Search Engine Optimization is one of the latest and most complex marketing crazes in the digital age, and one of the most crucial elements for your business. Regardless of if you plan on designing a website yourself, or if you hire a web design company, it is beneficial to learn some of the associated beginner terminology that comes with SEO. Let’s start at the very beginning:
SEO (Search Engine Optimization):
SEO is the process of boosting traffic toward a website as well as increasing its exposure on search engines. Businesses hire SEO specialists in order to rank higher on search engines for specific keywords that tens of thousands of people are searching for daily. For example, if you own a digital marketing agency, it is highly likely that you would want to rank 1st on Google when someone searches for “digital marketing agencies near me.” Not only does it look good for your business to rank 1st, but this could lead to a potential client or even bring some traffic to your website. In order for your company to be the first result when searched for in relation to a specific keyword, a lot of detailed and structural work must happen on your website’s back-end. Building content for your website takes substantial time and optimizing your website for certain ranking factors takes time as well.
Ranking factor:
Ranking Factor is an individual element that determines where your page will appear via search engine results for a specific keyword. When dealing with a web design company that is skilled in the art of SEO services, you’ll be recommended certain keywords to rank for based on your business. Once these keywords are decided upon, SEO specialists will start the process of optimizing your website for search engines based upon certain ranking factors. Although Google’s algorithm relies on “200 unique signals” to help users find what they’re searching for, some of the most common ranking factors include mobile friendliness, page speed, user experience, and link optimization. Both mobile friendliness and user experience are major factors in ranking higher on search engines because if your website is hard to use, or simply not user friendly, then it will not receive high traffic, thereby lessening your chances of being seen. Your website will require certain high traffic links, consistent updates, defined keywords, and a variety of other elements in order to boost your site’s rank.
Keywords:
Keywords are a word or set of words that users search for. Your brand, from its creation, already has a relation to certain keywords and it is highly likely that you already know what they are. As mentioned earlier, “digital marketing agencies near me” is a great keyword to rank for if you own a digital marketing agency. But let’s say you own a pizza restaurant. You would probably want to rank for “local pizza” right? When keywords are short and concise, it may be harder to rank on a search engine without the proper channels. Longer, more defined keywords are better to use when dealing with SEO. For example, it’s much easier to rank for “best cheese pizza near me” than simply “cheese pizza.” The vast amount of searches involving cheese pizza are occurring all around the world daily. But when a user searches for “near me,” Google automatically searches for addresses near the user’s location to determine which places to show. If your site is already optimized for keywords involving “near me,” as well as optimized for certain ranking factors, then there is a higher chance that your business will be shown to that user when searched for.
Title tag:
A title tag is an HTML element used to specify the title of a webpage on a search engine. Although simplistic, title tags carry much importance when it comes to SEO because they also function as a ranking factor. For this reason, not only does your webpage need to carry certain keywords, but the title of your webpages needs to carry certain keywords as well. In addition to title tags, an SEO specialist can also craft your meta descriptions, which are brief descriptions that summarize a webpage’s content on a search engine. Your meta description should relate to your title tags, and they should be easy and appealing to read. Both your title tags and meta description tags will work together to boost your search rank online, while keeping your keywords in consideration.
Upon your journey of learning all about SEO, keep in mind that it takes patience and a lot of time to make your website search engine gold. Most SEO specialists will tell you that it takes between 4-6 months before you’ll start seeing the desired results, so don’t give up if you are not seeing results right away. It’s never a bad idea to invest in the future of your business and how it ranks on a search engine, and we can help. For more information, or to discuss our search engine optimization services, contact us today.