Any
website owner will tell you, they want to be in the #1 spot of search engine
results. However most website owners have misconceptions of how search engines and
search results work, and often don't know the best strategies to spend their
marketing dollars on. The pages in this section will give you a good overview
of how Search Engine Optimization (SEO) works, and some tips to get you started
on your way to that coveted #1 spot.
What is Search Engine
Optimization (SEO)?
Search Engine Optimization is the ongoing process of ensuring
each page of your website has been optimized and growing your online presence
and reputation to give your website favorable rankings in the search engines.
You may optimize your own website and manage your online
presence, or you may contact Web
Solutions Omaha to assist you. If you choose to do your own optimization,
the information in this section will be very helpful.
How are websites indexed
by Search Engines?
Search
engines use automated software programs known as robots, spiders, or crawlers
to survey the World Wide Web and build their search databases. These robots
automatically follow hyperlinks from one page to the next around the Web. When
a robot comes across your website, it sends information back to its search database
to be indexed and analyzed using an algorithm.
Because website content changes regularly, robots frequently
send new information to update their indexes. How quickly and comprehensively
they carry out these tasks varies from one search engine to the next.
How do organic
search results work?
When a person enters a query at a search engine site, the
keywords and/or phrases they used are checked against the search engine's database
index of all the web pages it has indexed, along with several other ranking
factors. The most relevant and reputable URLs are then returned to you as search
results, ranked in order by what each search engine's algorithm's believe are the
best matches at the top. These are called "organic" search results.
There is also another type of result shown at the top or in
featured areas called "paid" results, which is a form of Search Engine
Marketing (SEM). You can spend marketing dollars with search engines for paid
advertising (aka: Pay-Per-Click) and bid on a top spot for the search phrases
you want to target.
What is Search Engine Marketing (SEM)?
There are several forms of SEM, some of which include:
- Paid Advertising - where you purchase ad space on other
websites, directories, search engines, blogs, social media platforms, etc.
to try to attract visitors to your website.
- Backlinks - getting other reputable websites to link to your
website (either paid or free options)
- Social Media Marketing - having an active online following and
regularly engaging with and marketing to your followers
- Blogs - creating an archive of articles to try to establish
your company as an authority in your field and attract potential customers
to your website
- Reviews & Testimonials - strategically garnering and
promoting product and service reviews of your company on your website
and/or encouraging customers to provide reviews on external websites.
How can I be on the 1st
page of Google's Search?
Continually investing in well-planned marketing efforts in both
SEO and SEM will be necessary in order for your business or organization to
compete online. Some will have to work at it harder than others depending on
the competition for their industry or area of expertise.
There is no concrete way to ensure that you'll receive a
high ranking on any one search engine (unless you're willing to spend whatever
it takes to get the #1 paid advertising spot). Even if you do get a great
ranking one day, there's no assurance that you'll keep it the next day.
Why? Because each search engine uses different algorithms to
rank sites, and those algorithms are always changing. To compete for a spot in
the top organic search results is like trying to hit a moving target. In
addition, it requires a regular investment of time, resources and money to
achieve and maintain a top spot for any period of time. Because of
ever-changing content on the web, trends, news, and other real-time factors,
search results are dynamic and rarely stay the same from one hour to the next.
The best thing you can do is make sure your website is well optimized
and follows search engines' guidelines for best practices.
Let's
look at few basic
components of effective SEO…
