Search engine optimization, or “SEO”, is the practice of improving and promoting a web site in order to increase visibility to search engines and thereby increase the number of visitors to the website. The many facets of SEO include, but are not limited to, marketing, site content, organization, links to the website, “bounce rate”, industry categories, the length of time the site has been live, and much more.
Our Better Websites are designed to to fulfill every facet of SEO as it pertains to every major search engine, including Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Ask. We’ll start with the very basics, forgetting traditional SEO tactics and claims. Then, we establish an unbreakable foundation of digital marketing guidelines and successful structure in order to continually increase and maintain web site traffic.
There are five major groups of SEO ranking factors:
- On-Page Ranking Factors
- Off The Page Ranking Factors
- Efficiency Factors
- SEO Violations
- Blocking Search Engine Spiders
There are subgroups of each major SEO ranking factor. Each of those subgroups contains one or more individual SEO factors.
No single SEO factor will guarantee good rankings in the search engines. That’s why we make sure to take an all-inclusive approach to SEO. While we can’t guarantee you a number #1 spot on the front page of Google, we will do everything we can to increase your rankings.
Unlike many other web design companies, we will provide you with the data proving the validity of our tactics.
On-Page SEO
On-page SEO factors are those that can be managed and directly affected by the tactics of the Internet developers and webmasters responsible. The #1 most important aspect of on-page SEO is content. In the eyes of the search engines, people are looking for the most current and interesting information available.
There are several subgroups of on-page SEO factors including:
- Website Content
- Domain Names
- HTML Markup
- Links
- Rule of 1000
- Organization
- Rich Snippets and Structured Data
- Authorship Markup
- Events
Off-Site SEO
Off-site SEO is simply anything you cannot change directly on a web page. Depending on your hosting plan or marketing resources, you may not have very much control over your off-site SEO factors.
Why is off-site SEO important? Well, search engines determined that relying on publishers to provide accurate information yields inaccurate results. For example, many unscrupulous webmasters found methods that would rank their websites higher in the search engines than others, even though the other websites may have been more relevant.
These are a few of the off-site SEO factors of which webmasters should be aware.
- Server Response
- Errors
- Marketing
- Social Media Indicators
- Links to your website (Backlinks)
Website Efficiency and SEO
Efficiency has recently become one of the newest indicators of value to the search engines. This is because many people today expect websites to have the fastest speeds possible. People want the relevant information that they are looking for NOW.
The magnitude of the impact of efficiency factors on SEO is unknown. However, there are a couple of key principles that even the search engines include in their recommendations to webmasters.
- Web Programming
- Site Speed
Violations and Black Hat Tactics
Contrary to popular belief, Google and Bing actually want webmasters to implement SEO tactics. However, the search engines also outline the methods that should be used to help one’s rankings in the search results.
Unfortunately, some unethical people chose to take advantage of making their websites appear more relevant to certain search queries, called “blackhat SEO”. The following lists some examples of blackhat SEO tactics that will certainly result in doing more harm to your website than good.
- Link Spam
- Keyword Stuffing
- Invisible Text
- Doorway Pages
- Cloaking
The Unknown SEO Factors
Any person or company that tells you they know everything about optimizing websites for search engines is being less than truthful. Search engines are constantly changing algorithms and the weight placed on any of the above SEO factors.
In summary, there is one proven tactic that will yield higher rankings for your website. Provide engaging content intended to provide a great user experience.
