What the heck is SEO?
Maybe you've read a lot about search engine optimization already. Roughly simplified, one can say that the idea of SEO is:
- Building a website in a way that places it among the top search results on the major search engines on the web, when you search with keywords that are related to the content of the website.
Search engines use simple software to index web pages, and the program analyzes the content of a website to determine what the website is about. Should a keyword be integrated so that it appears naturally in the text, the search engines will see the site as relevant to the keyword, making it rank higher among the search results.
If the optimization is done correctly, it will lead to more interested visitors visiting the site. But search engine optimization is not just about making sure you have keywords in the text, alt tags, page titles and meta description.
You also need to review and adjust the content of the entire site with regard to:
- Relevance, timeliness, readability and grammar of the text content.
- Information value. Is the website a "stand-alone" source of knowledge in your field?
- Navigability. Does the website have short and logical paths to more information / contact page etc.?
Inbound links. Does your website have other websites that link to it? Relevant blogs, mentions with links in social media, etc.
What does it take to succeed in SEO?
There is a lot to say about it. Google is constantly making adjustments to its algorithms in order to deliver the best possible search results, but it is always best to start from scratch if you want to keep up in the long run.
I think it is most important to first choose the right keywords for their SEO. When it comes to online searches, it is common for people to search with a single word and some of these single words can be incredibly popular, but rarely lead to contacts or purchases.
There are also words / phrases that are specific to a particular industry and so special that no one searches for them. The optimal keyword is one that relatively many people search for and that leads to visits and possible contact or purchase.
Search engines (read Google) require well-written, relevant, unique text with sufficient informational value. The keywords / phrases must be written into the text in a natural way.
The next post on "The road to success on the web" is about search engine friendly VS user-friendly web design.
On reblogging,
Tomas Ohlum
hjoseo.blogspot.se
