It\’s no surprise that you want to know what SEO means. After all, we\’re surrounded by people constantly spouting off about this and how important it is for your business! But before we dive into the nitty-gritty details of why everyone needs an optimized website or even explain exactly where on a page one should place his keywords (hint: not at beginning), let me give some background information just so there won\’t be any confusion later down the line when things get more complicated than they need to be… Many business owners are hesitant to ask questions on search engine optimization. But we’ve taken all your inquiries and given clear, concise answers in this article! Unfortunately, there\’s no way around using those pesky buzzwords–but don\’t worry: after reading about them (and knowing what they mean) you\’ll be able make an educated guess at how others use them when they talk about SEO with their clients or employees who work in related fields like web design Many people think that searching the internet is too simple nowadays; however many businesses still struggle online due such as difficulty ranking high enough within Google AdWords which leads most directly into brick n\’ mortar stores advertising through paid links placed strategically throughout sites across various Many business owners are hesitant to ask questions on search engine optimization. But we’ve taken all your inquiries and given clear, concise answers in this article! Unfortunately, there\’s no way around using those pesky buzzwords–but don\’t worry: after reading about them (and learning what they mean) you\’ll feel better equipped when you hear then tossed around.

Do I Really Need SEO?

We\’re not going to gloss over this: yes. Yes you do. Why? Picture all of your website visitors as a massive pie. For the average website, 50% of that pie will come from search engines like Google. Search engines are a discovery tool, meaning that many of these website visitors are discovering your website for the first time. As more and more people discover your website from search engines, you’ll see each other traffic channels (email, social media, etc.) increase as well. In other words, as this part of your pie gets bigger, the rest of your pie will get bigger as well.

How Does SEO Work?

Search engines look at 3 primary factors when trying to understand all of the websites in their index: authority, relevancy, and crawlability. We’ll skip crawlability for now as it gets more into the technical side of SEO, and trust me when we say we\’re not trying to give you that headache. Authority is a measure of how reputable your website is in the eyes of Google and other search engines. Sticking with our pie example, authority is a measure of how big your pie is. Everybody loves pie, so focus on making yours as big as possible. Especially if it\’s pecan pie. Mmmm. Relevancy helps Google to understand what your website is about so it can send the right people to your website. In other words, Relevancy is all about making that 50% of your pie that comes from search engines taste better. Nobody wants a lot of bad pie, so as your pie gets bigger, it becomes more and more important to focus on relevancy. If you type “cars” into Google, Google will sift through trillions of webpages and order them based on how trustworthy they are, and how relevant they are to “cars”. SEO is all about helping Google to better understand your website, while also increasing your authority so you start appearing for the search terms that are most valuable to your business.

How Do I Improve My Website’s Authority?

The best way to improve your website’s authority is to get other authoritative websites in your industry to link to your site. Google looks at the other websites that link back to you as the strongest signal that your website is trustworthy. Google looks at how many backlinks you have and how trustworthy these websites are. Think quality over quantity here. One link from the New York Times will help your website rankings significantly more than a link from 50 brand new blogs.

So Can\’t I Just Buy a Whole Bunch of Backlinks?

It\’s a no from me, dawg. Yes, we know that some guy on YouTube told you that you could jump on Upwork or Fiverr and score 50 backlinks for $5. Unfortunately, we\’re here to burst your bubble and let you know that they’re not worth it. Buying links goes against Google’s policies and will destroy your search rankings if you get caught. If Google does catch you buying backlinks, you’ll see your search rankings tank. From there, you’ll need to remove those links to your site and submit a reconsideration request for Google to re-analyze your site. Long story short: for $50 you\’ll create a lot more work for yourself and your site\’s authority will take a major hit.

I pay for ads on a popular website? Isn’t that the same thing?

Not quite. Buying links is fair game IF you buy “nofollow” links – links that don’t pass page authority. The backlinks that will most help your rankings are called “dofollow” links. Both help your search rankings. However, dofollow links are much more impactful.

How Do I Improve My Website’s Relevancy?

In the spirit of honesty, there is no short answer. We recommend having a call with our SEO specialists to gain an SEO strategy that is specific to your industry and your business\’s unique needs. So what does an SEO strategy entail? We start by identifying the words and phrases that your customers are searching for online, and update your website copy to better reflect those words and phrases. If you sell pizzas, make it easy for Google to understand that your website is about pizza.

How Do I Know If People Can Find My Site On Google Right Now?

The easiest way to test this is to go to Google and type in “site:[mydomain.com]” and see if your website pops up. If your website doesn’t pop up after doing this search, then your site isn’t on Google right now. To fix this, add your website to Search Console and submit your sitemap after verifying your site. Struggling to find your sitemap? Try typing “[mydomain.com]/sitemap.xml” into your browser. In most scenarios, this will pull up your sitemap, or at least redirect you to your sitemap page. If this doesn’t work, then we have a lot of work to do. Schedule a demo and we\’ll help you get started!

Do I Need to Hire Someone to Do SEO for Me?

No, but how much is 50% of your total website traffic worth to you? Similar to almost any other profession, you can do it yourself, but will always see the best results when you bring in experts to help. You can do your business’ taxes on your own, but choose to hire a professional because you know that they will be worth the investment. If your business’ marketing budget is less than a few hundred dollars per month, take the DIY approach to SEO. Any “expert” charging less than a few hundred dollars per month is going to be a risky investment. They may land you in some hot water with Google. For those who would rather hire a professional, explore our services via live Demo to see how we would help you to scale your business today.

What Parts of SEO Should I Focus on First?

Our best advice here would be to talk to an SEO expert to get their opinion. That being said, a good general rule of thumb is to check your website’s domain authority with our free digital analysis. In most cases, if your site’s authority is less than 40, you should focus on the Authority side of SEO (i.e. getting more reputable websites to link to you). If your site’s authority is greater than 70, focus on the Relevancy side of SEO (setting up a proper SEO foundation). If your site falls somewhere in the middle, then do a search for 5 of your biggest competitors, and compare your domain authority to theirs. If your domain authority is higher than theirs, then it’s probably best to focus on Relevancy. If your domain authority is lower than theirs, then it’s probably best to focus on Authority. Struggling to decide which makes more sense for your business? Set up a call with us and we’ll point you in the right direction 🙂

I Used to Get Twice as Many Visitors from Google. What Happened?

You probably got hit with an algorithm penalty. Google updates their search algorithm every day to provide a better experience for searchers. Part of these updates consists of penalizing websites that go against Google’s rules. There are two major algorithm penalties that could be hurting your search rankings: Panda and Penguin. Panda is a series of updates to Google’s search algorithm focused on eliminating “thin” content from the internet. Think articles that scraped content from other sites, or short articles that are 100-200 words. Penguin is a series of updates to Google’s algorithm aimed at eliminating webspam from search engines. Some classic tactics that could get a site penalized under these updates would be keyword stuffing, paying other websites to link back to you, or getting links from a lot of low-quality websites. Fortunately, your website can recover. Tell us a little about yourself and we’ll help you identify exactly what happened to your site.

Brad Henry

Co-founder & CEO Brad Henry is the Chief Marketing and Branding Consultant for many industries. His experience in marketing spans from oil and gas to medical, industrial, and legal counsel. He has a diverse range of expertise which allows him to analyze, prioritize, revive or create marketing tools and strategies for any industry that needs an updated digital footprint. In today\’s society as the world evolves so does technology; somebody must be at the forefront of this by spearheading advances in marketing via branding.