Defining SEO

[Treehouse] [? music playing ?] 0:00 [Business Bay: Island 2, Stage 4: Search Engine Optimization] [with Dan Gorgone] 0:02 If you want your online business to succeed 0:06 it needs to be found by your potential customers 0:09 and, whether they are typing in a search term on a laptop 0:12 or asking their phone to find it for them, 0:16 Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, 0:18 can mean the difference between them finding you or finding a competitor. 0:21 SEO is the practice of making your website appear 0:26 as valuable as possible to search engines 0:29 so there's a better chance of people finding you when they search for specific terms. 0:32 Now, users have certain goals in mind when they go online 0:37 and the people you are looking for will have goals related to your products or services. 0:40 By looking at your own website, 0:46 competitors' sites, and conducting keyword research 0:48 you can anticipate which search terms people might use. 0:51 After you determine which keywords make the most sense for your business, 0:55 the idea is to use them in all the right places on your website. 0:59 Whether you're selling T-shirts, cupcakes, a crystal ball app, or anything else 1:02 your keywords should appear within the title of your site, 1:08 your navigation, and especially your content. 1:12 Great content is the significant driving force 1:15 behind the value search engines place on a website. 1:19 If you can produce excellent, keyword-rich content on a regular basis 1:21 about your business, products, and services, 1:25 you'll be ahead of the game and the competition. 1:28 SEO is more than just adding some code 1:32 or building some pages and then waiting for it to work. 1:35 It's an ongoing process that evolves along with your business. 1:37 You'll need to regularly monitor your efforts to ensure that they work 1:41 and, thanks to advances in technology and growing demand, 1:46 the nature of search is also evolving. 1:49 The world has become more mobile 1:52 and people are doing searches based on location. 1:54 They are also using voice commands, 1:57 and more results can be found that relate to video content and social media. 1:59 It's important to keep an eye on how the industry changes 2:04 as the future of your business may depend upon how you change with it. 2:07