SEO 101

Looking to gain a basic understanding of SEO (search engine optimisation) and what it’s all about?  Considering all the jargon and terms being passed around pertaining to the subject, it’s easy for many people to end up overwhelmed and confused.  Surprisingly it’s really not at all different from that of conventional marketing. The methods and marketing medium is certainly different but the goal and desired outcome are all essentially the same.

 Approaching SEO

Before we actually get into the matter of search engine website optimisation, it is best to get to a good grasp on what it’s all about and what actually makes it so important in online marketing or web marketing. Web marketing is all about standing out and in the conventional business setting, this is accomplished through ads – televisions advertisements, billboards, newsprint, etc. In the world of online businesses, standing out often means only one thing which is to get their business website to the top of search engine results for relevant and popular search terms pertaining to the products or services that they offer.

Now think about it – where do you usually go online if you are looking for something like a certain service or perhaps a product that you are interested in? Most likely you would say “Google” or any other search engines that you prefer and being on top of the results page means more chances of getting found by prospects that rarely check the next couple of pages. Higher visibility online in turn leads to more business and ultimately more opportunity for growth and profit. That is essentially what SEO is all about.

Even if you are the most computer and internet savvy person on the planet, you still won’t be able to fully comprehend the inner workings of search engine optimization. Not to mention the fact that search engines like Google are always updating and improving their algorithms making it difficult to keep up with latest and most effective strategies in website optimization.  For many online marketing professionals, it is often best to entrust such task to experts that possess the required knowledge and experience. However, it’s not to say that you should go about the entire process though – far from it.

In web marketing, it is always best to have a good understanding about search engine optimization and how it actually works. For starters, you can think of online marketing as essentially similar to running an actual store offline.  In order to succeed you will need to do a couple of things which includes:

• Making your business or store known to prospects
• Attracting customers to actually come in to your store and see what you have to offer

Well that’s exactly what website optimisation is all about and you can think of your business website as an actual store only that it operates virtually online.  It’s about driving as many people as possible unto your website as possible using various strategies and methodologies. Let’s go ahead and get into some of the basics:

• Search engine website optimization is tied to website design which should not only be appealing aesthetically but also exhibits easy navigation and user-friendly. Websites should also be enriched with good and popular keywords that search engines are more likely to easily pick up on. Don’t cram too many of them unto your website though, many often make such a mistake thinking that it would help only to end up being blacklisted for “keyword spamming”.
• Tools in website promotion are essential in online marketing and search engine website optimisation. It’s what enables you to create traffic to your website. Such tools include Pay-per-Click advertising, social media marketing and search engine marketing. There are both free and paid methods that you can look into but think twice prior to investing anything in online marketing, you can quickly end up broke if you are unsure about what you are doing.
• Back links are another essential element for SEO both for driving traffic to your website and improving your chances of being seen at the top of search engine results. Search engines see such links as a vote of confidence towards the relevance and quality of your website.

Would you like to learn more about search engine optimisation and effectively directing traffic to your website? It would certainly be in your best interest to learn all that you can about the matter. After all, in online marketing better SEO leads to better traffic which ultimately lead to better sales and profit!