SEO Huh Continued.............

SEO Huh Continued 3.....

So how do you acquire back links? Well these days you need to earn all of your back links. How do you do that?

Well, one way is to create a blog. Like this one. After all, you are the expert in your field, so who knows more about your business than you do? So you need to express yourself in a blog about your business. What do you think people would be interested in when it comes to your field of expertise? Are there things that somebody would find interesting?

People search all over the Internet for things that they find of interest. Things that they may need to learn about. I know I search Google every time I need some information about something. For example: I was looking into stand by generators. Now I really don't know much about stand by generators so I Googled it! Of the over 18 million results (really?) I of course clicked on the results that were mainly on the first page. If I didn't find what I was looking for I would head for the second page. That's about as far as I go. If I need more info, I will try a different search term and try again. So you see, it's imperative that you end up on the first page of Google's search results if you want to be found by your prospective customers.

Writing a blog about your specific business and then back linking to your site will create a couple of fresh, new back links for you. And the best SEO juice comes from when someone else finds your blog interesting and then links it to maybe their Facebook page, Pinterest Page, Twitter etc. When they link your blog or website to their Facebook page you now have a relevant and new back link! The more people that share your blog/ website, the more links your collect and the more relevant you end up to Google (and hence higher up the rankings you go). As you can see, this can balloon into a large collection of new back links for you as more and more people link you.

So you can see the importance of writing a blog. This is just one way of collecting back links. Another is when a company links your site from their website. And the more relevant the site the better. Also, if the linking company site is big in your particular industry, even better. For example: if I have a flooring site and Mohawk (a large flooring manufacturer) puts a link to my site (probably in their "find a dealer near you" area) then this creates the ideal back link. It's from a large respected company within the same field as my company. This will be a high quality back link and that's what Google is looking for more than lots of low quality back links (such as in the old days where you could buy back links to a large number of sites. Google will penalize you now for these).

Back links, high quality back links and lots of high quality back links. That's the formula for a successful SEO campaign. Nuff said for now......




Jeffrey Dean
LMS Website Services
http://www.lmswebsiteservices.com

SEO Continued Huh.........

Getting found on Google's 1st page is most business owner's main goal. Because if you are found on the 1st page then why would your prospective customer have to go any further? After all, they've found what they were looking for. Your website. Right?

So how to "earn" your way onto Google's 1st page. We've been talking recently about what it takes for Google to put your website on it's first page. Hence, being found on the Internet!

Remember, Google's algorithms are what decide who and who is not on it's first page in search results. What are Google's algorithms you ask? Well they are a complex set of "rules" (called algorithms) that Google has defined which will decide if your website has "relevant" content to the searcher's request. In other words, when a person searches on the web for something specific, let's say a plumber in a certain city in a certain state, Google decides in the blink of an eye which websites are important to show for that particular search. How does Google decide which sites to show? Well that's a highly guarded state secret (or highly regarded Google secret) but we can ascertain some things that are important by listening to Google and what they consider important. Then we tweak our sites to match their criteria. Or at least try to read between the lines and optimize our sites accordingly.

We've discussed fresh new content being added to our sites on at least a weekly basis so when Google's crawl bots crawl our sites they will find new stuff! New stuff every week. New stuff for our searchers to find when they search the Internet. New stuff that makes our website exciting, relevant and interesting. Apparently Google thinks that new stuff on a website makes it more relevant to searchers. Of course our "new stuff" must have all of the optimized keywords stuffed in there, after all, how can Google know if all of this new stuff is relevant to searchers unless the wording reflects what the searcher is searching for, eh?

So, new content, new content, new content........Need I say more?

Ok.....some more. Another way to enhance the importance of your website to Google (and hence to your prospective customers) is to acquire back links. Back links tell Google that your site is important! That your site is relevant! That other people find your site important and relevant and so Google assumes it's important and relevant. For every back link you receive, Google takes it as a vote of confidence in your website. The more votes the better. Meaning, the more back links the better.......More on back links in our next blog post.......




Jeffrey Dean
LMS Website Services
http://www.lmswebsiteservices.com

SEO Huh? Continued........

SEO has changed over time. SEO changes constantly. In fact SEO changes continually. Every month. What used to work doesn't anymore. Link exchanges can't be bought anymore (well, they can but really are worthless).

So what does Google want? Google wants to increase the quality of the user experience. They want the user to "want" to be on the web. To be surfing. In essence, to be on the web and see all of their ads which of course brings money in to Google. A little too much honesty, eh?

Well, you can't fight the Fed. Or Google for that matter. So we must play by their rules. They don't own the Internet but in reality, they own the Internet. What Google says goes.

So what does Google say? They want high quality, fresh, new content. They want people to be constantly exploring the Internet. They want business owners to "earn" their spot on the front page of their search results. No longer can you easily game the system to get on the front page of Google. Now it takes work from the business owner himself. You can't just pay a firm to do stuff to get you on the front page. You, the business owner, must supply relevant content to your own site. After all, how can an SEO firm understand your business. YOU are the expert in your field, not the SEO firm. So YOU must provide content, text and images that are relevant and new to the SEO firm who will then add them to your site.

This is very important stuff that should not be minimized or ignored by the site owner. Fresh, new and relevant information added to your site on a continuous basis. It takes commitment and time from the business owner themselves.

More to come......

Jeffrey Dean
LMS Website Services
http://www.lmswebsiteservices.com

Seo Huh?

SEO. What does that stand for?

Most people probably have never heard of SEO? I know because when I bring it up to prospective clients I get a quizzical look. They just have never heard of SEO. For those of us in the website design business, SEO means everything.

Build it and they will come?

I've had people sign up for a website design and think the whole world will march to their doors. Like just
build it and they will come. How far from the truth is that really? I've built websites for people and when we launch it, the client will go online the same day and call me and wonder why when they search for themselves, they can't be found.......(Google has no idea they even exist at this point in time!).

Building a website is just the 1st step. It's like building a store on the corner of Google and Bing and then never, ever advertise or market the store. Then time goes by and they wonder why there isn't any business to speak of. Well, the fact is, people don't have any idea that the store is there. Unless you advertise your store, market your store, very few people will know you are there. It's the same for your website.

You can't just build a website and expect people to be able to find it. For that matter, what you really want is for Google and other search engines to find it. Because if Google finds your site then they will show it to people who are searching for your particular product or brand. So the whole idea is to let Google know that you are alive and well and living on the Internet (and are worthy of them showing your site to prospective customers).

So you must market your site! Advertise your site!

How can this be done? SEO. Or search engine optimization. This means you need to optimize your site so Google and the other search engines know about you and think highly of you (your website).

There are so many ways to do this. On site optimization, off site optimization and others. Most on site optimization can be done when your website is being designed. Anybody can build a website but not just anybody can build a high quality, optimized site from the inside out. Where when Google comes a crawlin' they find your site to be of high quality, worthy of high ranking and relevant to your potential clients searches. Because we all know that when we have a website, we want to be on the front page of the Google searches.

Nuff said for now...........more to come.........

Jeffrey Dean
LMS Website Services
http://www.lmswebsiteservices.com