I wrote a message like the one below to one of my clients today, whose Web site is about to launch. I’ve written about SEO before (see my fledgling SEO category), but this seemed worth sharing. My contract with this client does not include any serious Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for the new site, except that all pages will be search engine friendly (which they are: descriptive page titles, use of valid HTML, friendly links and URLs).
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Within a month of site launch, Google, Yahoo and other search crawlers will start to find the new site and index the content (except any private content, which they cannot get to). Based on the found content and each search engine’s own secret algorithms, the site will begin to be included in various searches… although it may land far down in the results, depending on what’s being searched for.
The most obvious search would be for [business name], and before long, I’d expect your site to be at or near the top of a results page for that search query.
But… you really want people to find your site when they’re searching for more abstract things, like “Orange County Business Park” or “Santa Ana Office Space” (for example). These are referred to in SEO as “keywords” (even though they’re really key phrases).
If these keywords are not found on your site, Google will not make the connection and therefore your site will not show up in the results for that search. So, when rewriting the Home Page text, I included some additional phrases in the text for SEO purposes.
It’s possible that the SEO-friendly setup will get you enough traffic to be happy. If not…
A serious SEO project would take a list of keywords and make sure that the site includes them in critical places, such as page titles, image placeholders, subject headings and meta tags. We would monitor your site’s rankings in various keyword searches and adjust the SEO strategy depending on how well the site is performing over time.
Since incoming links to your site matter, SEO specialists often work to request incoming links from related sites or the media. You can help. Try to include your Web address as a link wherever possible — in media articles, news releases, Chamber of Commerce listings, business directories, and so on. All those little incoming links add up to better SEO placement.
Increasingly, SEO specialists are also helping out with social media (Facebook and Twitter) and including social media in their strategies.
SEO is related to, and often confused with, Search Engine Marketing (paid ads on search results pages). With SEM, you can guarantee prominent placement on results pages. But you have to pay for that placement, and the cost depends on how competitive the keywords are. In my opinion, smart businesses use paid SEM only in specific niches or for specific campaigns.
There’s a lot more to it, but those are the basics.
