S E O – an Opinion

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a relatively new phrase in the Social Media and Digital Marketing arena.  One useful definition that I found with a simple search for this phrase reads like this:

• The process of maximizing the number of visitors to a particular website by insuring that the site appears high on the list of results returned by a search engine

That begs a question: How do we maximize the number of visitors by getting this content (our content) high on the list of Search Results?

A definition of SEM (Search Engine Management or Marketing) tells us:

• … as type of internet marketing associated with the researching, submitting, and positioning of a website (our websites) within Search Engines to achieve maximum visibility and increase your share of paid and/or organic traffic referrals from Search Engines

That’s all very nicely stated and almost as clear as mud!

Let’s try this:

1. Searches are conducted using words and phrases that each searcher chooses so they can find what they think they are looking for.  Content creators (you and me) use words and phrases to create our content and publish this to the internet.  Search engines take the words and phrases used by those searching and match those to content found on the web by these search engines.  The more frequently a searched term or phrase or combination of terms and phrases are found on a particular page of content, the higher up in the Search Results these pages will be placed
2. So, as content providers with the desire to be found, we need to load up our pages with words and phrases that will be most frequently used when a “searcher” is looking for what we have to offer
3. There are several tools we can use to figure out which words and phrases will work best for us to be found:

• google.com / trends
• On Page and Off Page Content
  • Google Ad Words
  • Company / Offering Business Listings on Search Engines
  • Other search engine words and phrase campaigns
• Advertising Campaigns
  • Paid Ads on one or more Search Engines: Bing, Google, Yahoo, Yelp, etc.
  • Pay Per Click ad campaigns for our selected Words and Phrases

In recent activities I have found that one very strong practice is to create accounts on some of the most popular Search Engines (Google, Yelp, Bing, Yahoo, etc.) for my company and load the search terms I think people will use to find me on each of these Search Engine Accounts.

Then, the process of searching that is inherent in the internet could flow as follows:

1.  New user enters search terms in any one of these Search Engines
2.  Search Engine matched search terms to those posted on its site: Accounts, Most User Search Terms, etc.
3.  Search Engine finds web sites that use these same search terms and puts these search results in order based on the Search Engine’s particular criteria: payment of First Entry placement fees to Search Engine by user; frequency of search term occurrence, use of Video and Audio files, other criteria
4.  Then, if MY WEB SITE has the most use of the search terms AND there are no PAID First Placement Ads, then the searcher can find me!
5.  Hopefully, then the Searcher will click on my web site in the Search Results list and find (and Follow) me!