Most everyone who uses the internet has, at one time or another, heard the term SEO. SEO is an anacronym that stands for Search Engine Optimization and is a digital marketing tool that is vital for any website. Although you may have heard the term countless times, do you know how it works?
SEO is constructed from a multifaceted process, and understanding its many elements will give you a better understanding of its importance. In a nutshell, the sole purpose of SEO is to create more traffic through your site by making it more visible online, which can lead to more viewers becoming possible customers.
The process is also beneficial when looking at creating your brand awareness, developing a relationship with your customers, and allowing visitors to see you as a trusted expert in your site's field.
In the current world of SEO, there is more to the technique than just having proper keywords. That said, it does not mean that keywords do not still play a crucial role in SEO, but they are not the only element as they once were. For keywords to be of significance in SEO marketing today, they will need to be researched thoroughly, chosen carefully,and judged as valuable and relevant to your website content, and they will prove effective overall.
So, this brings the question—what exactly are keywords? Simply put, keywords are words, of course, or phrases that internet users will type into a browser's search box to find theonline content they are searching for. For example, if they are looking for information on SEO, they may type in the title of this article – What is SEO? For the website user creating a brand, keywords are the bridge between them and the customer who may be looking for information on their services or products.
When beginning the process of researching keywords, you will need to target your search for those keywords that present with high ratings in searches while also having low search competition. You will want to search by short-tailed keywords (such as chickens) and long-tailed keywords (such as building achicken coop). You can take your search further and search via local keywords (such as chicken feed for sale in NewYork).
After seeing the results of your search, you can then choose to incorporate these keywords into your website content. You will always need to include a primary or seed keyword, then branch out into secondary and tertiary keywords. Remember that even though keywords may be secondary, they can still add overall value to your SEO marketing.
Lastly, remember to use your chosen keywords to aid in optimizing your site by way of your titles, URL, and other SEO elements included on your page.
One of the most important elements of SEO is your page'scontent. Content is how you can onlyreach but also engage your visitors and audience. Knowing the angle you wish to take and thencrafting the content appropriately is essential to SEO strategy.
For example, let's look at the example that you own a small farm and are looking to increase your visibility for the farm-fresh eggs you offer. One element might include adding blogs to your website containing information on the different breeds of chickens, how to properly store fresh farm eggs or even some recipes that use your eggs. Then, when an individual engaged in a search for recipes containing eggs, the blog on your page would populate in the list of searched sites. You will then have your "foot in the door" and will have your website in front of someone who may not have ever seen it otherwise. They may not be looking for farm-fresh eggs when they did the recipe search, but that does not mean that they won't be and will remember your sitedown the road.
Remember that putting content on your site just for the sake of having content, will not offer any advantages. To get the most SEO benefit from your content, it needs to be interesting, relevant, educational, and above all else, shareable.
Many think of content solely as blogs and articles. However, content can be presented in a variety of forms:
- The web pages themselves
- Any videos
- Blogs and articles
- Information with statistics and graphs
- Informational podcasts
- Posts on social media outlets
You also have the option for off-site SEO (external practices done off your site rather than on it) and local SEO (which is more geared to those using mobile devices.)
