SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is made up of a number of activities that seek to drive traffic from search engines to a website, with the ultimate goal of having the website listed on the first page of search engine results for particular words (keywords).
If you have a bunch of pay-per-view or pay-per-click ads on your site, you’ll probably be happy if you catch the eye of people who aren’t seriously interested in your product, as their visits to your site may increase your ad revenue. However, these incidental site visits should not be where you place your focus.
Your focus should be on the people who have a good chance at becoming your customers: people with a sincere interest in what you have to offer.
Your goal with SEO is to create web pages that will have high correlation in terms of relevance and value to the search terms being used. You could be writing a blog post, an Etsy listing, a book listing for
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I have a lot of questions about SEO. What should a person keep in mind pertaining to SEO while writing for a crochet business that sells both patterns and finished items? Is simply focusing on clear, concise language enough? How much does the name of a business affect SEO?
When it comes to SEO and search engine ranking, it is better to write with the customer in mind, not the search engine. Writing with one or two keywords in mind can improve your ranking in the search engines but over-use of keywords in one particular article or blog post can work against you … keep it to approximately one keyword for every 100 words you write.
In regard to how much the name of a business affects SEO, well, I guess that would depend on your end goal and branding. Recent Google updates have lessened the impact and value of exact match domains (EMD). However, having a keyword in the domain and business name should help increase organic traffic.
Amy, I’m so sorry. I typed a response to you the other day, and I think DISQUS managed to eat it for dinner. I agree with what ijohnson posted below. In fact, it’s pretty much exactly what I said.
Read up on Google’s Panda and Penguin updates, and you’ll learn a lot about what NOT to do with SEO right now. Clear, concise language that means something to your customer or site visitor is definitely what’s important. I’ll be making a post next week about how to do keyword searches to find the most popular search terms for a particular product you might be selling and how to incorporate them into your post or listing in a good way.
As far as domain names and company names, I personally think branding is the primary consideration, not SEO. I would select my business name based on the image I wanted to present and the message I wanted to give the customer, not for what I thought it might do for me in SEO. Your name is pretty permanent. What’s best for SEO changes frequently. What works now might not be optimal a year, six months, or even three months for now.