New to SEO? Here Are Some Basics to Get You Started

SEO is an important aspect of marketing your business online, but too many times, business owners have no idea what SEO stands for, let alone why they need to incorporate it into their business strategy. SEO can make all the difference between a thriving business and one struggling to survive. In a world where the internet is the prime source of information, it is essential to have an online presence. Let’s take a look at some of the basics to help you understand how SEO affects your business.

What is SEO?

SEO stands for search engine optimization. To put it simply, SEO is the process of making your web page more attractive to search engines, leading to a higher and more visible ranking on the search engine results page (SERP). The higher your ranking on the SERP, the more likely you are to get someone to visit your page and do business with you. There are several factors that search engines use to determine what order the results will show up in on the search engine results page. These include keywords, title tags, meta descriptions, and backlinks.

What does good content look like?

Before you begin developing your SEO strategy, it is important to figure out who your target customer is. After you know what type of customer you want to visit your page, it will be easier to create content that will bring in the right audience. Let’s take a closer look at some of the terms we referenced earlier and how they affect SEO.

Keywords

There are two types of keywords that are important to reaching your desired audience, short-tail keywords, and long-tail keywords. Short-tail keywords consist of three words or less. For example, if someone is looking for a divorce attorney, they may type in “divorce attorney” or “family law lawyer.” But if someone needs a child custody lawyer to deal with an out of state move, they may type in “child custody lawyer for out of state moves in California.” This is a long-tail keyword and will result in a more narrow search result. It is important to incorporate both long and short-tail keywords in your online content.

Title tags and meta descriptions

Title tags are one of the most important parts of your SEO. They are the primary factor that both the search engine and the user use to determine whether your content is relevant to a given search term. More often than not, a user won’t look beyond the title tag to determine whether they are going to click on your page, so it’s important that your title tag accurately describes the content on your web page while attracting the customer’s attention.

The meta description is a more detailed description of what a customer will find when they visit your web page. It will appear directly below your title tag on the search engine results page. This is your opportunity to give your potential customer a little more information about your business to entice them to visit your page.

Backlinks:

Backlinks are incoming links from an external webpage. They are essentially a vote of confidence from other websites saying that your content is relevant and trustworthy. They are important in showing the search engine that you are a source of authority in your field. Backlinks from sites of authority in your niche will lead to a higher ranking, but they can be difficult to establish. This is where bringing in an SEO specialist can prove beneficial.

How do I know if I have good SEO?

The higher your ranking on the search engine results page, the higher your click-through rate will be. This means if your business appears in the top five results on the SERP, you will get substantially more website visits than someone who shows up on the second page and beyond. If you are not tailoring your content to attract your target customer, your customers may never find you.

How do I fix bad SEO?

If your webpage does not show up on page one of the SERP, you are losing valuable business opportunities, but ranking high on the SERP takes effective SEO and time. While there are some tweaks that you can make on your own, many times it is best to bring in a professional. If you need help fixing your bad SEO or lack thereof, contact one of our SEO specialists for a free consultation today.