We get asked a lot about SEO. In fact, SEO is so much on the minds of every ecommerce retailer and business out there. What used to be a somewhat “marginal” practice has blossomed into an entire industry. And, like other industries, some products are better than others; and some products are dangerous. In SEO, bad or inappropriate SEO can kill your business outright; so it’s really important that you vet your vendors (if you are contracting your web development) well and also know a few important things about SEO.
SEO is Search Engine Optimization – just as the name says it is methods of optimizing your site to return the best results from the search engines; namely Google, because Google has about 90% search engine market share.
1. Kinds of SEO
There are 3 kinds of SEO – White Hat, Black Hat, and what we like to call the Party Hat. White Hat is just what you would expect – No application of any artificial techniques to boost search engine rankings, with a focus purely on content and the users. A White Hat site is a site that is mapped out as a long-term player on the web. A longstanding family business, for example.
Black Hat is simply pure spam. It’s intended for short-term sites and large profits in the near future, not as an established business. If you’ve ever seen those “gibberish” results pages in Google when searching for something, the ones that look like a mish mash of words and a bunch of ads – that’s a great example of what Black Hat is. Google is constantly updating their algorithm in an effort to make their SERPS return the most relevant results ; ie, NOT the Black Hat pages!
Party Hat is our name for SEO that has all of the great long-term qualities and beautiful, original content that is user-focused, with close attention paid to the SEO aspects and performance of the site in the search engines. Party Hat is a public relations and social SEO.
Based on your business model you should select the SEO that is appropriate for you and select the appropriate agency to fulfill your order. Here at Bedazzlin! Media we are a White Hat & Party Hat agency, of course!
2. Don’t rely on a vendor or employee to tell you about SEO when you can learn all of the basics right here : Google Webmaster Guidelines .
3. Yes, that company that says they are going to make you #1 in Google results is lying.
No one can guarantee Google placement results and most people that do are Black Hat spammers. Plus, being #1 in the search results is many times not as profitable as being #3 or #6! Being #1 is never as important as converting traffic into sales!
4. Great user content = great SEO!
Good, original content that appears only on your website forms the base of a great search engine optimized site. Without this foundation your site will never place in the SERPS for the return you want.
5. Tracking tools that you have access to and can understand are essential whether your SEO is in-house or an outside vendor.
Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools are not only free but very powerful and at the most basic levels, easy to understand for a business owner that might be otherwise rather flummoxed over all of this complicated web stuff! Your webmaster or developer should establish these account for your site and you can have daily access to your traffic stats, keyword stats, and search engine placements.