Ranking well on Google's organic listings is the easiest and most efficient way to drive traffic to your website. Assuming you've already read our SEO Starter Guide, I'll provide some more detailed tips for ranking well on Google and targeting specific keywords. If you have any questions after reading this article, feel free to send us an email or give us a call -- advice is free! The first trick to effective search engine optimization is learning to think like a search engine. This means you'll need to start thinking in a hyper logical and literal way. Search engines are basically supercomputers that organize and recall data according to a complex series of algorithms, which are designed to return valuable information when someone searches for a topic.
These search "robots" see websites very differently than we do. For instance, when they look at this blog, they only see a series of letters, numbers, and symbols (the source code). Interested in seeing what they see? Depending on your browser, you should be able to view the source code by either going to "view" or by right clicking on an empty part of this page and clicking "view page source". These letters, numbers and symbols are the only thing search engines can see. They have no ability to "see" images, videos, or most embedded documents. This means that the most important part of SEO is the text on any given website. Google reads this text and determines what the website is about, how valuable the information is, whether or not the information is original or duplicate, and how well it is written. For these reasons, it's important that you avoid Flash based websites or creating pages that focus too heavily on images and video.
Also, start blogging! Writing short, frequent blog articles about your industry is the best way to quickly improve your rank on Google. Creating a steady stream of information is a great way to demonstrate your expertise, fill your website with organically generated keywords, and keep search engines interested in your site. In my experience, blogging is the most powerful SEO tool and the single most important tip I can give you to improve your search engine ranking.
Another, increasingly important aspect of SEO is the amount of time people spend on your website and where they come from. We've recently seen evidence that search engines like Google are incorporating things like Facebook into their algorithms, which means that generating buzz about your content on social media sites may have a significant impact on how your website ranks. This means you should focus on producing content that will engage people and keep their attention for longer periods of time -- videos are a great way to do this! By embedding a 1-2 minute "welcome" video on your home page, you'll keep people engaged for longer periods of time, improve your conversion rates, and boost your search engine rankings.
There you go -- a few more SEO tips for your arsenal! As usual, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to give us a call or send an email!
