SEO is not a foreign language like HTML and CSS

SEO is not a foreign language

I feel like whenever someone brings up SEO during a meeting, people think you need to outsource this because it’s some foreign social media alien that no one in the room understands. And don’t get me wrong, SEO can get complicated. Very, very complicated. But that’s only once you understand it and start applying what you know.

Learning the basics behind SEO are easy. And in order to be better at your job, you need to learn what SEO is and how it can help you. Here they are:

1. When someone is doing SEO, they are basically trying to convince search engines that your Web site should appear first in search results (like on Google, Yahoo, Ask, etc.), in order to have more visitors to your Web site. More visitors to your site=more visibility=opportunity to improve your image=more customers in the long run.
2. The two major divisions of SEO are:
   On-page optimization – If you control your Web site, YOU can optimize your page by adding meta tags  and other keywords.
   The number of pages linking to you – This is not in your control completely, but you can encourage it by getting more involved online.
3. Here is what search engines (like Google) look for in your page:
   The number of sites linking to yours – the more sites linking to your site, the better.
   The “anchor” text of these links – Say you’re a hospital, trying to improve your search rankings for your plastic surgeons. It’s better for you if the links that point you to your Web site say “Plastic Surgeons” rather than “www.sthospitalx/plastics/drs/html.”
   How relevant are your links – If your Web site is about a hospital, then you want health, wellness and fitness sites to link to you. It doesn’t help if there are links to your site from an electronics Web site. You want sites with a similar target audience to link to you.
4. On-page optimization: Creating meta tags does not mean you have to write in code. In blogs, for example, at its most basic level, all you need to do to add meta tags is make the your blog post’s title the Title Tag and make the first sentence of each blog post the Meta Description.
5. On Web site writing for SEO:
   Titles – the title of your content should be attractive. This will convince people to read it.
   Keywords – if your content is on health care you’ll naturally mention health care, cardiology, perinatology and other related keywords when it makes sense. So don’t worry about keywords.
   Links – if you know of a good site that you should be linking to in your content, then link to it. (If you want to take it a step further, get in contact with the Webmaster for the site you linked to and see if they’ll link back to your site. Reciprocal links are 100 times better than one-way links.)
   Content – the more detailed and unique your content is, the better. Search engines need more unique information that people love.

I think that’s enough to get you started. Once you’ve got these basics down, then you’re ready to bring in a professional. And that way, you can at least keep up with the conversation when you do bring them to the boardroom and they start making recommendations!