If you are a business owner with a website, you have undoubtedly heard of SEO or Search Engine Optimization. You know that it is something that your website needs so that customers can find you online, and that it has something to do with keywords, but beyond that you may be scratching your head and asking, What in the world is SEO? And do I really need it? Let's look at some quick FAQs about SEO that will help shed a little light on this mystery.
What is SEO?
When someone enters a phrase into a search and hits enter, the search engine, probably Google, gets to work. Search Engines use certain algorithms to determine the order in which to place the sites that relate to that phrase. It isn't random. Very broadly, it is based on relevance, quality of content, how recently it was updated. But Google isn't really reading your website. Instead they are looking for certain things that tell them how relevant, how high quality and how current your content is.
What is Google Looking for?
Relevance: If the phrase searched for is on your page, then your site is in the search, but you could be page ten, or "no-man's land" in the search engine world. Additionally, Google is "cross-referencing" the search phrase with other highly searched words. It's looking at how and where you use the words on the page and behind the scenes (in the coding). It's looking at how many people are clicking on your site. And it wants to know how many highly-trafficked sites link back to your site.
Quality of Content: Google doesn't reward low-quality content. It looks at the word count of your content and whether you have any multi-media features: images, interactivity, video, audio. Oh, and if your content isn't engaging and readable and just stuffs key words into the shortest space possible, Google knows. Believe me.
How Current: Did you ever wonder how search engines always seem to pull up current news stories when you type a search phrase rather than something that happened years ago? The page is still on the internet and you could get to it if you wanted to. But Google knows what's new and what's hot and these are the first things that come up if the phrase matches. If you are not very regularly updating your site and adding new content, it is slipping down to page 10. And with the speed that technology moves, that is not a slow slide.
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