What Is SEO / Search Engine Optimization and Do You Need It?
SEO is the process of optimizing your landing page or website to rank highly on Google’s search engine. Another Word for SEO is “Search Engine Optimization”
Video: Watch this quick video explanation of SEO by SearchEngineLand.com
I know your first question is “how do you guys optimize my website for the search engines?”, and the answer to that question is an easy one. There are only 2 different factors that pertain to SEO optimization. The first one is On-Page Optimization (discussed in this post) and the other one is Off-Page Optimization. On-Page optimization deals with changing around the keywords, coding of your website, titles, meta tags, and alt text on pictures. Off-Page Optimization (discussed in another post) deals with link building, submissions, content marketing and other factors but we will get to that in another post. On-Page optimization is very necessary because Google looks at your website totally different than people do. Google reads your website using what’s called an “algorithm”.
Google’s Algorithm
Google’s algorithm is basically a way for Google to read your website and calculate where they think you should rank based upon different factors. The Google’s algorithm takes many different factors into account when ranking your website on the search engines, but the most important factors are the ones I previously mentioned in the above paragraph and more specifically, the most important factor is Keywords.
Keywords: Most Important Factor for On-Page Optimization
The keywords on your website (Keywords definition: The descriptive text or words on your website) are by far, the most important thing SEO Companies are usually focused on when optimizing your website. Without words on your site, Google is unable to tell what kind of business you are running. For Example: Let’s say that you own a Air Conditioning Repair Company in Phoenix Arizona. If you were to use those exact words, Google would know that you are:
1. An Air Conditioning Repair Company
2. In the city of Phoenix
3. In the state of Arizona
The same goes with any business or website. By adding these descriptive words on your page, you are allowing Google to crawl your site and find out what business category they should put you in, and most importantly, what keywords you should rank for.
On-Page SEO: Titles and Content Structure
Your title and structure of your website also need proper keyword usage. You can pretty much look at the structure of your webpage as an essay. Included in every essay, there should be at least 3 key attributes:
1. Thesis statement: The title of your webpage is basically a thesis statement. It introduces the webpage to the readers. Your title should be completely relevant to the content you want to discuss on the page. Let’s use the “Air conditioning repair guy” again to create an example. A good title for an AC guy in Phoenix would be, “Air Conditioning Services and HVAC Repair Contractors in Phoenix AZ”. You see, this topic/title lets the reader know that this page is going to be about Contractors that perform HVAC and Air Conditioning repair services in the city and state of Phoenix Arizona. Once again, this statement helps the reader understand what kind of website they are on and also helps Google know what keywords they should rank you for.
2. Body Paragraph: Usually This is the heart of where most of your words/content are going to be read. Usually, the body paragraph is around 3 paragraphs or so and follows the keywords that were mentioned in the title. In this case our first paragraph would be about “Contractors”, the second paragraph would be about “HVAC repair” and the third paragraph would be about “Air conditioning service”. The body paragraph helps backup your main topic. By using these paragraphs properly, you are mentioning additional information about your keywords that helps the reader understand your content and helps Google categorize you better.
3. Conclusion: The conclusion of an essay wraps up the information you just talked about and mentions the topic once again. This could be the same as the closing of your website. Most websites make a statement at the end of the webpage. For example: For our AC guy, his conclusion would read, “If you need HVAC Repair or Air Conditioning services for your home or business in Phoenix AZ, Please contact us”.
Conclusion
Using keywords and proper structure will help you create web pages that are properly structured for the reader and most importantly, optimized for Google’s algorithm.
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