subject: What Does SEO Involve? [print this page] What Does SEO Involve? What Does SEO Involve?
SEO stands for 'search engine optimisation' and is based on getting a website more visible on the search engines. With increased visibility comes more visitors - which is the general goal. Lifting a websites visitors from 100 a month to 10,000 a month is what every company wants.
The main search engine is google, so most SEO work is done around googles rules and guidelines. Bing is starting to make more of a presence on the internet, however the market is still dominated by google.
There are two types of SEO
Black Hat SEO
This is based on breaking googles rules and using 'cheat' techniques in order to get to the top. Usually black hat SEO works - but once you are found out your site will be banned - and then you have bit problems.
There is a difference between working in-between the rules and breaking them. Black hat is about breaking them to get fast results.
White Hat SEO
This is basically the opposite, following the rules and best internet practices in order to have a well positioned website on the web.
Being selective on the SEO company you choose is wise - as there are many that will use questionable techniques to get you the results that you are looking for - take your money and then run.
What is involved with SEO?
SEO is about a number of things, not just one thing there are a few 'elements' that come into the SEO campaign, based around two things:
Onsite SEO - this is work that is done on your own website.
Onsite SEO is about getting your website 'search engine friendly' having the right spread of keywords and lots of information. Search engines and people read websites differently - getting the balance right is important so that search engines like you and people like the look of your website.
Offsite SEO - this is work that is done off of your website.
Offsite SEO is probably more important as it is bringing links and information pointing at you. This could be from information forums, social media sites, news sites (like the BBC) etc.
There is roughly a 60/40 split on the amount of work that is done - but there does need to be a balance.
Some of the things that are needed with SEO work are:
Keyword research
Keywords are the words/phrases that you want to be found for. You need to have a good idea as to what words you want to target (anything from 5-10 keywords are good) to get your website found for.
Looking at competitors
This is a key tactic when it comes to SEO - by seeing what your competition are doing gives you a plan on what you need to do. What sort of websites they have, what sort of information and articles they have, what sort of links are pointing at them.
Link Building
SEO is mainly about a popularity contest. The more websites that are pointing at you, the more popular you appear (in the search engines eyes) and the higher you will appear.
Articles
Using informative articles both on your own website and on 'article websites' with links to your own site will give substance and information about your company, services etc. Search engines see this and like it.
If you add articles to your site - this is counted as content (see below) and they really can help your sites visibility.
Content
A good website is a website that has lots of content. The more content the better. Sites like Wikipedia are popular as they are full of content. Search engines like content so the more information you have on your website the more visible you will be (of course with the right amount of keywords).
Many say that 'content is king' - the more content your website has the more people will visit it
Keep the content fresh, but do not change it too often. Adding new content once every couple of months is fine. Once a year is nowhere near enough and once a week is too much.
Blog
As long as you are regularly updating your companies blog with relevant information - search engines will keep coming back to them. Updating a blog daily is great if you can do it, weekly also if fine but at the very least once a month. The more blogs are updated, the more the search engine 'spiders' will come back and sniff around.
Tying your blog into the content on your website is a great way of advertising you inner pages to the search engines in a non spammy way.
Social Media
Websites like facebook, Twitter are becoming more and more popular, and now that search engines are reading them is great for the SEO element.
