What is Search Engine Optimization?

“Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine’s natural or un-paid (organic) search results.”   -Wikipedia

 

Search engine optimization is a term that gets thrown around a lot in online marketing these days, but for the average business owner, it can be very confusing to understand what it is and how it works. With so many mandates about how to build an online presence, how do you have time to incorporate SEO into your online strategy, while still maintaining the day-to-day responsibilities of your business?

SEO is the process of helping your website rise in rank on Google and other search engines, therefore getting your site in front of more people, increasing business and making you an industry leader. It is extremely important that you have a solid strategic plan before you dive in. It is good to rank for keywords, but it also important, maybe even more so, to make sure you are reaching your users in each stage of the buying process.

Understanding Ranking Factors

 

So you want to step up your SEO game? All the positives sound great, but how do you even get started? Before developing your SEO strategy, you need to understand what type of information goes into the algorithm for search engine rankings.

These include:

• Website Usability
• On-page Optimization
• Off-page Optimization

Your search engine rank is the position that your website physically falls in Google's or Yahoo's search results when a specific search query is entered. If you are the first website in a string of search results, then your rank is 1. 

It is extremely important to understand that SEO isn't something that you can take a half-assed approach to; you must have a solid strategic plan before you dive in. It is good to rank for keywords, but it also important to make sure you reach your users in each stage of the buying process.

Your rank is an indicator of how relevant and authoritative your website is in the eyes of the search engine, as it relates to the search query entered.

Pro tip: Don't be confused by the paid ads at the top (indicated as Ads) as those companies and websites paid to be at the front of those search results. Those paid advertisements don't fall under the SEO umbrella. Instead, they are associated with pay-per-click (or commonly referred as PPC.)

 Search engines are very complex, and you won’t understand all the smaller details or nuances of SEO right away. That being said, as you learn more about the way your site is ranked and track your progress, you will see real results on Google and can adapt your methods.

From reading the remainder of this article, you'll learn the basics of search engine optimization, and how to create an effective SEO strategy by following Google’s algorithm guidelines and understanding the ranking factors for success.

The first step to creating an SEO strategy is to understand what keywords you're going to rank for.

Discover Your Keywords & Pillar Pages

 

The first step in the overall SEO process is to create a good pillar strategy with high-quality keywords. Very recently, an SEO industry expert, Rand Fishkin, described a new groundbreaking SEO strategy. This new strategy is called a "pillar page strategy" or "10x content" and it aims to make your content work 10 times as hard. 

Pillar pages are the pages on your website that you want to generate the most traffic and are often the pages that have the best analytics. That means that they could have the following KPIs:

• high traffic levels
• a high amount of time spent on page
• a low bounce rate
• a high click-through-rate

It can be a long, lengthy process to create a pillar page strategy that your company needs, but we've put together a 5-step guide that will help any beginner understand what pillar pages and keywords are the most effective for your company, firm, or business. 

Pro Tip: Before you begin, make sure you are ready to keep track of all your findings and make sure you have a Google AdWords account set up.

Step 1: Choose Your Pillar Pages

Put yourself in the shoes of your ideal client. What would you search for if you needed the products, services, or processes that your company offers? 

Now, think of the pages that your client base would use the most. There really isn't a limit to the number of high-impact pages that you can use here, but be careful not to go overboard. You don't want to create a pillar page strategy that is beyond your company's capacity. However, if you need to create a 10+ pillar page strategy, and you have the resources needed to accomplish that task, go for it!

Pro tip: If you're using your pillar page strategy in conjunction with your blogging efforts, you'll need to create topics for each pillar page that you're creating. 

Step 2: Determine Your Keywords

Evaluate the keywords that your company is using. Where does your website rank for those terms? Are your competitors ranking for keywords that you're not considering? Really do your research here. The better your keywords are, the more traffic you'll be able to receive from Google.

The objective here is to gather as many keywords as you deem necessary. We'll evaluate whether or not these keywords are the ones that you should be ranking for in the next step. 

Pro tip: If you hit a roadblock coming up with keywords, go ahead and move ahead to Step 3. Evaluating the keywords that you came up with will help you finalize them.

 

 

Step 3: Utilize SEO Tools 

Now that you have an idea of what your keywords are, you need to confirm that your keywords are correct, and to get suggestions on additional keywords to add. There are many SEO tools out there that can help you here, and we've listed a few here. 

Free SEO Tools: Google Trends Moz Google Analytics Paid SEO Tools: Moz Pro SEM Rush SEO Powersuite

These tools are all fairly comprehensive, but they will take some time to master. Take the time to read their blogs, and get yourself accustomed to the tools' usage. If you have questions that you can't find answers to, contact the support team of the tool that you're using. 

 

Step 4: Check Your Rankings

While you are going through step 3, make sure you are denoting what page you're ranking on or what rank you are on the SERPS. If you see your company's URL, make a note of what rank you are. If you don't make these notes now, then you'll have no determinant of whether or not your company is growing or falling in search engine rankings. 

If you have gone through 50 or 100 search results and still do not see your site, just stop there and make a note of it in your spreadsheet (i.e. 50+ and 100+).

Step 5: Making Decisions

Now that you have done your research and have a better understanding of your keywords, it is time to evaluate which keywords are the best 3-5 keywords per pillar page. By doing this, you'll ensure your SEO strategy is far more focused. Instead of a shotgun approach with keywords, pillar pages allow you to focus more on the specific pages you're attempting to rank for.

If you understand your pillar pages, your keywords, and if they've been properly researched, you'll get a head start on creating an effective SEO strategy.

Need More Help with Pillar Pages & Topic Clusters?

Our SEO experts, Nicole Lawrence and Juliette Tholey, join forces to explain pillar pages and how to create them. Watch the video to learn more!

User Friendly Website

 

Each year, Google gets better and better at determining how user-friendly a website is. They can tell this by evaluating your website's bounce rates, click-through-rates, and total time spent on site. 

Knowing this, you can make your website more user-friendly by making sure a visitor stays on your site, visits more than one page, and regularly comes back to your website to read your content. 

Below are some strategies that you can use to enhance how people use your website:

1. Make sure the objective of your website is clearly communicated, especially on the home page.
2. Make calls-to-action (CTAs) that tells users what to do next on your site.
3. Ensure all potential questions and uncertainties are answered on your site.
4. Navigation must be prominent and make it easy to find other pages and information.
5. Break up big chunks of text so visitors do not get lost in words.
6. Use images to portray information and make sure those images have alt text.
7. Keyword friendly URLs help the user understand what the page is about.
8. Add a site search option for ease of finding information.
9. Include testimonials and reviews to help gain visitors trust.
10. Forms must be simple. Do add more information than is necessary.
11. Last but not least, always have a mobile version of your website.