Real SEO is a Cycle
One topic that is still fairly misunderstood by small businesses is SEO or Search Engine Optimization. SEO is not easy and if it were, then we would probably not have the unemployment rate we have and just about everyone would be able to startup a web company and make a lot of money. It is clearly not that simple.
Search Engine Optimization is the process of “optimizing” your website to be found by people searching for your services using search engines. Consider there are currently an estimated 250 million websites and 14 billion indexed web pages. That’s a lot of competition. You may not be competing with all of those websites or pages, but the fact is it is becoming much more challenging, and costly, to rank well in the search engines.
The reason it is so important to rank well in the search engines is due to the fact that web users typically choose listings on the first or second pages in the search results. An estimated 84% of users click links on the first page and the majority of the remaining users do not go past page 3.
One common misconception is to type your company name in the search engines and see that you rank on the top of the first page and think this is a good ranking. If you are very well branded and most potential clients know your name, then this may work fine for you. The key for most is to rank for specific keywords or keyphrases that describe your business offerings.
The challenge is to have your website rank well for keywords or keyphrases that describe your business. The more competitive the keyword or keyphrase, the more challenging and costly to rank for that search term. Identifying the right keywords and phrases is a challenge in itself. You ideally want a keyword or phrase that has a good volume of search traffic and low competition. This is not an easy thing to find. There are some formulas you can use to identify the value of a keyword or keyphrase. These formulas are just a gauge and some argue they are obsolete. However, I feel they are still a good indicator and should be considered. The formulas do have varying implementations and so depending on how you implement the formula can provide very different results. I will not get into the details of those formulas here but you can research further on them. They are called KEI (Keyword Effectiveness Index) and KOI (Keyword Opportunity Index).
Once the keywords or keyphrases have been identified, you will need to infuse these throughout your website. They should be used in your main content, title tags, meta descriptions, image descriptions (alt tags), URL’s for pages, inbound and outbound links, sitemap.xml and even the folder structure that the web files are stored and accessed via the URL’s. You need to be cautious to not saturate the content too much as it will be deemed “keyword stuffing” and could hurt your rankings. Many other best-practices surround each of these components and are beyond the scope of this blog.
Link-building is the process of creating relevant inbound links to your website from external websites, directories, blogs, social sites, bookmarking sites and more. The concept is simple, but the process is fairly complex. If your website is a popular website (determined by search traffic) then it can be assumed that it would be referenced in other websites and discussed in blogs and posted in social media and bookmarking sites across the Internet. Link-building helps expedite this process. The technique targets your top keywords or keyphrases and injects links strategically in the aforementioned websites and directories. They should be included in relevant sites and also prominent sites with a higher PR (Page Rank). Link-building is more about quality than quantity. Most companies just spin links that go to thousands of websites and directories but those sites and directories have no affiliation to your business and have very low PR – meaning those sites are not high traffic or credible websites so there is little to no benefit to having a link to your website there.
The key is to have spatial link-building that simulates real link propagation and includes websites and directories relevant to your business with a higher PR and credibility. Each of these links acts as a “vote” for your website and the more credible and relevant votes you have, the more credible and relevant your website looks to the search engines and you can be pushed to the top of the search results heap.
Other considerations are blogs, press releases, videos and podcasts. These create natural links that will increase your Internet presence and credibility and traffic. You must continue to monitor your website via analytics.
You cannot monetize what you cannot measure and many businesses do not evaluate their website analytics and are missing out on huge opportunities for increased traffic and conversion. Conversion is the idea of a website visitor actually taking action on your website. Again, this is not an easy feat and an understanding of human behavior and key design implementations and interaction patterns are a must.
All of these concepts are part of Search Engine Optimization. Pricing varies based on your expectations for rank and the competitiveness of your keywords. If you want your website to be ranked in the top 3 for a very competitive keyword across the world, this would be a much more massive undertaking than ranking your business on the first or second page for a low competition keyword in a single town. This is where the customization must happen and the pricing will vary significantly.
Due to the very complex and custom nature of SEO, eSavV has introduced “Expectation Pricing”. This pricing structure is based on the aforementioned items and is a completely custom solution which is a must for serious ROI. Learn more at our website: www.eSavV.com
Michael D. Croft
President / CEO
eSavV Technologies
Expert Website Development, Mobile Apps, Software, Internet Marketing
TF: 888-316-6303
CELL: 401-524-7574
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640 George Washington Hwy, Lincoln RI 02865
BIO: linkedin.com/in/michaeldavidcroft
"eSavV is one of America's world class technology solutions providers. They offer unmatched expertise and customer service. United Nations affiliate IREO is a proud partner.” -Robson Mello, Secretary-General, Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Organization
