Although SEO(search engine optimizaton) has been around for quite some time it has evolved into a monster over the last few years. It has taken giant leaps just to keep up with the ever changing search trends. Now there is a Social frenzy and its more than just building links, but building relationships. Businesses and individuals are jumping on the bandwagon just to keep up with the rest of their respective industry.

So lets start with the basics: On-site Optimization

What does that mean? You have got to have a strong foundation before you can open the marketing flood gates. To create a successful online business or get the kind of brand recognition or traffic you are looking for you need to take a step back and look at your website.

• Do you have meta (title, description, keywords)?
• Is your content or ad-copy original and informational?
• Are you appealing to your targetted demographic?
• Is your website easy to read, not only by humans but what about search engines?

There are a lot of other things that we will get into in later posts but lets start with those. Lets disect each of them to make them more clear.

Meta
This is more than just a bunch of hidden code that nobody will see. There is a lot more. Even though keywords are not as important to Google, the majority of search engines use meta information when passing out search rankings. Are your title and description consistent to the content of your site or is it misleading and irrelevant? Are you focusing on the right keyword(s) phrases? Is it basic information or just another sales pitch?

Content/Ad-copy
This is HUGE. All of the major search engines that matter look for great content. What makes content good? Things like freshness, originality, grammatically correct, informational and non-bias. Since the search engines are on a quest to provide its users with the most relevant search results, they are looking more and more into your websites content. Just like we said above, do your title and description compliment your copy? Then there is the keyword density. I have found that somewhere in the 4-5% range works best. Let your viewer in on what your site is about without making them read a novel. Make it easy for them!

Demographics
Hopefully when you were creating your business model or pre-launch research you thought about who you are wanting to target as your viewer/customer. It is very important to know what your audience is so you can create content that will intrigue them. Since there is such a difference in generations, sexes, ethnicity you need to direct your copy to appeal to them. Don’t sell denture cream to teenagers. If you are marketing to the older generation, be conservative. Younger generations tend to be more ’slang’ or ‘hip’. If you don’t know your target market, help yourself out and find it now.

Lastly is Readability
We could really get into web design here but I want to hold off on that for now. What I mean by readability is the art of making your text make sense. Check it two or three times. Have a friend read it. People don’t want to get lost when trying to read about your business. It is easier for them to hit the back button and leave your site. When your site is crawled by the search engines they read it from left to right, starting at the top and working toward the bottom. Put your most important statement so they can see it first. That is why you need to use <h1> tags or head tags. To highlight the important stuff. Placement is crucial because for you to get a successful crawl, you need to make it easy.

I know we covered a lot in this post, but those are some of the first steps in starting your SEO campaign. We will continue to move forward in process next time.

JM