By: Chad Bell
Recently, a friend of mine asked me about SEO (Search Engine Optimization). He inquired, “Isn’t it just putting words together that match your content? Like, if I was selling cars, wouldn’t I use “cars” as my title or something?” He had a point.
In fact, if you were to describe exactly what SEO does to a five-year-old, this would be a proper explanation. Theoretically, it is as simple as designating a keyword or phrase that relates to your content in the “Title tag” that appears at the very top of the browser window. Let’s say you wrote a blog article about a new car that you just put down a deposit for. Employing a basic understanding of SEO, you make sure that the word “car” is in the title and scattered all over the blog post. You may even have included pictures, video, and social media links. That was easy…who needs to worry about SEO? Whatever that means…
Now, try doing a search on Google for “cars”. Google’s organic search engine finds:
- www.cars.com/
- www. disney.go.com/cars/
- www.imdb.com/title/tt0317219/
Google’s paid search finds:
- www.Chevrolet.com/Cars
- www.BayAreaAudiDealers.com
- www.Buick.com/Car
The search query “cars” has “About 715,000,000 results”. That’s quite a bit!
So the keyword “cars” didn’t have much of an impact, at least not the impact you were looking for. Being the intelligent individual that you are, you realize the need to break down the keyword “car” to be more specific. Your new blog post is about the new Nissan Leaf Car.
So, you change your blog post title to “Nissan Leaf Car”.
SEO Tip #1: The title of your website/blog has a huge impact on your SEO score. You want to be as clear as possible and directly to the point.
Google the search query “Nissan Leaf Car” and 2,590,000 results appear. Not specific enough! You try again. “Nissan Leaf Electric Car” and “about 606,000 results” appear.
The search results are getting smaller but not small enough.
SEO Tip #2: Search Engine Optimization incorporates micro and macro elements, but 2 of the top 5 requirements for a successful SEO campaign are:
• Research
• Patience
• and more patience.
So patience and the right keyword(s) are all you need right? Maybe spend an hour or so typing keywords into Google search and hopefully you will find a set of keywords that brings up < 1,000 search results. Wrong! Remember, you need to use your brain! This is the age of information and you need to THINK of a solution that will get you faster to the end goal. Let’s step back for a second to remember what that is: you are searching for keywords to help increase your presence on the web. You are looking for the right individual and combination of words that people are searching for…you need a…Keyword TOOL!
Google provides a FREE keyword tool for this exact problem. By using this tool, you can get ideas of what people search for online. But this isn’t a one-stop shop. There are no guarantees; only possible solutions. After conducting some research, you decide to use “ev electric car” because it is the top ranked set of keywords. You change your blog title and come back a few weeks later to find only 15 “unique” visits to the blog post that took you all day to write (you were really excited about your new car)!
SEO Tip #3: Implementing a sound keyword strategy is crucial to a successful SEO campaign. But it is only one step of an endless list of tactics and measures that SEO experts go through to give you the best shot at being “top dawg”.
We haven’t even gone through the video, pictures, and social media you connected to your blog…
I turned to my friend and said “It’s something like that…”
