Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the practice of optimizing your web pages so 0:00 that they show up higher on search rankings. 0:06 SEO isn't a magic button that you push once and leave it to do its thing. 0:08 SEO is an ongoing process that revolves around how you deliver and 0:13 link to content in its various ways. 0:17 But that's just the tip of the iceberg. 0:20 Let's break things down. 0:22 Improving your ranking on search pages starts with the content you create, 0:24 and how you link to this content all over the Web. 0:28 Content can come in various forms, from traditional things like blog posts, 0:31 to other things like artwork, music, ebooks, and so on. 0:35 Your first step is to make this content easy to find. 0:39 Links to various sections of your site, using links that are clear and concise, 0:43 and provide a logical architecture for your site and the sections within. 0:48 You should make it a point to link to as much, if not all, 0:53 the content on your site. 0:56 While this seems overkill, remember that search engines discover your 0:58 site by crawling through the links and indexing. 1:01 If a few pages aren't linked to, the search engine won't know that it exists. 1:05 Now you don't have to link to everything from the home page but 1:09 users should be able to find everything within a reasonable number of clicks. 1:12 Take care not to go overboard and 1:17 include too many links, cuz that can get you penalized. 1:19 And so the first step is linking to your content as much as possible. 1:21 The second step is actually including important and 1:26 relevant keywords within your content. 1:29 When a user is looking for 1:32 information on the web, they enter a search term in the search engine. 1:33 The search engine, then, matches words in the search query to words in your content. 1:38 These keywords are, therefore, a direct link between the content on your site and 1:43 the search term being entered by users. 1:48 So if you want to be found by specific people, 1:50 you need to start using these keywords within your content. 1:53 Selecting keywords can be difficult, 1:57 though, and you should start with some research. 1:59 Think about what products or services we offer. 2:02 What are our different areas of expertise? 2:05 Who is our target audience and what are they searching for? 2:08 Remember, we thought about these questions in other areas of our business model. 2:11 So how can we apply it here? 2:15 Communicate the unique qualities of your business and your product or 2:17 service and consistently write good content about it. 2:21 Before we conclude our short discussion about keywords, 2:25 keep in mind that while you should try and include relevant keywords in your content, 2:28 you shouldn't do it all over the place and on every single page on your site. 2:32 Like excessive links, 2:36 search engines can see this as you're trying to game the system. 2:37 And it might affect your ranking negatively. 2:41 Focus your keywords where they're relevant. 2:44 If you want to learn more about keyword search, 2:47 the folks at Moz have a great beginners guide. 2:49 Check out the note sections for a link. 2:52 All right. 2:54 Back to linking again. 2:55 There are many factors that influence the algorithms that power search engines. 2:57 And while linking content within your site is one of them, 3:01 another big one is when other people link to your site. 3:05 This makes sense. 3:08 When other people link to you, 3:09 it establishes you as a thought leader, a site with great content. 3:11 When you write great content, you have a higher chance of being mentioned on sites, 3:16 blog posts, and across social networks. 3:21 All of these backlinks, sometimes called inbound links, 3:23 are great because they really require no extra SEO effort on your part. 3:26 You and your company just have to continue being awesome. 3:31 Whether you're thinking about link building strategies, the keywords to use, 3:35 or how often you want to blog, the most important thing to remember is content. 3:39 Without quality content, you truly have nothing to offer. 3:44 Quality content is about solving problems, anticipating needs, and 3:47 delivering on expectations. 3:52 Research what your users want and what they'll share with others. 3:54 Make a plan, brainstorm ideas, and get on a publishing schedule. 3:58 If you can consistently create quality content and 4:03 meet the needs of your website users, those users will become customers and 4:06 clients and your SEO efforts will succeed. 4:10 Now, we can't conclude here without talking about some of 4:14 the tools that will help you with your SEO. 4:16 Analytics are extremely important to the success of your SEO efforts. 4:19 If you are not paying attention to how well your efforts are performing, 4:24 you leave yourself vulnerable to other sites trying to grab your traffic and 4:28 potential customers. 4:31 There are lots of great tools, including Google's Webmaster Tools and 4:33 Analytics platforms. 4:37 Google Webmaster Tools provides statistics about your site's SEO, 4:39 such as how many times your site has been seen in specific search results. 4:43 It can also give you insight into how your site is being crawled or 4:47 indexed by search engines and if you have links on your site that need attention. 4:51 Google Analytics, on the other hand, 4:56 provides some really useful data about how your users interact with your site. 4:58 Some of its most basic metrics tells us the number of times people visit your 5:02 site, how many pages they view, the average time on the site and 5:06 how many visitors are actually new to your site. 5:10 It can tell us if people visit the site by typing in the exact URL, 5:13 through links from other sites, or from results found in search engines. 5:17 There are other tools you can use for this process as well. 5:21 So check out the notes section for 5:24 a list of different services you can use to help you get started. 5:26 Managing a website, or its SEO, is not a linear process. 5:30 It's a cyclical one. 5:34 It should be constantly taken care of, and 5:35 new concerns need to be addressed as variables change. 5:37 But if it did have a final step, it would be to 5:41 monitor the website's performance and make improvements when necessary. 5:44 And there are so many tools out there, 5:48 lots of them free, that allow you monitor your site, validate it's code, and 5:50 check the content and code for specific, technical, and SEO-related needs. 5:55 Now, this was only a brief intro into the vast topic that is SEO. 6:01 To get a more in-depth look, 6:05 check out some of the other courses on our site including SEO basics. 6:06 I've linked to the course in this notes section. 6:10