Understanding SEO Basics

– by Mary Ecsedy, Project Manager, Circuit Riders, LLC

We have completed several search engine research and analysis projects over the past year, saving our clients a great deal of money while increasing their website traffic and sales.

Driving a website higher in the search engine results takes time and savvy, but it's not rocket science. The best investment you can make of your time, effort, and money is to educate yourself and focus your resources on developing your website.

Target your resources and put your money where it will do the most good. Understand where your money is going and know how to judge the results for yourself. The following steps will help you get started.

Basic SEO Steps

The best way to summarize SEO is this: language matters. The search engines are looking for websites with quality content. They do so by analyzing your website and judging it according to certain criteria. The more good "marks" you get, the higher your site will be listed in the search results. If you want a high ranking, give them what they're looking for. It's as simple as that.

  1. Read Google's Webmaster Guidelines.
  2. Analyze your website according to Google's guidelines.
  3. Make the necessary changes to bring your site up to recommended standards:
    – Use valid, standards-compliant source code. If you can't easily read the text content buried in your code, neither can the browser bots.
    – Create a solid set of meaningful keywords. Don't stuff your pages full of every word association you can think of. Less is more.
    – Use consistent language in your text and image ALT tags.
  4. Add some new content to your website every 6-8 weeks for the search engine bots to detect. The search engines are looking for quality, so give it to them.
  5. Check your server statistics package regularly; at least once a week and preferably every day. Learn what the numbers mean by reading the Help.
  6. Read about Google's free analysis tools and learn how to use them. Again, read the Help.
  7. Develop meaningful business cross-linking strategies with other businesses and professionals in your field.

Website development requires time, effort, and money. Put these resources into developing your website and you won't have to pay or trick people into finding you. If you give your visitors what they're looking for, they may come back for more.

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