Everyone wants that number one position in Google, and many
companies will go to alarming monetary lengths to obtain it. Many
website administrators see SEO, acronym of Search Engine
Optimisation, as a wild and difficult beast, unsure how to approach
it let alone begin to tame it. There's a preconception (and I would
go as far to say, misconception) in the www that unless you throw
money at SEO, you won't climb the ladder and you won't be found by
your customers. And if this is true, how can the everyday small
business compete online on an SEO front with your monumental,
Fortune-500 type businesses out there?
It Isn't Easy
That's why there are a ton of SEO experts out there who will
look after the many facets of optimisation front for you. They're
very good at what they do, and they will spend all day tweaking and
honing your site to increase its rank. We at (zero)seven highly
recommend Reload Media if you're
after a dedicated SEO solution.
Meta is Not Better
Other website administrators still living in 1999 believe that
if they shove a ton of keywords into their meta keyword tag they
will rank higher, when in fact
Google Does Not Use The Keyword Meta Tag (source - Official Google
Webmaster Central Blog).
Particular point of note from the above linked article:
"About a decade ago … keyword meta tags quickly became an area
where someone could stuff often-irrelevant keywords without typical
visitors ever seeing those keywords. Because the keywords meta tag
was so often abused, many years ago Google began disregarding the
keywords meta tag."
However, there are many every day, legitimate ways you can
refine your site for search engines, even before you hand it to an
SEO expert. One of those ways is to spend a bit of time on your
page content, thinking as a customer or user might.
Content Is Key
The text that appears on your website, the 'copy', is important
for many reasons. It needs to be engaging, concise, and sell your
product/service to any user who reads it. But what if those people
who want - or need - your company, can't find it in the first
place? This is why Search Engine Optimisation is so important.
Whenever you are writing, or directing someone to write your
content, you need to stop and put on your customer hat.
"What would I be google searching to find this page?"
Chances are, if you'd search for it, a vast majority of your
customers would think of and search for the same word or
phrase.