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What is SEO? Why should you do SEO? And how do you do SEO?<\/p>\n
These are burning questions for businesses, brands, and site owners just beginning to think about how to improve their websites so they can better compete online.<\/p>\n
Here, I\u2019ll give the what, why, and how of SEO. Then, you can build a better foundation knowing what SEO is and how to approach it. In this post:<\/p>\n
SEO, or search engine optimization, aims to improve a website so that it performs better in the search engine results pages, generates earned traffic, and makes more money for the site owner or brand.<\/p>\n
SEO works to support search engine guidelines. Ultimately, good SEO helps search engines do their jobs better as they look for quality websites to rank in the search engine results.<\/p>\n
To some, SEO seems like Black Magic. Having worked with Google Search for over a decade, what I’ve learned is that first, it’s not Black Magic, and second, if you want long-term success there aren’t any quick magical tricks that an SEO will provide so that your site ranks number one.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\u2013Maile Ohye, Former Googler, YouTube 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Of course, there are a great many approaches to SEO. Ultimately, you want your website to prove your expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness, as outlined in Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Site owners can achieve this via several SEO vehicles, many of which are listed in Bruce Clay Inc.\u2019s SEO guide<\/a>.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Why Should I Do SEO?<\/h2>\n
Website owners do SEO so they can be competitive in the search results, drive more targeted traffic to their websites and businesses, and ultimately create more revenue.<\/p>\n
Google handles trillions of searches<\/a> per year and growing, so it\u2019s inevitable that what you\u2019re in the business of is something people are searching for every day.<\/p>\n
But take into consideration that there are nearly 6 billion pages<\/a> indexed on the web \u2014 that\u2019s a lot for search engines like Google to sift through to find the best results.<\/p>\n
And we know that Page 1 of the search results is really all that matters<\/a>. (Someone once said the best place to hide a dead body was on Page 2 of the search results.)<\/p>\n
\nImage source: Backlinko<\/a><\/em><\/div>\nTo have a chance on Page 1, you need to have a quality website that is built for both users and search engines.<\/p>\n
If you have more money than brains, you should focus on outbound marketing. If you have more brains than money, you should focus on inbound marketing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
-Guy Kawasaki<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
And then there are the results of SEO<\/a>. Given that the organic search channel drives more than 50 percent of traffic<\/a> to a website on average and up to 64 percent for B2Bs and is also responsible for up to 59 percent of revenue over other channels, it\u2019s not hard to see why you should do SEO.<\/p>\n
\nAnalytics chart showing organic traffic gains on a Bruce Clay Inc. client’s website<\/em><\/div>\n<\/p>\n
Yet many brands aren\u2019t prioritizing it today. In fact, less than 7 percent<\/a> of the marketing budget in 2019 went to SEO. That presents a huge opportunity for site owners to beat the competition in search.<\/p>\n
But the sooner you get in on the game, the better. It\u2019s only a matter of time before more and more businesses begin to optimize their websites. The longer you wait, the harder it is to catch up.<\/p>\n
<\/a>How Do You Do SEO?<\/h2>\n
There are a great many ways to do SEO. But first, you must consider your overall approach, such as a do-it-yourself approach, taking formal SEO training, hiring a consultant or employee, or outsourcing to an agency of experts.<\/p>\n
I won\u2019t go into all the mechanics of search engine optimization<\/a> in this article. Rather, I\u2019m going to talk about the approach to getting SEO done and the various outcomes.<\/p>\n
DIY SEO<\/h3>\n
A do-it-yourself SEO approach could involve self-education from many resources on the web. For example, one might take an online training course, subscribe to publications like Search Engine Land and Search Engine Journal, follow various forums and blogs, and so on.<\/p>\n
Of course, there are a lot of free \u201cguides\u201d available, and our SEO Guide is a good starting place. Many of them are similar in that they offer straightforward 101-level instructions on how you can do SEO.<\/p>\n
Keep in mind that while a great many articles are written out, there can be educational, each website is different when it comes to SEO. While many optimization techniques can be applied to all websites, many SEO strategies are not one-size-fits-all.<\/p>\n
The pros of a DIY education is that you can learn at your leisure. The cons? SEO is a full-time job.<\/p>\n
So unless you have no other job (like running a business or a marketing department), then it can be truly difficult to get a handle on SEO and apply what you\u2019ve learned to a website when going the DIY route.<\/p>\n
Formal SEO Training<\/h3>\n
SEO classroom training<\/a> in many ways helps students understand SEO better than an online format can. That\u2019s because in-person training is highly interactive, and students can ask questions related to their own businesses and websites, and receive personalized answers from SEO experts.<\/p>\n
So what about online training? We took our classroom training, brought it online, and significantly enhanced it at SEOtraining.com<\/a>, a full SEO training environment available as a membership site. Really, up-to-date training – and much more – check it out! Or try our Bruce Clay Inc. SEO guide<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Depending on the venue, in-person training is often limited to a number of students for a richer experience. Students can interact and network with one another on their journey to learning SEO.<\/p>\n
The cons? This type of training does take time away from work, but it usually pays dividends when attendees go back to the office to apply what they\u2019ve learned.<\/p>\n
Hiring an SEO Consultant or Employee<\/h3>\n
One of the best things a site owner or brand can do to advance a website is to hire an SEO professional, whether that\u2019s in-house or a consultant. On the other hand, one of the worst things you can do is hire the wrong SEO professional.<\/p>\n
For example, hiring someone with a couple of years of experience means they likely haven\u2019t had enough time in the game to be an expert.<\/p>\n
(Even though some say the 10,000 hours to become an expert idea is not valid<\/a>, you at least need to have enough experience with enough websites to know how search works on different websites, keywords, and so on.)<\/p>\n
And even if the experience is there, you have to ensure that they are not giving bad SEO advice. In these cases, it may be less productive to hire an inexperienced employee or consultant than an agency where everybody has 10-plus years of experience.<\/p>\n
For sage advice on hiring an SEO, see what Google has to say<\/a>. Their \u201cstrongest advice\u201d includes that the hiring business, brand or site owner request that SEOs support their recommendations with a documented statement from Google.<\/p>\n
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