Search engine optimization (S.E.O) is a key element for businesses to be found on the internet and obtain higher rankings in search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc). Search engines operate by sending out a ‘spider’ which is a program that ‘crawls’ the Internet looking for websites. It functions by reading content of the web pages it finds, and classifies it by assigning value to that pages to help determine where it should appear in a search result. (It should be noted that it can often take many months for ‘spiders’ to crawl an entire site.) Once a search is entered, results are usually displayed by paid advertising first, and then organic results below. The idea behind Organic S.E.O. is to obtain higher rankings in the organic search results. How is this accomplished? There are several simple but important steps to consider while you are building your website. Here are a few:
1. Keywords – Determining what terms or phrase you think potential customers will use to find your business and including those phrases often in the textual content of you website will greatly enhance the ability of search engines to determine what your site is all about.
2. Page Titles – The page title is what appears in the tab above the page of a website you are viewing. It also appears in search results above the URL of a website. Descriptive titles can help influence search engine to consider your site above another.
3. Page Descriptions – Meta tags reside behind the scenes of most websites. A ‘description’ meta tag is exactly how it sounds, a brief description of your website. It also appears in search results as the ‘description’ of your site. It is suggested to place your most important keywords and phrases here to obtain better rankings with search engines.
4. Descriptive URL’s (Domain name) – An important factor to determine before building your website is choosing a domain name. A domain name which describes your business, as opposed to your business name can often be beneficial with ranking higher in a search engine.
5. Descriptive File Names – The file name of a page can also benefit your site. WordPress, for example, stores it’s pages on a server and will often display the server location as the file name. However, this can be easily modified to display the page ‘title’ which gives search engines a better idea of what your site is about.
6. Header Tags – Larger print on websites are considered ‘headers’ and vary in size. Placing your keywords and phrases in header tags give them greater importance and will help with search results.
These are just a few of the processes of Organic S.E.O. that Sadler Web Design employs when building your website. For a greater understanding of Organic S.E.O, we recommend reading the Google SEO Starter Guide which provides many of the guidelines Sadler Web Design uses when building your website. Contact us today to help build your business and start gaining more customers!
