What is SEO?

byAMPro

275 followers

11 years ago

What is SEO, anyway? (besides "search engine optimization")

Can't Google just crawl my site and see what I have to offer, then rank me?

Well, that's exactly what they do, but you need to "optimize" your site by using the keywords and phrases that result in the highest possible rankings - so you get traffic. That's the key to good SEO.

I look at this way:

When a person searches Google by entering a certain phrase, Google only wants to show them relevant sites. Their goal is to match, as closely as possible, what that person needs.

In other words, If you called a good friend and asked how to find more info about working at home, so you could, for example, homeschool at the same time, you would want that friend to point you in the right direction. To quality information. To websites where you can learn, discover, and get your questions answered.

You would not want this friend to send you over to sites that lure you in with very little information, then bombard you with a bunch of ads that mostly just try to take your money.

It's not that Google is trying to be your perfect friend. It's more like they're wise enough to know they HAVE to provide quality content, or we'll stop using them, and their whole business will come crashing down.

So how does this relate to SEO on your website?

SEO is your way of letting Google know that you offer very in-depth answers to certain things their users are searching.

You should research keywords until you're blue in the face, with the goal of finding the words or phrases that the other guys (your competitors) are not targeting. They're out there, in every niche, and they're commonly called "low hanging fruit."

Then you simply target those keyword phrases by putting them in your headlines and the first or second paragraphs of each page or post. This shows Google that your content is exactly what their visitors want.

Now, when one of Google's friends asks them where to find good information about working at home so they can homeschool their children, Google will way say "You need to visit the sites listed below, but start at the top of the list, because those sites have more of what you're looking for."

In this example, you have two ways of approaching your SEO:

1 - If you use the keyword phrase "work at home," you will have about 300 competitors (according to the Keyword Tool at Wealthy Affiliate), so it will be very difficult to get a decent ranking.

Why make it this hard to rank? You certainly won't get much traffic.

2 - If, however, you spend enough time with the keyword tool to brainstorm more obscure phrases, you may find one like this (I just did):

Earn money while homeschooling (this has only 20 competitors)

This will be a much easier market in which to compete, because you'll have a better chance of getting ranked in a small pond of 20 competitors than you would in a big pond of 300 competitors.

So write a blog post titled:

"Earn Money While Homeschooling - I Never Thought I Could Do Both"

Then use that phrase in a sentence in your first paragraph. Write something like this:

"I've always wanted to homeschool my kids, but I also had to earn a living, and the two just don't seem to mix. Recently, though, I discovered a way to do both. That's right, I figured out how to earn money while homeschooling. Now I'm giving my kids an excellent education, spending quality time with them..."

Fill your site with pages and posts using similar "low hanging fruit" keyword phrases, and you'll have a much better chance of high rankings in Google.

It all starts with research. Enter (in the Keyword Tool) every possible way to ask a question. It may take you 50 searches, but you will find fully-usable low-competition phrases to use in your site. I usually find the gems within the list of related keywords, not from the phrase I actually searched, so be sure to read each list of results carefully.

That's SEO - Optimizing your posts and pages so they answer the questions Google searchers are asking - but fast-tracking the process by competing with fewer other sites.

I hope this helps.

Bart