What Exactly is SEO
March 1, 2008
I have written a ton of articles about the technical aspects and nuisances of SEO and Internet Marketing and I have begun to realize that many people are really not quite aware of what SEO actually is, what it can do for you and how it actually works at the most basic level. So I decided to do a quick article about SEO that explains it at the very beginner level.
What does SEO mean anyway?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and it is simply the process of optimizing web site content to preform well in the major search engines. Today Google drives almost 70% of the search traffic on the internet so most SEO Professionals focus on Google as they gauge of their results.
How does SEO work?
SEO at its’ core is a quite simple process and is simply broken into two distinct disciplines. These are called on site optimization and off site optimization
On site optimization is simply the content you have on your web pages. This includes all the content including but not limited to the main content or text, the headings, the titles of image files, title and description tags and other factors. This is the easy side of SEO once you learn all the technical factors because you have full control over every part of what is on your site.
Off site optimization is really just link building. To way over simplify the issue you want lot of links from other sites pointing to your site and you want them formated using the words you want your website to rank well for. This is again a huge over simplification of the process the important thing to understand is that links have more impact on rankings then onsite factors.
It is also very important to understand that it is not just how many pages link to you or what sites they are on it is also highly contingent upon what sites and pages link to them and so on for many levels. As you might imagine off site SEO is far more complex because your control over many factors is quite limited.
Can a good SEO Professional get me to the top of Google for the term “xyz”?
The honest answer is it depends on a few things. First the term you want to rank for and how many other sites are competing for it. Second how much time and money you are willing to invest. Third it also depends on whether the term is worth your effort in the first place. Some terms are highly competitive but may not convert well to sales or leads for you. A good SEO is not just concerned about getting you ranked, he or she is most concerned with finding highly targeted traffic that will convert for you into buyers and or leads.
How do I know what terms to optimize for?
Keyword research is one of the most valuable skills a good SEO has and learning to do it well takes a long time. Basic keyword research is pretty easy and you can start off with a free key word tool from Google and get a lot of good data. Professional SEOs use this tool in conjunction with more advanced tools. Additionally they know how to dig deeper and their skill is a mixture of good technical skills, intuition and experience. While you can do your own initial research if there is any one factor that it most pays to seek the services of a professional for it is key word research.
Does SEO really work?
You bet it does! When you search for just about anything on Google or Yahoo today odds are most of the natural results on the search results page are there from effective use of SEO techniques. SEO takes time and it is an ever change mixture of solid technical skills and art. There are many people that call themselves an SEO today but the number or truly skilled individuals is much lower. Good SEOs are not difficult to recognize though, just judge their results.
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