SEO or search engine optimization: what is it?

Many ask themselves the question today, what is SEO? Many may know what “search engine optimization” means, but what is it? To make it very simple it is nothing more than how we organize our web pages. The idea is to organize the pages so that they rank higher when someone types a keyword into the Google search bar.

Your goal should always be to build your web pages in such a way that they are as search engine friendly as possible. Search engine friendly means higher ranking and more traffic to our web pages. The general idea is that your information is higher up in the results listed in the search. It is also found in the results that are relevant to our copy.

Here are some of the top things that will make your listings more SEO friendly!

Headlines:

Why is the headline important? The title is used to determine what your information is about. If the title accurately describes what is in your content in as few words as possible, it is more likely to appear higher in search results.

The easy-to-search title sample that’s awesome: “Vitamin B Postpones Alzheimer’s.” It’s short and to the point, assuming the article is about B vitamins. It will work for both search results and people looking for information on Alzheimer’s.

Here’s an unfriendly headline that won’t work for search engines and won’t work for people looking for your article or information: “Vitamins Come in the Mail.” Vitamins may show up in a search but way down the list so no one can find your item. Mail didn’t show up at all in a search for Alzheimer’s. Search engines or people would never find this headline on your Alzheimer’s article.

The description of the content:

The purpose of the description is to tell search engines and people what your content includes. The description should include words that people search to find your content, but it should sound normal.

The description must be carefully constructed without including too many search words. Often search engine algorithms will see your description with too many keywords. They call this “padding” and this can have an impact on where your content appears in search engine results.

This description was very helpful:

“Watch the car GPS demo. See how easy and fun it can be to find your way to a destination with a navigator.”

Now this description is simple and to the point. Provide information about the content of the article in a way that both search engines and people can find it.

This sample description was not helpful:

“People in the United States navigate with GPS while on vacation.”

This description would not be helpful because the context of the description is about vacations and not how to use a GPS. People looking for information on vacations would see this article and not be happy because it is not about vacations.

Video and images and their file names:

The algorithms used by search engines do not have the ability to look at videos or images and know what they are about. They do this by reading the name of the file. A filename like “img648.gif” doesn’t mean anything; a filename like “auto-GPS.gif” will give the search engine something to work with.

Keep this in mind when adding content to the Internet. These tips work well, but you don’t want to fool search engines or people into thinking the content is about something else.