SEO: A primer

“My website doesn’t have to be number one, but we’d like to be on the first page.”

This is one of the most common requests we receive from clients. And it’s completely understandable. After all, web users are notoriously short-spanned when it comes to attention, and may not be interested in search engine results on page 5 or 6.

As a company that offers website design and marketing services, we find that it’s helpful for clients to understand how search engines work and how strategies like search engine optimization (or “SEO”) help to achieve a favorably-ranked website.

To Pay Or Not To Pay
One of the first decisions a website owner makes is this: should we employ paid or unpaid search efforts, or possibly, both? The answer always is….it depends.

Before we develop a website strategy, we first help clients determine their objectives, the web product/service positioning, web competition, and their allocated web budget.

These criteria help drive the website marketing strategy, and in turn, the assignments for paid versus unpaid search engine optimization.

Here is a primer to explain both paid and unpaid search engine optimization techniques:

I. Paid Listings/Inorganic Search Engine Optimization

PROS: Complete control over placement ad ranking of a specific key term
CONS: Expensive; limited to search engine(s) selected; listing may be fleeting if pay-per-click budget is attained easily; users may disregard paid listings.

A paid listing (“sponsored listing”) is considered “inorganic SEO” because it is not a “natural” search engine process. Instead, it is a service offered by search engines enabling advertisers to purchase specific terms and appear on search engine result pages based on relevancy. A sponsored listing typically appears at the top of a search engine results page.

The cost of a sponsored listing depends on: 1) what key terms are chosen by the advertiser (more commonly searched terms fetch a higher fee) and 2) if premium placement is selected in the listing rotation. Generally, advertisers are charged a given rate every time a web user clicks on the advertisers’ sponsored listing (a service called “pay-per-click”) unless there is a pre-determined “not to exceed” figure. Then the sponsored listing will disappear after the budget threshold is attained.

For example, if I determine “laptops” is my website’s chosen keyword, and I opt to retain the second position on a Google sponsored listing, I’ll pay a premium for that term and position. Every time a user clicks on my listing, I’ll pay that rate until my listing reaches the budget threshold (if indeed, there is one).

II. Unpaid Search/Organic Search Engine Optimization

PROS: Cost-effective; results achieved across all search engines; organic proven to be accessed and trusted more by users.
CONS: Not formula; requires frequent updating; ranking dependent on competition’s updates; search engines vary in regard to site ranking.

Spider-driven search engines such as Google, Yahoo! and Bing use "robots" or "crawlers" to rank websites across the Internet. Robots "spider/crawl" each site and "score" pages based on how relevant they are. A website's score or placement within a spider driven search engine is derived from hundreds of variables such as link popularity, density and frequency of keywords in page content, HTML code, site themes and more.

Unpaid search or organic SEO is a strategy that utilizes keywords, tags, terms, URLs, links and coding to optimize a site’s “score” throughout search engines. As the name implies, this strategy is unpaid and requires vigilance on the part of the site administrator or developer so that the site ranks well in its selected keyword categories.

There are a number of ways to capitalize on organic SEO. Following are some suggestions:

1. Headings: Heading are like the yellow lines in the Internet superhighway. They are easy on the eye, provide content separation, and help search engine spiders to lock onto a site and commit to reading its content. The key to search-engine friendly headings is specificity. Say what you mean (“Early Writings From Shakespeare” is much more specific than “Introduction”, for instance) and the search engines will know exactly what is contained within the content.

2. Content, content, content: Spiders crawl through the text on pages (but not the images), and use the content on pages to determine what a site is about and how to best rank it in terms of keywords. Thus, it’s absolutely essential that content depicts the site keywords in a meaningful way (constant repetition of keywords, for instance, will result in a site restriction from search engines – most notably, Google). In addition, content updating is vital because some search engines consider frequently updated sites to be more relevant to users. Thus, a more favorable ranking is awarded to frequently updated sites.

3. Variations: This is an often-overlooked tool, but when you think of it, this is a sensible approach. If your keywords or tags are too broad, use a variation. Consider adding other terms that may be searched (like “Chevy”, “Chevrolet Dealer”, or “Chevy Impala” instead of “car dealerships”). Also, add a geographic parameter if your target audience is likely to do so: instead of the broad term “car dealers”, try “car dealers, Des Moines”. If you can offer variations, you increase the chances that users will access your site.

4. Think Like Your Customer: Don’t use the terms your industry uses unless your customers also use them. For instance, if your business provides audiology services, your customers will most likely search for your services using terms like “hearing aids”. Using common, customer-centric keywords in your site’s content, headings and tags will create many more hits and greatly increase traffic.

5. Tags: Opportunities to tag pages and images exist within the “source code” of a site. Typically, a site developer applies tags so that spiders can accurately catalog pages and images. Tags reinforce the expression of content and keywords.

6. Use Links: When Google spiders the Web, it finds sites by traveling through links. The more sites that link to a particular site, the more important it is considered, and the higher it is ranked. Site administrators should focus on in-bound links from allied parties, affiliates, associations and so on. This may be accomplished in a number of ways: submission to online directories, the exchange of links with business partners and industry-related sites, or participation in Link Building.

Also, it’s valuable to consider the use of intra-site hyperlinks that employ keywords directing site visitors (and search engine spiders) to specific pages within the site.

6. Be Natural: If you are able to follow all of the rules above, congratulations! There’s a good chance that you’ll be rewarded with a suitable ranking.

Following the above rules is important, but remember to keep the content natural and flowing. Even if the search engines rank a site favorably, the content still needs to read well to retain the interest of your audience. After all, if a visitor can’t make sense of your site, they won’t come back. Incorporate the above in a natural manner and you’ll be well on your way to creating a site that is as easy to find as it is enjoyable to read.