What is SEO?
“SEO stands for search engine optimization. SEO is the process of taking steps to help a website or piece of content rank higher on Google or Bing. This carries over when using a search engine on a map like Google or Apple Maps when looking for something locally.”
When you search for something on Google, Bing, and even Duck Duck Go you are searching through millions of internet websites, some new and some old. Finding what you are looking for and how it ranks on your search is no accident. Google for example has been logging what you search for and what you end up spending time reading. This lets them know that what you read was useful based on the time you spent on the website, what you skipped over, and how you searched for it. Over time your website gets “points” for being useful and shows up above other websites for similar searches.
There are lots and lots of things that go into SEO but you may be more familiar with “written SEO”. This is where you optimize your web page or article for search engines so that when they are crawled they register as useful. This can also look like adding a “Meta Description” and making sure your keywords appear on the page “X” times in comparison to the total word count. Adding “H3” to organize the information on your page and making sure the “Slugs” match everything.
This is considered On-Page SEO
Photo and Video
This is similar to the above but it ensures that your photos and videos show up on those search tabs.
Have you ever searched for something and specifically went to the video tab of the search engine?
This is becoming a norm for various industries so it’s important to show up if it’s relevant to your industry. For example if you have a “Brick and Mortar” you need to geotag your photos! Geotagging your photos assigns a specific address or region to those photos and is attached to the photo information so no matter where you upload those photos it will register as your location in the search engines and if done right with your website/brand. This works across social media so you can see how it’s important, especially with things going viral you want these to link back to you.
Off Page / Technical SEO
This can look like backlinks.
Have you ever looked at a website to see if you think it’s “credible” or not? What do you look for? Usually you look into what other websites mention them, who they work with, if anyone endorses them etc. This is backlinking but on a simpler scale. You can’t see if other websites link to another but the search engines can!
Domain ranking is used to determine where your website stands in comparison to other sites that are about the same or similar topic. Backlinks play a key role in determining this so make sure you get quality ones. Quality over quantity, as search engines will put a red flag on your site if they see a bunch of backlinks out of nowhere to your site. Some other Off Page SEO things are:
- Site speed- how fast is your website loading?
- SiteMaps- are you allowing search engines to read your site?
- Search Maps- Are you on Google or Apple Maps correctly?
- Are you changing aspects of your site that aren’t working?
Visit our SEO Services page to see what TBS offers or schedule a call to see how we can help your business!
Analytics
Do I need Analytics even though I’m a small business?
Short answer: yes!
Analytics is a huge help in determining if what you are doing is working. From here you can see which pages:
- Have the most traffic
- Highest bounce rate
- If people are clicking on your emails
- Where your audience is
- If others are referring to your site (remember backlinks?)
- And more
Analytics is basically just data that is collected about your site and it’s users to help you see how others interact with your website. And with Google Analytics it’s FREE which is why I add it into my SEO set up. It’s better to start collecting that data even if you’re not going to use it right away so that you can see patterns and trends over time. I’m going to leave this short but all of my maintenance packages come with Analytics presentations that are done Quarterly, or Monthly for an additional cost.
At TBS we want to empower you to understand your business and what is working for you. Adapting is just as essential as everything we’ve talked about. If you want to learn more about SEO send us a message to get started or try your hand at our On-Page SEO guide, you get it free with our SEO Package.
