What is SEO?
We get that there’s a lot of confusing and conflicting information on the web about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). To make matters worse, the rules keep changing. For those wondering how to make sense of it all, we’re glad you asked!
Simple Definition
SEO is a technical term often used by online marketing agencies. For the non-techie It refers broadly to the practice of strategically modifying content to help search engines understand your website. SEO is especially critical when a business needs to promote visibility of its company name, type of product or service to potential customers during online searches. Wait…what business doesn’t want to be more visible?!
SEO is simply the art and science of getting your business’ content correctly indexed (and therefore visible) via search engines like Google and Bing. What makes SEO complicated is that it has two audiences: humans and search engine robots.
Two Search Engine Audiences
In the SEO world, content is consumed by humans and bots. Let’s start with human searchers as they pay the bills.
Human Audience
People are looking for your services every day. Thousands maybe even millions of them. Search engines are serving up businesses just like yours on Results Pages every day. Their job is to help human searchers find the right piece of information, answering the questions they’ve posed to cyberspace.
Bots, Spiders, & Other Crawlers
Google, Bing and other search engines use automated programs to crawl websites. These bots (spiders) index or categorize content based upon very elaborate and secret algorithms. Because search engines are deaf, dumb and blind, they ask 200 questions before indexing each page. When they do index your content, it’s a black and white world. They can’t see pretty images or amusing videos.That’s why bots rely on other behind-the-scenes data when crawling and indexing a website’s content.
A Balancing Act
Well executed SEO is a balancing act. Technical aspects must be present for those fickle and hungry bots. It’s with their help, content is presented on a SERP. Yet you can’t ignore the human visitor, you must understand what will entice them to consume your content.
That’s why we specialize in doing both for our clients. And, we’ll teach you in the process.
Organic vs. Paid SEO
We’d be remiss in our SEO explanation if we didn’t mention the difference between organic and paid search. Organic (natural) is built upon non-paid means and centers on consistently adding relevant content. The more web pages and blog posts indexed by search engines, the more opportunities for your business to be visible to human searchers. Organic SEO is a labor of love, and can take months and even years to build visibility. The shortcut? Yup, you guessed it. Paid search gets you impressions via a bidding process.
Our SEO Services
Relying only on White Hat Search Engine Optimization (because we’re not willing to risk your reputation or ours), we offer:
- Keyword Research — finding the search terms your potential customers use when looking for your type of products or services and understanding your competition
- Keyword Benefit to Opposition Analysis — determining which keywords have the biggest bang for your buck
- Site Architecture — mapping search terms so your website’s content is amplified to reach your target customers
- Optimize Content — using best practices when preparing SEO-ready content
- Track & Improve Rankings — adjusting search terms and content is necessary in SEO or rankings will slip to your competitors
How can we help?
Launching a website and need help with its SEO infrastructure? Want to drive traffic and need accurate and competitive keyword research?
We are the spectrum group, and we offer strategic and tactical consulting so you can monetize your online presence. Call us for a complimentary 30-minute consultation to discuss your website’s user experience and translate that into sales.
photo credit top: Paul§
photo credit body: Iskra Photo