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What is Search Engine Optimization or SEO? Let me put this into the context of a retail store, as we have all been in several. We want to buy widgets because our friends just did and rave about them. We drive out to the local widget store and see the store name Widget Emporium with several signs out front stating the Best Widgets - Lowest Price. We also see window signs saying Big Widgets, Colorful Widgets, Dancing Widgets, and so on. There are big pictures of the widgets on the front of the store. So we have a good idea we need to stop in and see what is going on. Once inside, we are meant with more signs and several prominent widgets on display. We see signs that lead us into showrooms for Tall Widgets, Colored Widgets, Children's Widgets. Inside each room is more signs (POP), some with BOLD text, and others with pictures of the widgets.

This is nothing new to us and we are all familiar with this process. Now, on your virtual storefront, the outside is your home page. and the different showrooms are the pages throughout the site. You know how important it is to tell your customers what you have in your store by way of signage (invisible salesperson), so you already know the importance of communicating the same thing on your website. You need proper keywords (buzzwords) as you do in your store so customers know the Features and Benefits of the widget they are looking at. You know what to Bold type and what to highlite. You take great care in your store to make sure your customers do not leave without buying or at least asking questions.

A Search Engine Optimizer does this exact marketing on the website level. We do keyword research to know what words and phrases people are searching to find widgets. We know how to write good copy and the proper use of headers and images to both grab attention from visitors and search engines. We research and place engaging Titles and Descriptions on each page. You make sure the business is listed in the yellow pages, and we make sure you are listed properly with the online directories.

We are the marketing consultants of the internet.

Website Optimization • Site Structure and Validation

When a customer walks into your store, the first impressions are the most important. If the store is unkempt, and disorganized, people won't stay long. If the signs that point to other showrooms actually lead to nowhere, or they are constantly tripping over displays, they are going to get frustrated quickly and leave. I am sure you take great care and time to have your store welcoming so your customers stay longer and look at more widgets. HTML code is what search engines see. Therefore, if you want to be indexed, you need code that is easily read and understood structurally. If a search engine encounters too many errors, it will simply leave and not index your site. Use the W3C Validation button at the bottom of this page to test my code.

Must haves:

• Proper Title Tag
• Meta Description
• Good URLs (www.mysite.com/page1.html vs. www.mysite.com/website-design.php)
• Properly structured header and paragraph tags
• Image Alt tags (this describes to the search engine what the image represents
• Most importantly, you need good content. Simply stuffing your pages with keywords will not do you much good. You need to write the site for visitors, not search engines, while keeping in mind your keyword usage.

Keyword Research

You would never put a sign out front of your store that says Best Widgometors, when everyone knows them as just Widgets. Keyword research is finding out what words or phrases people are using to find Widgets. Getting keywords used in your business and cataloging the most popular used and writing them into your site. There are many tools to use, including free ones from Google known as Google AdWords Keyword Tool. Try searching some keyword usage for your business and you will be surprised at the numerous combinations people use to find your product or service. The skill is finding the right keywords and using them within your site.

Link Building

How much importance do you place on getting listed into the phonebook and your local community's paper? How important is it to advertise that your store was voted #1 widget store in your area? Well links coming into your website are in fact referrals. Some more important than others. Some paid others are free. I start by researching your competitors and see who is linking to them and get those links to your site when possible. If 3 website's talk about your widgets, but 20 websites talk about your competitors widgets, who do you think will rank better on Google? Getting your site listed in local directories and business directories, is straightforward enough, and something you that should be done over time. On an ongoing basis, you need to concentrate on is getting your site mentioned as often as you can on blogs, news sites, and in social media such as Twitter and Facebook. Every time you have an event and the local paper posts that event, get a link back to your site. If you do a promotion with the widget manufacturer, asks for a link to you site. If someone really enjoyed your store, ask for a link from their blog or Facebook page.

Quick note about anchor text. When you have someone link to your website, it is always SEO best practice to have the text used for the link describe what the link is about.

Wrong: I found these great widgets here.
Correct: I found these great widgets at Widget Emporium.

Social Media

Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are well known social media sites, and keeping them populated with good content is a job in and of itself. It is not good enough to simply post news about your company on your wall or tweet about your latest coupon, you need to post content about your industry. If you sell widgets, blog and tweet about the care and maintenance of widgets. Link to other sites giving relevant information. People search the internet for shopping and information.

The huge upside to social media is the viral impact of your post. You post a great article on widgets and people share this with their friends and they with theirs. If you do a great video that you post on YouTube, people will share it, link to it, and talk about it on their Facebook and Twitter pages. This is an exceptional way to get the community talking about your widgets and linking them back to your website. Search engines love to see other people talking about your company, and you will get much higher placement with the growing number of these organic referrals. Now when someone searches for widgets, your widgets have the backing of YouTube videos, Facebook post, Twitter Tweets, and Blog mentions. Search engines will undoubtedly know you are a force in the widget world and therefore are more relevant to their clients, the searcher. Because if they are more relevant, you use that engine more often and they sell more advertising. Simple as that.

Today's Social Networking is yesterdays water cooler. People gather and talk about places they have been, and things they recently purchased. That big screen tv, or that trip to Hawaii, or widgets from your store. When people talk good about a product or service, those listening are more likely to try it out. That is why review sites are so popular.

Continual Maintenance

This is the hardest sell in SEO. You are thinking 'well if all the work is done, why do I pay each month?' And that is a VERY good questions. Here are the top four answers.

• Peoples search habits change over time and therefore keywords usage changes. You must do monthly research and adjust your sites keyword usage according to current search trends
• Search engines change their algorithms constantly to keep people from knowing their secrets and over optimizing for that engine. (verses for the industry or service you represent)
• Search engines want to see your sites content change regularly also. Meaning every month or more frequent which shows your site is keeping current, and therefore more likely to be relevant. This tells the engines that you have current information and you should be ranked higher than those who do not.
• Search engines also want to see link building over time. Links from referring sites like directories and sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and blogs. This shows your popularity growing, and not simply that your SEO placed you on 100 directories your first month.

What does SEO maintenance consist of? Registering with directories. Website changes. Adding pages or products as needed and updating the body copy. Keeping your Facebook and Twitter pages up to date and posting blog entries. This is a good 5 hours of work per month. This does not include huge product updates, so if your company has more than 1-3 product updates per month, you should have a Content Management System for your website.

This is a simple outline of best practices for SEO. Many hours goes into getting this right for your site, and many more go into keeping it right and current. You can, and should, do some of this work yourself as you are more part of your industry than any SEO would be. This will assist the SEO with keywords and industry rich content.

Want to learn more? Try these Google links...

Google Webmaster Guidelines

Google SEO