Search Engine Optimization and You

Search Engine Optimization has become a hot topic in the past couple years, everybody is trying to get to the top of the engines above their competition. And as of recent there are thousands of "consultants" out there who claim to have the best strategy, when really most everything comes down to your web developer.

What SEO consultants do

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) consultants always seem to have the answer, yet many of them don't even know HTML, the basic language of web programming. What they mainly do is farm out links to your site where other sites post them, technically building your rank. BUT, this is not always the case. Sites like Google, Yahoo and Bing use quality of links rather than number of links. So one hit on the frontpage of CNN is better than 1000 farmed out links. In many cases linkfarming can be a bad thing. The developer on the other hand is a bit different.

The Web Developer

The web developer/web designer's job is to make the site functional but also visually stimulating. One of the key terms coined with functionality is SEO. There are a variety of methods for one to make sure search engines see the site.

Title Tags

The title tag is the most important of all SEO tactics. Title tags are the first thing a search engine sees when looking for your site.

H1,H2,H3 Tags

Header tags are next in line and are almost equally important. Breaking your content down into readable formats where new sections all have a header greatly increase your chances of being seen.

Proper Markup Language

When using images, media and links the title and alt terms are often ignored...not for us developers and designers though. These are perfect spots to show up in results.

Content Updates

Search engines LOVE new content. Always be sure to update whenever you have something new to say. This can be a blog post or a full on redesign, just do something!

Finally, proper content

With proper content, that is content that is relavent to the page title, header tags and whatnot, your site becomes perfectly aligned in the SEO algorithm. This still doesn't guarantee results, but you are in direct positioning to at least be visible in results. You'll still have to do some work such as:

• Post on social networks
• Send out newsletters
• Update your site often
• Check analytics to see what keywords are hitting in the searches
• Invest in some online advertising (adwords, facebook ads etc...)

Simple Spark Design's Conclusion

The work may sound easy but it does become a bit of a challenge to stay on top of it. Always look forward and keep your clients updated. The more traffic you see to the site the higher your rank will become. Proper SEO techniques can easily be handled by your web designer, have a talk with them to get up to speed, or Contact Us for a free consultation.

Cheers!

Simple Spark Design