Search Engine Optimization Get Found the Natural Way
More than 10 billion web searches are performed every day. Once upon a time, there was a person behind every one of those searches asking a question. These days, the humans are joined by AI bots…but more on that later.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and it’s newest cousin AI Optimization (AIO) is all about increasing your website’s visibility to search engines and improving your ranking compared to other sites that come up in the same search results.
Webcrawlers are robots (programs) that systematically browse the web. Their job is to index webpages so that search engines are able to match all those pages to search terms that users have entered. The search engines then apply algorithms and AI to determine which page provides the user with the best answer to their question.
E.E.A.T.
Google establishes the quality of your page (and website) against competitors using 4 pillars:
“Experience” Do you have firsthand experience or life experience relevant to the topic?*
“Expertise” Do you have great content that people want to read?
“Authoritativeness” Are other sites citing your content as a valuable source of info?
“Trustworthiness” Do you have good reviews?
* It used to just be E.A.T., which was more fun to say… Google added “Experience” in 2022. That update emphasized the importance of both practical experience and expertise in content evaluation, especially for Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) topics. ↓
Your Money or Your Life!
Your (E.) E.A.T. is even more important when it comes to pages and sites that deal with “happiness, health, or wealth”. This content includes various medical, health, safety and financial info. We’ve worked with several healthcare clients so we can attest that Google takes this seriously.
What’s Your Score?
Domain Authority (DA) is primarily a measure of the how many other websites link to your site and the quality of those links. One of the ways to gauge your Domain Authority is with a handy-dandy tool from Moz that will give your page a score on a 100-point, logarithmic scale.
New websites always start with a 1.0 but the “logarithmic” part means it’s easier to boost your score from 1 to 10 than it is to get from 90 to 100. Interpreting whether your score is “good” or “bad” is a bit more nuanced. DA serves as an indicator of how you measure up against competitors so this can be highly industry-specific.
The Different Flavors of SEO
Your site needs to be fast, optimally set up for search engines and easy for users to find all that great content.
Involves optimizing individual web pages to rank higher in search engines. Key elements include high-quality content, keyword optimization, header tags and internal linking.
Focuses on external factors influencing a website’s reputation and authority. This primarily involves link building (getting high-quality backlinks from other reputable websites) and social media engagement.
Deals with optimizing the website’s technical aspects to improve search engine crawling and indexing. This includes site speed optimization, mobile-friendliness, secure connections (HTTPS), structured data, and XML sitemaps.
Targets search engine optimization to attract local customers, crucial for businesses with a physical location. This involves optimizing Google My Business listings, getting local citations, and focusing on local keywords.
There are a few other types that are pretty much variations on the 4 biggies:
Mobile SEO: Focuses on optimizing websites for mobile devices, ensuring good mobile user experience. This includes responsive web design, fast loading times, and easy navigation on mobile screens.
International SEO: Involves optimizing websites for different countries and languages, targeting global audiences. This includes hreflang tags, localizing content, and understanding cultural nuances in different regions.
E-commerce SEO: Specific to online retail, this involves optimizing online stores to attract more traffic and convert visitors into customers. Key areas include optimizing product descriptions, categories, and user experience.
Content SEO: Involves creating and structuring content effectively for better ranking and user engagement. This includes keyword strategy, content creation, and content marketing.
Voice Search SEO: Optimizing for voice search queries, which tend to be longer and more conversational, to cater to the increasing use of voice-activated devices.
AIO (AI Optimization): The practice of using artificial intelligence tools and algorithms to enhance SEO strategies. It includes automating keyword research, generating content, optimizing on-page elements, analyzing competitors and predicting search trends to increase organic visibility and performance.
The 800 lb Google in the Room
Of course, Google is the big boy and, of course, it’s important to optimize for what’s likely to provide 80% or more of your site’s traffic. As detailed above, Google isn’t the only place to get traffic… but suffice it to say it’s pretty important.
The best place to hide a dead body is page 2 of Google search results.
If you’re not on page 1, you’re not going to get any real visibility from Google.
If you’re on page 1 but below the fold (not in the top 5-6 organic results), you can expect about 4 users out of 100 to click through to your website.
Most new websites won’t start to rank on Google for 2 YEARS or more!
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According to most top SEO firms, a new website using PROFESSIONAL SEO TECHNIQUES will take 3-6 months to rank on Google.
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The average top-10 ranked website on Google is more than 2 YEARS OLD.
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Your average, DIY site may NEVER rank highly on Google.
When people type a question into a search engine that relates to your business, will your website show up at the top of the list?
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