SEO 101: The Basics of SEO

SEO or search engine optimization allows search engines to find your content and make it available to people searching the internet. There are several components to SEO, including keyword research and usage, content quality, and tags. While SEO is not complicated, learning can be overwhelming because there are so many small factors to remember and take into consideration.

Keyword research is finding the keywords or phrases that people use when searching for content or products similar to what you are offering. For example, if you are selling life insurance, your top keywords may include “life insurance” or “how to protect your family” or “what to do after a sudden death.” Keyword research is available through search engines like Google, which will report which words and phrases are searched the most for a given topic.

Conducting keyword research can be time-consuming and disappointing if you do not get the response you were expecting from the keywords used. Without prior knowledge and experience of the research and how keywords are rated, you may start out feeling lost.

Once you have done your research and have a list of keywords and phrases to start with, you need to work those keywords into your content and website. You are working them in includes writing articles and blog posts that contain the keywords, as well as adding the keywords into the searchable data for your website. There are a variety of ways you can use keywords to create consistency across your brand.

Another critical factor is the quality of the content you are creating for your website. Google algorithms detect spam content. It also looks at internal and external links, the number of keywords used, traffic to the site, and repeat visitors to determine the quality of the content. In the past, companies were creating content that provided no valuable information but was loaded down with keywords to get in the top search results of search engines. This created backlash as many users were frustrated with the inability to find what they wanted. Search engines were providing a wide range of content due to the oversaturation of keywords.

Creating valuable content that people want to read will ensure that your article is shared through social media, readers subscribe to your page, and you get repeat visitors. Search engines will then recognize the site as being valuable to readers, your traffic will increase organically, and you will be in the top search results for Google. Getting your content shared by major online websites can create a viral reaction that will bring thousands of new visitors to your site. Those new visitors will become followers if the overall content is valuable to them.

When you are publishing an article or blog, you will have the opportunity to add tags to your content. Tags are keywords that may interest the readers but may or may not be worked into the article. The tags will help search engines find the content.

There are companies like LinkLaboratory that provide SEO services that businesses that are not familiar with SEO best practices or do not have the time to compete to SEO with the many other challenges and tasks needed to run the day-to-day business.

Small and medium-sized businesses are often stuck between needing specialized services but not having the resources to hire a full-time staff member for those services. Outsourcing to a company like linklaboratory is an affordable option for those companies. While having a basic understanding of SEO and internet marketing is essential, there is no reason a business owner should have to learn every detail to ensure their business gets the benefits and marketing they need.