Before this week, when someone talked to me about SEO (Search Engine Optimization), I thought that it was about adding keywords so that when someone looked for something it came up. While I wasn’t completely wrong, it is so much more than that.
For instance, Google allows you to do so much when it comes to increasing traffic. Ian Cleary talks about the different ways that you can use Google Webmaster tools to increase traffic to your own site. Part of these instructions sound as though you need a lot of knowledge in HTML coding in order to do it, however, some of it is simple. For instance, changing titles on different articles and blogs so that you get picked up with more keyword usage.
Google Results for Amanda Scheffer Cavanagh
To really see what was going on, I actually googled myself to see what came up. In years past, before I started in social media, I was listed on the 6th or 7th page of Google for having stood up to the local government in support of more educational funding. Really nothing that would help me be seen now. However, after looking myself up, I was stunned that it was actually all me! My name and actually who I was right there on top! The fact that I am now coming up in regards to my own name is a huge start for me. I have always known that keeping an eye on your online presence was important, which is why I realize how hard it was for me to actually come up this often. Being a presence online is not always easy and maintaining that presence can be difficult as well. Which is why these tips are so helpful.
Another tip from Cleary that I found helpful was being able to turn on geographic targeting. This is something I hadn’t really thought about until I started my own business. While it would be amazing to be well known worldwide, I would much rather target an area closer to home to increase business locally.
In this article, Ian Cleary talks about optimizing images. I find this to be a great tip since I always include a picture or two, but I had never really thought to name the picture in a certain way or add keywords to the title in order to have it found easier, but now that I know that tip, I will focus on doing both of those things. I also found it interesting that he mentioned that captions on images don’t help SEO.
Dan Simon has more tips to follow when it comes to SEO, one of them being updated content. It would seem like this is a no-brainer, but the truth is, it can be hard. Not only to write content but to come up with content on your own and to update all profiles, to not stay stagnant. This is something I know I am struggling with when it comes to writing across 6 platforms. However, having content that is constantly being updated helps with ranking higher since when it is categorized by date the more recent, the better.
The question that remains at the end of all this, is why does this matter to me? The truth is there is a lot of value to being on top of the Google search results page. Ayaz Nanji takes a more in depth look at this and tell us that a website that is listed in the first position in Google results will receive one third of the traffic. It talks about how 91% of traffic stays on only the first page. That is a high percentage, so if you aren’t even high up on that first page, you may not be receiving any traffic.
So how can you use all of these tools and more? Sign up for Google Analytics Academy, I know I will today.
Have you been using the right optimization tools when it comes to images, if you used any?
Take a moment, and Google yourself, do you come up on the first page? Are you happy with what comes up?
Amanda Cavanagh the Social Media Maven 