Search Engine Optimization is Essential
Help Customers Find Your Website With SEO
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is creating your website to rank well with search engines, most notably Google and Bing. There are many factors that go into search engine rankings and it’s a subject I have a lot of knowledge and success in. Other web design firms charge $50 – $200 PER MONTH for Search Engine Optimization. I believe SEO is something that is essential starting the day your website goes live and I NEVER charge extra for that service. The SEO firms are sharks. They make promises they can’t fulfill and string you along as long as possible until you’re fed up and fire them. Then many of them remove the SEO features they added to your website. This is an unfair practice and I would never treat my clients that way.
Search Engine Optimization Basics
There are a lot of minor changes that can be made to a website to dramatically affect how it ranks with search engines. I will briefly review the key elements that appear when you search for something in Google. The first line that appears is the page title. This can be found on the top bar of your browser and should be short and concise. Not only should your company name be listed, but more importantly whatever product or service you are selling must be in the title and if you’re targeting a specific location the city name should be present. The next line you will see is the description of the page. This is written within the coding of your website in an element called a META tag. There are many different META tags that tell search engines everything from the description of the page to keywords and your location. Below the description your business address will be listed if you’re registered with Google My Business, which is a service I provide for every customer. The final lines will link to pages within your website if properly coded.
What You Don't See Makes A Difference With SEO
When search engines rank your website they not only look at the title and META tags as I listed above, they also look at the content and additional elements that can’t be seen. One important element they look for is called an alt tag. Search engines are robots that scan your page to determine the content and legitimacy of a website. When these robots see images they don’t know what the image is unless you tell them. This is where the alt tag comes in. The alt tag tells the search engine robot what the image is and improves your site ranking if the image relates to the content. Without this tag your ranking is punished. Many clients that come to me from large web design firms don’t have alt tags in their images. If you are interested in learning more about search engine optimization contact me today or visit Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide.
