Thinking About SEO? 5 Things You Should Know

There are so many misconceptions surrounding search engine optimization and how it works that often it’s hard to know what to believe. One report says keywords are the most important thing, while another says inbound links are what matters the most in getting good rankings. How can you know what’s real and what’s not?

Here are five things that most SEO experts agree you can count on when optimizing your web site for better search engine positions:

1. There are NO guarantees, regardless of what anyone tells you.
2. Keyword meta tags do not help with SEO, but keyword usage does
3. Meta titles and descriptions are important to the search engines
4. The keywords YOU think searchers use to find your site are not always the best terms
5. Inbound links from authority sites carry a lot of weight in the search engines

There are NO guarantees, regardless of what anyone tells you.

Search engines are constantly changing, improving, and tweaking their algorithms, and the details on how their algorithms work are kept secret. This means that optimization is a constantly moving target, and it is virtually impossible to guarantee any type of results. If your SEO company guarantees top results, make sure you understand what they mean by “top” results. They may be able to get your site to rank for keywords nobody ever searches on, but is that helpful to your business? Of course not.

Keyword meta tags do not help with SEO, but keyword usage does.

Once upon a time when search engines first started appearing on the web, site owners could add keywords in the “behind-the-scenes” meta keyword tag to let the search engines know what the site was about. However, as unscrupulous web sites and spammers started to misuse and abuse this feature, the search engines had to figure out other ways to determine a page’s relevance. One of the things that search engines measure today is how often you use your keywords in the text of your pages. You need to use them enough to be useful to the search engines, but not so much that it’s considered keyword spamming.

Meta titles and descriptions are important to the search engines.

Although the meta title of your page displays in the top of the browser window, many small businesses mistakenly use only their company name (e.g., “My Company Web Site”) in this tag. This is a valuable tag that the search engines do pay attention to, and it is often used as the actual link text on the search engine results pages. Also, the description is typically displayed under the link on the results page, making this an important tag as well. Be sure to use your keywords appropriately in these meta tags, as it not only helps searchers understand what your site is about, but also helps the search engines rank your site higher.

The keywords YOU think searchers use to find your site are not always the best terms.

Sometimes, small businesses make the mistake of thinking they know the keywords that customers or potential customers would type into a search engine to find their business. While these terms may provide a good starting point for real-time keyword research, they are often not even close to what real people actually type into a search engine to find these products and services. By performing real-time keyword research, you can identify the exact terms that searchers really use, making it far more likely that you will connect with the people who are looking for what you have to offer.

Inbound links from authority sites carry a lot of weight in the search engines.

Inbound links that point to your site from other sites on the web are like a seal of approval (or a “vote”) for your web site. If another web site thinks enough of your site to actually link to it, then the search engines give you credit for having useful information worth linking to. If an “authority” site (a site that Google deems as authoritative or important) links to your site, then that carries even more weight. Not all inbound links are valuable, however. Avoid reciprocal links (“I’ll link to you if you link to me”), and links from “link farms” – sites with pages of links but little or no other content of value to a visitor. The most valuable links are from other quality sites in your industry, from relevant blogs in your industry, from established web directories, press release sites, news sites, and from appropriately using social networking sites in your marketing mix.

The Best Small Business Strategy

Since the nature of search engines (and the web in general) is one of constant change and non-stop innovation, the best SEO strategy for a small business is to stick with the tried-and-true techniques that get results. Research your keywords to find the right terms for optimizing – don’t just guess. Then use them appropriately in your text, include the right meta data behind the scenes, and intentionally build your inbound links from authority sites and social networking initiatives. But most of all, be sure to provide fresh content on your site that gives visitors a reason to come back, and the search engines a reason to notice.