#powerfulresults
#powerfulresults
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
The objective of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is to get your website listed at the very top of Google & Bing. For olwm.com it is important for us to be found #1 for “SEO St George” and the like. In order to do this we have to understand what the search engines are looking for when they crawl and later index a website.
The first element the search engine must understand is what the user meant when they typed in their question or a keyword. Next they have to search their index and find the closest match or the most relevant result and do so in milliseconds. Their algorithms are very complex and worse are always changing in fact in 2010 Google made 550 improvements to their algorithm alone.
Our job at OLWM (Online Web Marketing) is to keep current with these changes and make sure our practices are meeting better standards so our client’s websites not only rank well, but avoid penalties.
Believe it or not there are still those who think SEO (Search Engine Optimization) includes stuffing keywords in the meta keywords tag and getting some low quality backlinks at a link farm. SEO changes a lot. There was a time when keyword stuffing the meta keywords tag worked just like getting thousands of garbage backlinks from link farms worked along with hundreds if not thousands of other ways you could game the system to get your website to rank #1 on Google. The reality is that SEO is always in a state of flux. We have to keep current to what is working and whats not. There is one underlying principle that never changes in SEO. Know who your user is and what they want. When your website delivers better content while matching the users intent and also using better web practices the end result is a website that ranks well. etter is always a subjective perspective. One glass cleaner might claim their window is cleaner because they use a fast drying no streak formula while another one claims that their window is cleaner because they use only organic and
Keep in mind, better is always a subjective perspective. One glass cleaner might claim their window is cleaner because they use a fast drying no streak formula while another one claims that their window is cleaner because they use only organic and eco friendly formula. If a website is going to try to rank because their service is better than their competitors and nothing else it is going to be very difficult unless they are willing to create content for their website that demonstrates that their service is indeed better. This can include testimonials, field tests and surveys etc.
In the early days of internet marketing you could tell someone that you did SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for a living and they always had a puzzled look on their face. These days SEO is on the top of the list when we are talking to new clients. Most have already either spoken to someone or done some reading online or both just to be confused as what to do. The truth is Search Engine Optimization has only gotten harder and harder. Google protects their assets by serving relevant results. That’s why they are constantly changing their algorithm.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Overview
SEO is broken down into two parts: On-Page SEO and Off-Page SEO. Both are important. The first: On-Page SEO involves the website itself. How the HTML code including a lot of the meta tags are used, the menu structure and using better standard practices.
Our approach is definatly different than any other SEO Company. Before we ever start a project and get to programming, we do extensive keyword research (sometimes 5,000 keywords deep). What we are looking for are the optimum keywords for that clients website (and it almost always varies). If the site is new we have to take a little different approach and research each verticle/niche (which is basically a segment that exists within any market).
For example if we wanted to use our website (olwm.com/) as a case study, it is obvious that we want to rank for our service (SEO) and our location (St. George, Utah). We wouldn’t stop at “seo st george” or “st george seo”. We would look at related terms, even those that might not have as much search volume (the number of times each month that keyword is typed into Google).
Remember each keyword or keyword phrase costs time in labor. This is where Conversion Optimization actually starts. “St George SEO Company” is actually typed far less than “St George SEO”, BUT the user is being more specific as to what they want. “Best SEO Company in St George” even tells us more.
We research each of those keywords and look to see who ranks for that term, but more importantly why. We then have to research each of the top 10 competitors. There is no software or automation, at least we don’t use any to do this. Human eyes with years of experience is the best tool. We look at their websites and the HTML code on the backside and see what they are doing. We do use sofware to see how many backlinks are pointing to their website and how strong and relevant those backlinks are to determine if we can out rank the website. The backlinks part is the second part of our SEO strategy: Off-Page SEO.
Off-Page SEO is actually pretty simple if you simply think of it like this: Who can I get to link to my website? You are going to get credit from Google and the other search engines when you do this, but you must remember that not all backlinks are the same. In our case “St George SEO” or “Internet Marketing Comany St George” we want to get links from other websites that fit in the marketing and web development areas.
So if your website is an auto dealership you would want to get backlinks from other auto dealerships and even other auto related websites such as auto part stores, automobile groups/clubs and so on, BUT the quality of these sites matter. If they are hosted in bad neighborhoods on a shared server that has adult content, gaming etc then this link can actually hurt you. You also want to watch the percentage of links coming back to your website that are an exact match for your keyword. You need to mix it up. Use your keyword, your domain name, even terms like “click here” and “more info”.
You also want the content that surrounds your link to be relevant to your industry. This is why it has become so popular to pen guest articles on other peoples websites for a backlink back, but again the quality of the website that is hosting that article is important. In February 2011 Google released the Panda/Farmer update. This update focused on taking out the value that was coming from article farm websites (websites that hosted articles for nothing more than the link value). Then came the dreaded Penguin update that penalized websites for thin content and from backlinking to your website from low quality sites.
The direction SEO is going is to provide your user a great experience. Focusing on driving more visitors from various relevant and on-topic sources (not just search engines). This is going to be reinforced by social signals. So once an article is posted it should be shared via the social networks and encouraged to be shared and commented on.
If you have read all the way to hear, either you are really needing some tips and help and if you are please feel free to schedule an appointment and we can see what the best direction will be for you and your website or you are one of our competitors. If you are one of our competitors we still love to geek out with others in our industry and you should stop in and say hello.