As a designer and web developer, I am constantly surrounded by new technology and methods for advertising and marketing. Sometimes I’ll say “SEO” and assume that everyone knows what it is because it’s been a hot topic for years. But more and more, I realize that several business owners and organizations simply aren’t clear on what it is. So this blog

SEO, Search Engine Optimization, is the method or practice of setting up your site to have the best chances of search engines finding your website when and how you want to be found. Sites that are optimized (whether intentionally or not) are the ones that are found on the first or second page of search engines, like Google, for specific key words.

So you are asking, “How did they do that? How do I do that?” Did you try Googling your website with the keywords you want to be found for only to be nowhere in sight?  Well, the tactics for optimizing a website isn’t rocket science, though it does require a little code knowledge and a clear strategy, which includes choosing the right keywords to begin with!

There are two main parts of SEO. There is onsite SEO and offsite SEO. Part 1 will address onsite optimization, which is everything you can do directly on your website to give it a fighting chance.

1) Informative tags
The title tag is the text that appears at the very top of the browser. It often states the name of the company or blog. But if all you put is your company name, you’re losing out on an important visibility tool. Your title tag should include your keywords. For instance, if you are a bakery specializing in wedding cakes in Boston called “A Slice of Heaven,” your title tag should read something like “A Slice of Heaven | a Boston bakery specializing in wedding cakes.” It also helps if your business name has your keywords in it. I googled “Boston bakery + wedding cakes” and this is the site that was listed first (notice the title tag at the top):

2) H1 tags
H1 stands for Header 1, very similar to header styles used in Word. The H1 reinforces the main topic of the page. Google is reading the title tag and the h1 tag to find out what this page is about. Again, though it makes sense to the average web user to simply see the business name as the leading header on the home page (like “Welcome to ABC Business”), there is a missed opportunity to optimize your site. So instead of your name, do similar to your title tag, like “Boston’s Unique Wedding Cake Bakery.” And make sure that the text is coded as a h1 tag. It very well could be a regular paragraph tag stylized to look like a header, which doesn’t help  your SEO as much.

3) Keyword rich content
Rich content is also important. Make sure that you liter keywords in an intro paragraph on the home page at least 2-3 times each. And, if possible, bold it. Adding bold or italics reinforces the word’s importance to Google. This (along with the previous advice) should be done for every page that you want to optimize.

4) End with keywords
Add your keywords to your footer. Google likes to see key content at the top and the bottom of your website. So take advantage of the space in your copyright line and add your keywords in a similar fashion as your title tag.

There are a few more things you can do like making sure you link between your own website pages and adding a site map so google has an easy place to find all of your links, but this blog is getting long, so feel free to ask questions or leave comments or contribute knowledge. Part 2 will be on offsite optimization. That’s when the SEO really gets going!

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