seoforsmallbiz.com

This is one of the most critical topics of SEO.  Basically, you need to answer the question; what terms do I want to rank high for? Funiture?  New Tires??

There are 2 levels of complexity behind giving an answer.   First of all, if you pick short or popular terms, it will be very hard to rank well for them.  For example, ranking well for “furniture” or “new tires” will be very tough.  That is because there are literally thousands of sites out there who have been optimizing their site for years, and it would be nearly impossible for a search engine to consider you a more relevant site then these sites.    

The second complexity is, even if you go for a longer term, the chances are there is competition there too.  (this kinda goes back to my earlier point on “Do I need SEO”, earlier you start, it usually is better.

So what you need to do is figure out a)what search terms do not have much competition, and b)what are the terms that really relate to your business, such that your site content could possible be considered to be more relevant than others.

To figure out the level of competition, I suggest using a really simple (and free test).  Typethe search query you have in mind to the search engines adn see what pops up.  If you see bunch of large corporations, it means that this sis a highly competitive term.  If you see your competitors or sites that are not that relevant,  it means that you find the terms that you have a good chance ranking for.

Since you are a business owner and not a developer, I am not going to get into the details here.  Once you have these terms, not you’ll need to make sure that your developer uses these terms often in text in your pages, in your page titles, and even in the image (names) that you will have on your site.

You should create different pages for the different terms you want to rank for, and make sure that those page are only 1 click away from your home page…

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It involves multiple aspects of web site design and marketing of the site. It is a not a magical “get-rich-fast” action you can pay someone to do for you. It is a continuous process by which a site is optimized to reach a high level position in search engines for a given search query. I say continuous process, because although a large portion of the effort might be a one time optimization, to keep your search result position (ranking) high, you will need to put in some effort frequently.

Let’s go back to what SEO means (or doesn’t mean.) For example, let’s say that you have a little Italian restaurant in Chicago and you had someone build you a web site. But the site is not getting any traffic. And when you search for “Italian Restaurant Chicago”, your site is nowhere to be found. You get upset and you do not know why.

Search Engine optimization will allow you to “rank” higher on Yahoo or Google for your “target terms”.

I will have different topics regarding SEO on this site, and I will be writing my content with the small business owner in mind. You are not a geek (like I am), and you do not need to be. My goal is to explain you the topics of SEO in a simple language so that you understand what it is and what it is not, so that you do not get taken advantage of by someone full of - - you know what.