Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Services

Website Search Engine OptimizationToday, search engine optimization is all about content and the structure of that content. There are a lot of good looking websites out there lacking on content, and while most humans might rate the better looking sites as more effective than those less visually pleasing, when it comes to SEO, this is usually not the case. Maybe this is true to the human eye but what many people do not realize is how many other factors come into play to build rank in the search engines.

It is important to realize that a website can look professional and compelling to the human eye, yet not have much going on besides visual appeal. Visual appeal alone will not raise a website in the ranks. Instead, skilled search engine optimization tactics are crucial for success.

Search Engine Optimization Efforts Create Relevance

The search engines are looking for sites that look relevant. Relevance is key. To make a website appear relevant, one must understand how the search engines define relevance. Some things that one would think make a site relevant, like a lot of website traffic is an intuitive guess, and quite correct. On the other hand, there are things that the search engines prefer that are not easy to assume.

For example, if one takes two website pages, exactly the same (which is not good practice, but let us just assume this for our example), except for in one page, Page A, a keyword is placed closer to the beginning of the website page’s content. In the other website page, Page B, the same keyword was used lower in the page content, instead. Which page would rank the higher SEO? Not so intuitive right? The answer is Page A with the keyword near the beginning of the page content.

You Need A Search Engine Optimization Expert

The point is you don’t know what you don’t know and you need someone with search engine optimization expertise to help structure your content to make you appear as relevant as possible. You need someone whose expertise is search engine optimization to cover all the bases, intuitive and otherwise.

Instead, if want to go the do-it-yourself route, at minimum, learn the basics so you will be able to create an effective SEO strategy for your website. Maximizing your website’s relevancy is the way to assure you get the most value from your website efforts. Contact One Stop Tech Shop for your SEO services and SEO training. We offer Free initial consultations!

Current Search Engine Optimization Trends Today

Search engine optimization is all about content, structure and visibility. The search engines are looking for rich and relevant content. They want a minimum of 300 words per website page and blog post, the proper keyword density, a minimum of one properly tagged image, the use of several heading tags, internal and external links and more. Pictures need to be tagged properly and optimized to load quickly.

Other things like the back side code structure of a website affects a few other ranking factors, for example, security, loading speed and whether the code is outdated or current. The back side code of a website and how the website component are structured and tagged is not to be ignored. Websites need to load in less than the two second standard, or they are considered too slow and can be penalized in the ranks. The latest trend for websites that meet Google’s mobility views means business owners must be aware of the changes and adjust quickly to not lose ranking and stay ahead of the competition.

Google’s “Mobilegeddon” of 2015
The Google algorithm update “Mobilegeddon” rolled out late April 2015. Nicknamed “Mobilegeddon” by many in the technical world motivated companies to get their sites in mobile compliance, or risk losing rank. Since “Mobilegeddon,” we have seen differences in the mobile searches versus desktop searches, favoring the mobile compatible sites higher. Since, this trend has, and is expected to, continue. Still, some of the larger and well known corporations are struggling to get their sites to pass with Google’s latest Mobile-Friendly Test tool.

How Search Engine Optimization Works
As our technology advances, so do the mathematical equations used by the search engines to rank the Internet’s infinite number of websites. Today, these mathematical equations, or algorithms, are quite complex. If we could see the algorithms, they would appear quite confusing. Even though we cannot see search engine ranking algorithms there is a lot of information available giving us direct clues as to how these algorithms determine relevant. Many, many factors are taken into account to rank a website in the search engines.

  • There is a very important non-human audience out there, the search engines. In actuality, the search engines themselves are not the audience. The robot crawlers “sent” by the search engines do all the work. So when you hear reference to “the search engines being able to find you” it is actually the robot crawlers, or bots, that are at work.
  • These robot crawlers, or bots, are the mechanisms that gather information from your website and relay it back to the search engine databases. Again, there is much more to this, but we are talking in general to avoid the complexities. So, websites actually have two main audiences: humans (your potential clients) and non-humans (the search engine robot crawlers).

What Do The Search Engines See?
While on this website, go to the top of your browser and find the option to View the Source code. (The exact location will depend on your browser.) The page that displays will be lines of text, or source code. Basically, this code view is much closer to what the robot crawlers see. The robot crawlers do not see the pretty pictures or animation.

Writing and structuring a website’s backside code in a manner that maximizes communications with the search engines is another way to explain search engine optimization (SEO). Proper backside code structure and SEO is only a start, as there is much more involved in increasing site visibility and high rankings. An effective website should be built with a focus on the search engines but it also should be visually pleasing and intuitive for its human audience.

Why Care About Search Engine Optimization?
Figuring out how to leverage the search engines is the first step to raise in the ranks. Think about this: When most people search for something in, for example, Google, they usually do not click past page one. There are about ten listings per Google page minus paid advertisements, so this means that if you are not in the top 10 ranking for your keywords, you are probably not appearing on page one. If you website does not appear in page one or two of a Google search, frankly, the website may as well no exist.

Realize that Google searches are personalized. This means Google remembers what you have searched for in the past, and this affects future searches. In summary, depending on the user, a website’s rank will raise a few spots if compared to another user’s search. Your rank in the search engines is not a static number. It is changing all the time and is a result of other factors besides just your website and other online efforts.

There is no doubt that an effective website must be designed in a way where the coding is structured to maximize communication with the search engines and robot crawlers. Each search engine uses a complex and dynamic algorithm to rank websites. Although these algorithms are not published to the general public there are lots of tools and analysis options available to confirm a lot of things that we know the search engines want.

At One Stop Tech Shop, know what the search engines are looking for and we use an individualized strategy of select SEO tools and techniques to keep your website rising in the ranks and in the running with your competition.