It’s common to see people promoting the secrets of search engine optimization (SEO). Many people claim to have the “secret formula” or the “proven method” of internet marketing that will bring you instant success. However, to fully understand how many of these claims are dubious, it’s good to understand what SEO really is.
The end goal of search engine optimization is for an existing website to appear at the top of search engine results (e.g. Google.com) when someone searches for a keyword related to that website or business. For example, SEO is good if you own a small flower shop in Austin, Texas and you want your website to be found by people searching for “flower shop in Austin, Texas.”
However, search engine companies use complex algorithms to determine which websites are most relevant to individual key phrases (e.g., “flower shop in Austin, Texas”). These results cannot be bought or “affected” by any amount of money. It’s Google’s ultimate goal to provide users with the best possible search results, and that’s why they use their own criteria, unknown to the general public, to rank websites in the order they see fit. While it’s not possible to buy top rankings, it is possible to influence the way Google sees your website and therefore rankings.
Google uses a variety of elements to decide what a website is about and how credible the information is. These are the two main factors that determine how Google shows your website:
What is the website about?
A website can be designed to make it clear what it is about. Just like a textbook, a website can be designed so that the cover, title, chapter headings, and images indicate the purpose of the information in the book. By making technical and content adjustments to a website tailored to the desired image, both in the backend and in the frontend, Google will reassess the purpose of the website the next time you visit your site. For example, if you change the name of your flower shop website from “The Rose Bouquet in Austin Texas” to “Rose Bouquet Flower Shop – Austin Texas”, Google will have a better indicator that your website is about a flower shop. The same applies to all content written on the website. Blogs, company descriptions, and outlined service pages give Google a better idea of what to expect.
How believable is it?
This is the most challenging, complex and time-consuming part of a good SEO campaign. Google uses complex calculations to determine that information provided on one website is more relevant than information provided on another website. Factors include the age of your domain name, the quality of your web development code, and how many other relevant websites link to you.
Search engine rankings work like a popularity contest. The more sites you endorse by adding a link or button from their site to yours, the more “popular” you are with search engines. Each link is counted as a “trust proof”. For example, if you owned a medical website that had a link from WebMD.com, that would be considered a strong vote of confidence as WedMD is a reputable organization. It’s safe to say that sites with more votes are usually seen as more trustworthy and ranked accordingly.
Most SEO campaigns are about building connections with other relevant websites and “linking” them to your website. After some time, these links will be noticed by Google and your ranking will improve.
Overall, the two most important parts of an SEO campaign are content and links. If you have great, relevant content and are “popular” with links, then your SEO campaign is in good shape.
As you can see, SEO takes a lot of work. It is impossible for a business to achieve overnight success with SEO. The time it takes to create good content, build relationships and grow your links is relatively long and can take several months. In the end, patience pays off because a well-optimized website can get highly targeted, free traffic from search engines.
