Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know how popular abbreviations are in today’s world. The world of internet marketing is no different. There’s SEO, SEM, PPC, CTR, CPI, and many more. In my series of blog posts, I will try to de-mystify the basics of internet marketing. Let’s start with “What is SEO?” SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Okay, lovely. Why should you care?
Let’s assume that you have a product or service that you want to sell, share or otherwise engage the world in. You (or someone you’ve hired) have created a website to help you do just that. It’s live and running, but who’s seeing it? Well, of course your Mom and Dad checked it out. So did your kids, your best friend, etc. but what you really want is people outside your circle of direct acquaintances to notice it. Depending on what your website is about, maybe even someone from the other side of the world. Ah yes, that’s where the search engine comes in.
You’ve heard about them and used them…Google, Bing, Yahoo, Ask, Dogpile, etc. Whatever your preferred engine is, they all work the same way. You type in what you are looking for into the box and bam, pages and pages of websites that are somehow related to what you are looking for magically appear. But how did those website pages get listed and, more importantly, how do you get your pages on that list? (Preferably, on the first pages of the list.) Search Engine Optimization.
SEO is all about getting the search engines to find your website and telling them when they should return it in a search query. In my series of posts, we will walk through the steps you need to take to give your website the best possible positioning.
Some of the topics that we will cover include:
o Keywords
o Content
o Meta-tags, especially page titles and descriptions
o Linking
o Site Navigation
o Citation Listings
Next time we will look at what drives everything – keywords.
In the meantime, if you’d like us to give your website a SEO review or are in need of marketing services, please give us a call at 410-312-0081 or fill out the contact form.
— Terri Hesse, Digital Marketing Manager