An Easy Guide to SEO

An Easy Guide to SEO SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Search engine optimization is the process of increasing your website's rankings on search engine pages. Search engine optimization can help your site move up in the rankings and gain visibility among online consumers, who are steadily increasing. This guide will help you understand what SEO is all about. Why does SEO matter? (and trust us, it matters) 243 Million People in the USA Use the Internet Now that's a lot of people. 92% use search engines frequently 80% only look at organic search results (and ignore paid search ads) %24 78% research prior to purchasing 46% connect through smartphones Why does rank matter? (Rank - a position search engines assign your site) visits (impressions 18.2 Click Through Rates for Top 10 Sites Ranked in Google click through rate (CTR %) Impressions are the number of times a site 10.1 appears when relevant search queries are plugged into the search engines Interesting fact: 75% of users never 7.2 click past the first page of Google 4.8 Visits are the number 3.1 2.8 1.9 1.8 1.5 of people that actually click on & go to your site after they see 1.0 #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 your search results 18.2% of people who searched in Google visited the #1 site listed 1.04% of people who searched in Google visited the #10 site Vs. How does SEO work? Hi. I'm a Search Engine Crawler. I crawl through the internet to help search engines rank websites, like yours! Here's what I care about. Is it relevant? Can I crawl it? Can I scan it? Thave to be able to read through your site to consider it. I can crawl in most spaces, but I prefer sites with a good code structure. I also can't click, so I can't see things that require me to fill stuff My main goal is to figure out and deliver the most relevant results when you I'm only looking to skim because I go through millions of websites in a typical week. That means I can't read all of your content, so l'll look for clues in obvious places. search on search engines. I use clues just like you do when skimming through books to figure out relevance. out! Title Tags Meta Data URLS Title of Web Page My Site | My Company Meta Keywords & Meta Descriptions www.example.com Links Image Tags Headers Content Links are a popularity Image Alt Tags, Titles, & File Names vote. The more other sites Overall Text on Page Header tags (H1-H5) Bolded font in text link to yours - the more popular you are. Importance Key Importance for Crawlers Importance for Users Low High Low High How does it apply? SEO can help businesses draw large gains in traffic. With algorithm changes like the Google Penguin & Panda updates, the web is increasingly rewarding websites with great content & usability with higher rankings, while punishing sites that use unethical practices known as "black hat". Optimize your site while focusing on user experience to increase rankings, gain more click-throughs, & result in higher conversions. The Crimes of SEO Can you see me? SPAM Paid Links Stuffing Cloaking Hiding Link Spam Purchasing links for unnaturally higher rankings Stuffing keywords into website and Showing search engines a different page than users Hiding keywords within the background using similar color schemes Creating links by spamming blogs, forums, and link farms over-optimizing Sources: PEW Research, Slingshot SEO Data, link-assistant.com Brought To You By: rise interactive