Why is SEO important?

In the United States

• Number of monthly newspaper circulation – 28.4 million
• People who watched TV monthly- 285 Million
• Number of monthly internet searches – 14 Billion (with a B)

So where to people go to search?

Distribution of searches

• Google 63.7%
• Yahoo 20.5%
• Microsoft 8.3%
• Ask 3.8%
• AOL 3.7%

How do search engines work?

If your web pages or web site is not Search Engine Optimized so that it is indexed properly you are not going to be found. When you search Google, you don’t search the web, you search a copy of the web. Google sends out requests to all the i.p. addresses, then indexes all the words that are on those pages and saves a copy of the page on their server. When you do a Google search you are actually searching their server, not the web. When you search a particular phrase, Google will match that phrase with its index of words and will send you back results. These results will be ranked based on their formula and may be different based on whether you are logged in to Google or not, your geographic location, the browser you are using, operating system, and hundreds of other factors.

Definition of Search Engine Optimization (SEO):

A set of methodologies that make it easier for search engines to FIND, INDEX, CATEGORIZE and RANK web content.

Basic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Checklist

• Content is reachable and readable by search engines
• Content is added consistently and often
• Content is organized logically – themes/categories
• Keywords exist in content and internal text links
• Quantity of quality sites linking in
• Monitor, adjust

What is a SERP (Search Engine Results Page)?

This is the page that comes off of the search engines server when you type in a particular keyword phrase.

If it can be searched, it can be optimized !!!

The Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Tri-fecta

• Keywords
• Search Friendly Site
• Link Building

In finding keyword phrase you want to get in the mind of your customer. Depending on what phase they are in will depend on what keyword phrases you will want to optimize for. If they are in the research phase you will want to optimize for reviews, studies, etc. If they are in the buying phase you will want to optimize for sales, guarantees, and product names.

What phase are they in?

• Research
• Consideration
• Buying

You must find the keywords that your customers use to find your products/services. Brainstorm based on solutions & customer needs, interview or survey customers, review current web analytics, poll sales & customer service staff, review competitor content. The key is you want to convert them, or a high conversion rate.

Some tools for keyword phrase research include:

Free: Google keyword tool, Google Insights, Google Ad Planner, freekeywords.wordtracker.com

Paid: Wordtracker.com, KeywordDiscovery.com, SEMRush.com

Create a keyword glossary ranking the phrase with traffic, relevance and competition.

So where do you want to use the keyword phrases once you have selected them?

• Title Tags
• Headings
• Paragraph titles
• Keywords in body of copy
• Anchor text in links
• URL
• Image names
• Image alt text
• Image description
• Meta description tag

Be careful not to keyword “STUFF” by putting the keywords too many times. The title tag is the most important location for a keyword phrase. Make sure the important keywords are to the left, 8 to 10 words or 65 characters, focus on 1 or 2 keyword phrase per page. Each page should have a unique title tag and meta description. Follow this link for more ideas on How to Write a Post.

Include your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in all of your digital content. Text, Documents, Images, Videos, Blogs, Media Coverages, Social News, Bookmarks, etc.

Summary:

1. Research customer driven keyword phrases
2. Create a keyword glossary
3. Consider searcher intent & where they are in the buying cycle
4. Use the keyword phrases in the Title, URLs, body copy, etc.
5. Extend keyword SEO to all digital assets both on-page and off-page