abilities, aka their ability to turn emails to consumers into clicks on your website. Some of them also do phone services, or online advertising in the form of pay-per-click ads. If you want to really beef up your marketing strategy, these services might be for you.
This all sounds great, and it is good to have professionals there to help, but you should not only rely on SEO. As I said before, your website’s success also depends heavily on how much work you put into it, so do not slack off just because you have help!
Conclusion
There, now you know everything you need to know to get started on your SEO adventure. This might seem like a lot, but it is really only scratching the surface. Even still, I hope this helps you make your website the best it can be!
