Understanding SEO Basics
– by Mary Ecsedy, Project Manager, Circuit Riders, LLC
SEO is essentially a time game whether you're trying to achieve a high ranking organically or through paid adword campaigns. The search engine bots will visit most website every 4-6 weeks. If you have not added any new content since the last time they came by, it will count against you, and your site will sink a little, becoming harder for users to find, causing it to sink still further. If you have added something new, however, your site will rise in the search engine results. There is a place for paid adwords, but in our opinion, the organic, natural method of SEO will net more solid traffic over time, and be rewarded by the search engines accordingly.
Driving a website higher in the search engine results takes time and savvy, but it's not rocket science. The best investment you can make of your time, effort, and money is to educate yourself and focus your resources on developing your website.
Target your resources and put your money where it will do the most good. Understand where your money is going and know how to judge the results for yourself. The following steps will help you get started.
Basic SEO Steps
The best way to summarize SEO is this: language matters. The search engines are looking for websites with quality content. They do so by analyzing your website and judging it according to certain criteria. The more good "marks" you get, the higher your site will be listed in the search results. If you want a high ranking, give them what they're looking for. It's as simple as that.
- Read Google's Webmaster Guidelines.
- Analyze your website according to Google's guidelines.
- Make the necessary changes to bring your site up to
recommended standards:
– Use valid, standards-compliant source code. If you can't easily read the text content buried in your code, neither can the browser bots.
– Create a solid set of meaningful keywords. Don't stuff your pages full of every word association you can think of. Less is more.
– Use consistent language in your text and image ALT tags. - Add some new content to your website every 6-8 weeks for the search engine bots to detect. The search engines are looking for quality, so give it to them.
- Check your server statistics package regularly; at least once a week and preferably every day. Learn what the numbers mean by reading the Help.
- Read about Google's free analysis tools and learn how to use them. Again, read the Help.
- Develop meaningful business cross-linking strategies with other businesses and professionals in your field.
Website development requires time, effort, and money. Put these resources into developing your website and you won't have to pay or trick people into finding you. If you give your visitors what they're looking for, they may come back for more.
Sobering Statistics for Paid Adword Campaigns
From Google Exposure, LinuxJournal.com, Doc Searles, Feb 1, 2010:
"Citing a "Natural Born Clickers" study by ComScore and Starcoma, Ad Age last year reported that "the number of people online who click display ads has dropped 50% in less than two years, and only 8% of Internet users account for 85% of all clicks... What's more, the 8% of Internet users that compose a majority of clicks is also down by half from the last study, which found 16% are responsible for 80% of clicks. The 2008 study found half of all clicks come from lower-income young adults."
SEO Services
We provide basic search engine development on every site we design. We have also completed numerouos SEO research and analysis projects since 2004, saving our clients money (some of them thousands of dollars a month in wasted paid adwords), while increasing their website traffic and sales at the same time.
More SEO Information
- Search Engine Optimization Services
- Introduction to Search Engine Optimization – Mary was invited to Carnegie Mellon University as a guest lecturer on Search Engine Optimization for the Intro to Website Design class on October 12, 2009. This is her presentation in .pdf format.
- SEO Writing
