How does your company rank and why should you care?
SEO are three letters that have changed the way we buy and sell – forever. SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the process through which websites like Google determine how relevant (and therefore how valuable) your website is to your customers. A high ranking on Google will push your company’s webpage to the top of the list when potential clients search “Toronto Commercial Cleaning” or “Best florist in the GTA.” A low rank will send your page down the list – and in the immediacy of today’s world, no one is looking on page 5 of their Google search (or sometimes even page 2 or 3.)
Search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing are the major roadways of the internet down which the specific queries of their users send thousands of webpages. These engines find the websites that are the most relevant to your search based on keywords, links to your page from other sites, and how much traffic your site is already generating. More visitors mean a higher ranking which means more visitors. While the algorithms behind Google and Yahoo are extremely complex, the engines themselves have fairly predictable strengths and limitations; knowledge of these allow you to create a website that is optimized to rank high within the complicated algorithm.
Quality content that is unique, well-written and up-to-date is the number one way to ensure a high SEO ranking. Though it can be tempting to “stuff” your content with keywords that you think search engines will like, this can actually have a negative effect. Having a combination of good static content (like your company’s back story, your commitments, services offered, etc.) and dynamic content like a weekly blog will give you plenty of opportunities to use keywords organically. Thinkbound Marketing Solutions can create a unique, dynamic blog for your webpage to create revolving content that gives your customers the most current information about your company while driving new clients to your site.
Having great content is, well, great, if search engines can find it. In order to rank high, your content must pass through a cache that is run by the complex algorithm mentioned above (don’t worry – you still don’t need to understand it.) What you do need to know, is that this cache only likes certain types of content; mainly content written in HTML. You could have the most beautiful website with flash media and full color images of your products, but if the cache can’t index the content it won’t be read and your ranking will go down. Fortunately, you don’t need to go back to the language lab to learn this coding language. We’ve already done that and are able to turn the killer content we’ve designed just for you into cache-friendly HTML.
Having a user-friendly page is another key element both for the customers who are already browsing your site, and also for those who haven’t found you yet. Informative, concise and accurate branding and title tags are SEO ranking’s best friends. Remember back in the day driving through the underground parking lot at the mall at Christmas time? You would drive up and down every aisle hoping a spot would open up or you would see someone’s reverse lights on. Then someone went and invented a system where they put lights above all the stalls that turn red when a spot is taken and green when the spot is empty. Title tags and branding are the green lights in the parking lot of SEO. Keeping your titles under the 75 character cut off, including keywords and writing for readability and emotional impact will affect your customer’s total user-experience. Well-optimized title tags make your website easy for search engines to find and rank high.
Conclusion
So – feel like you’re SEO-savvy? Search Engine Optimization has changed the way your customers navigate the internet and this is great news to companies who turn this change into their gain. Consider your website to be your calling-card. You put so much work into creating a user-friendly experience and an incredible product. Make sure your website gets the traffic it deserves. Thinkbound Marketing Solutions offers SEO services to all our clients, generating high ranking sites that bring return customers.
How does your website rank?
