What is SEO?

Search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing evaluate websites based on a large number of factors to determine the best results to display to the individual conducting the search. In order to get listed on the top of search results for a certain keyword, a business owner will need to make sure that their website is setup in a way that search engines expect and can easily comprehend. What search engines read on your website is determined by what they call a “search algorithm.” There are many factors used to build these algorithms, some very complicated.

Search engines are constantly learning and working to update their algorithms to emulate real human behaviors in determining a website’s relevance to key search terms. One thing to keep in mind is how a search engine like Bing or Google looks at your website versus how we, as humans, can see your site.

When Google looks at your website, they see code. Clean, well-formated code is key for search engines to easily determine what each part of your website means. For example, Google can’t see an image on your screen. What they see is a piece of code that says, “Hey, this is an image.” Attached to that code are image details, such as a title that helps Google determine what the image shows. Crawling through the organization of your code determines how the content on your page is organized, helping search robots to understand what words on the page might be associated with an image. How you see your site is considered a “front-end” view of your website. To you, are determined easily and visually. Search engines try to assume what you see on a page through code, and work to emulate how you feel about a page by analyzing the frequency and timing of clicks to and from your website. That’s why good SEO tactics start with a well-designed website.

Overall, focusing on having recent, informative, and engaging content throughout your site is one of the most important factors of SEO. SEO is the process of trying to satisfy Internet users by providing content they would expect and want to see based on the search terms that initially led this new users to your website.

Could you use some help getting started on a new SEO strategy? We can help you!