Well the term SEO stands for search engine optimisation, or if you’re over the big pond, “search engine optimization”. According to the big “W”, SEO is:
the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via natural (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results. Usually, the earlier a site is presented in the search results, or the higher it “ranks,” the more searchers will visit that site. SEO can also target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.
That couldn’t be any more accurate in my opinion. It’s all about the quality and quantity of the traffic you receive. Achieving high amounts of traffic is great, but the traffic has to be quality traffic. What do I mean by quality? Well, by quality I mean highly targeted to the services and/or products your site has to offer. If your traffic is not of high quality then your website will not get the leads, enquiries, and sales it needs.
So, how do you receive quality traffic?
Well, quality traffic is all about finding the best keywords for your products and/or service. Quality keywords lead to quality traffic (and lots of it!) which in turn is highly targeted for what your site is offering.
A lot of potential clients that call me believe SEO to be the achievement of top rankings in the search engines, but in actual fact, it’s more precisely the traffic, sales, leads, and enquiries your site can obtain through natural search engine rankings. Which is what Wikipedia says it is.
I regularly receive emails and calls from clients asking for just number one rankings for their site. Sometimes they don’t have any keywords in mind, but sometimes they do. And most of the time these keywords are quite simply not that good, and are completely wrong for what they’re selling. Quite often these keywords are not getting searched at all, and when they are they’re receiving low quality traffic.
Sometimes however, top rankings for competitive terms are not always possible, no matter the ability of SEO consultant. There are just a tonne of complex issues that are taken into account here. Such things as inbound links, domain age, and quality unique content are to name but a few. Obviously for the more competitive keywords it may be required to get even more technical. Then it is time to look at things in more detail. Things such as site theme, internal linking structure, size of the site, page load times etc etc.
A quality SEO consultant however, is always able to achieve high amounts of highly targeted traffic. Some of the keywords that achieve this traffic may not always get as much traffic as the ones at the higher end of the scale, but these keywords will be more targeted and the visitors that use these keywords will be more inclined to buy from you.
An expert seo consultant will always carry out extensive research, both on keywords, the market, and the competitors. A thorough investigation of the current site and the site of the competitors is key to an effective SEO campaign. At the beginning of an SEO project, consultants will look at competitor’s domain age, link popularity and genuine efforts to rank highly for certain keywords. This allows the SEO to compile an effective list of keywords that are both possible to rank for, and that are high in search volume and quality.
SEO Contains two Key Elements
* On Page Optimisation – On page optimisation involves the on site optimisation of such things as code and site content, so that the pages have a higher relevance to the keywords that are being targeted.
* Off page Optimisation – Off page optimisation contains the optimisation of keyword text in inbound links. Without quality backlinks you’re site will not rank for your chosen keywords.
Both of these elements demand a high level of knowledge and a lot of hard work. It is possible to get these things wrong, trust me! And without the right experience and knowledge, it is going to be hard if not impossible for your site to succeed.
I hope this article has gone a way to helping you understand what SEO is all about.
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Or, if you would like to talk a little more about your websites’ goals and objectives, information to get in touch with me is here.
