What Is Search Engine Optimization & How Does It Work?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is focusing on the organic visibility of a website by adhering to the best practices that people & search engines are looking for. You can improve the visibility of your website with SEO for Small Businesses to help your website appear more often and rank higher on Search Engines. Get started with SEO for your small business today with Harv Communications!

This process can involve multiple techniques both on and off of the website. While there are numerous ranking factors that ultimately determine the positioning of a website in search engine result pages based on the keywords or search queries being looked for, nothing about SEO is instantaneous. SEO is a long journey which requires constant, ongoing attention. It is not a one-time project nor are the results permanent. This is, in part, due to the fact that Search Engines (such as Google) are constantly changing.

This page will focus on some of the key details and information about SEO, but if you are looking to get started or asking any immediate questions, you can reach out any time!

SEM or SEO for Small Businesses?

SEO is vastly different from Search Engine Marketing (SEM). They can run separately from one another, however, the two can work together extremely well in a lot of ways.

With SEO, you are helping improve the organic search visibility of your website by adhering to best practices and generating content that help both people and search engines understand how a search query relates to what is written on a page.

With SEM, you are paying Google for top-of-page rankings to leapfrog organic results. The two sides (Organic & Paid) work together by combining a focus on User Experience and Search Visibility with Search Intent and Conversion. This is used through a combination of short & long tail keywords.

When combined, SEO can improve the quality of the website and help reduce the costs of individual keywords. Arguably more importantly, SEO helps reduce the need to have to bid on certain keywords in the first place. If keywords are already ranking well organically, budget can then be allocated to help support terms which are further back in terms of their visibility.

What Are Some Examples of SEO?

As noted above, one example of SEO and SEO strategy focuses on Content Creation. This is one of over 200 ranking factors Google, the largest Search Engine (but one of many different options!), utilizes in determining what websites appear in what order. Here are some examples of other ranking factors with brief descriptions of each:

Content Length = aim for about 1000+ words per page (where applicable) which elaborate on a primary topic with subtopics
Title Tags, Headings, & Subheadings = each page should explicitly describe what the purpose is about by structuring with keyword information
Age/Authority of the Domain = simply put, if it is a brand new website, Google does not trust it as much as one with years of consistent traffic
Page/Site Loading Speed = user experience is a massive factor. If a website or page takes a long time to load, that’s a poor User Experience before they even get to the site
Update Frequency = Search Engines like websites which signal they are constantly kept active and well maintained with new content
Inbound & Outbound Linking = encouraging site visitors to stay on your website and view multiple pages while also connecting to/from other trusted digital touchpoints
User-generated Reviews = legitimate, strong, and consistent reviews signal your business is active and trustworthy while providing links from other trusted platforms
Mobile Friendliness = having a responsive design ensures your website can be accessed by anyone across every common device type

Each of these factors works both individually and in tandem with one another along with the dozens of other ranking factors. Not all factors are equal, however. Having 1500 words on a page is great, but without structure or contextual relevance to the page topic & subtopics, they are just words on the internet. If Google doesn’t understand what your webpage is about, why would it recommend it as a search result for people?

Google is one of several Search Engines available for people. It is the one most people are familiar with and the one some SEs follow in terms of how they organize data. However, Google is also constantly evolving and changing the way it perceives data

Ready to get started?

FAQ

There are a lot of myths and misunderstandings when it comes to Search Engine Optimization. Before diving into how we can support your business, let’s start with all of the things SEO is not:

Can you guarantee first page of Google ranking?

No. No one can promise anything and Google works for no one. Each search keyword will have its own way to work its way to the first page, but it depends on things like competition, search volume, relevancy, geography and the website itself.

Does Paying more for SEO gets you more results?

Increasing your SEO budget does not have a direct correlation to results. The only time budget directly contributes to results is when it comes to paying for experience and expertise.

Can you SEO faster than my last provider?

There really is not a single method or approach to SEO that is used by all. In fact, there really should not be. Utilizing a templated approach or trying to fast-track results often involves incorrect tactics or misinformation of what is truly involved in the process.