Please raise your hands if you completely understand SEO. OK, you over there, you can put your hand down now. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a process or set of processes that improve the visibility of your website using the search engines. The bottom line is that when someone searches for what they are looking for using one of the multitude of search engines, like Google, you want your website to be one of the top ones they see.What makes this so tricky is that there are calculations made that change as often as 1.5 times a day, there are certain words that are more popular than others and people are constantly trying to trick the system. Basically, there are no guarantees or certainty involved in this process and yet everyone is out there trying to use it to get traffic.
So here are some SEO and other ways to make sure you get traffic legitimately.
- Using SEO is one way to increase traffic to your site. Just as long as you realize that it isn’t the only way, you will be all right. The question you want to ask yourself is what are some of the keywords that people are using to ask about services or products like yours? You want to use a common set of keywords to encourage traffic. Just don't use one to death. You don’t want people to stop reading after you say the same words repeatedly.
- Pictures, videos, cartoons and such need to be on the topic. Today’s modern search engines play the videos and identify content. Photo recognition software can tell whether you have shown a duck, a nurse or a fire truck. You can aid in the recognition process if you give your picture a title relating it to the keywords.
- In order to encourage people to share your blogs with other people who are looking for similar information, go to other blogs and leave relevant comments. Some sites have plug-ins that will add a backlink to your comment. You also want to make sure that you have control over the comments that you receive so that you don’t get spammed. By being an active member of your business community, you can bring search engines your way.
- The last suggestion is to make use of location pins. At once time only Google, Bing and Yahoo had these, but now there are many sites that will create pins for a brick-and-mortar business. If you are a dentist or a service provider in a certain area, the best way you can be found is by being present on these sites. If a person in Fort Worth, Texas is looking for a carpet cleaning establishment, she will use the city in her search. Local businesses will come to the top in such a search.
Now you know a little more about SEO than you did before. If you feel like you need more help than your Algebra II math education provided, there is an entire industry of consultants willing to help you. Have you used any of these kinds of services? What other ways have you used SEO?
Jaco Grobbelaar, owner of BroadVision Marketing, helps business owners and business professionals put marketing strategies in place that consistently secure new clients. He can be reached at jaco@broadvisionmarketing.com or 707.799.1238. You can “Like” him at www.facebook.com/broadvisionmarketing or connect with him on www.linkedin.com/in/JacoGrobbelaar.
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