SEO is one of those buzzwords that everyone knows, but that few people understand. Most of us know that SEO stands for search engine optimization, and that it tailors our online presence to search engine programs and algorithms like the ones designed by Google. At the core of SEO are certain basic concepts. Below we have given you the foundation of SEO, so no matter how much algorithms change; you will still have the knowledge of the building blocks of SEO .
Links
Perhaps nothing is so closely related with search engines and SEO, as links. Links are what make this whole thing work: Google indexes the internet through the use of its spiders, computer programs that crawl the web by moving from link to link recording what they find.
Links are more than a way for Google to get around, though. Google’s algorithm uses links to determine how trusted and popular a website is.
So more links are better, right? Not necessarily: It’s also important that links to your website come from other reputable websites. The “domain authority” of a website grants some prestige on its links in the eyes of Google and other search engines.
Keywords
The text on your website is, of course, what tells customers what your business is all about. The same text is read by Google’s search engine spiders. That’s why it’s important to have “keywords” and keyword phrases in your website’s text. If your business is a toy store, make sure you use that word.
Google is getting better and better at recognizing different grouping of words — customers who search for “Italian cuisine” may still find your restaurant even if your site only says “Italian food.” However, it’s best to use different combinations and to do keyword research to determine exactly which keywords your customers are using to find businesses like yours. Don’t assume they call everything by the same names that you do!
Metadata And Beyond
Links and keywords are basic SEO building blocks. However, there are trickier and less obvious things. Take images, for instance: Google likes them even though it can’t really see them the way that users can. Google’s spiders read image captions, image tags, and even the filenames of the images you use. There are the other HTML details, including “metadata” like the page title, description, and tags. Using this real estate property is essential to good SEO!
Best practices change with each Google update and messing with HTML is not something that you want to be doing on your own. Make sure to be smart and let McNee Solutions take care of all your SEO and Webdesign needs!
