SEO - Whattha?

S..E.O. is an acronym for search engine optimization.   I  understand concepts better when I break them down into smaller components.  First, a search engine is a web-based software program that crawls the internet looking for sites that best match the user’s keywords.  The most common examples of search engines are Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

Optimization is defined in Webster-Miriam as “an act, process, or methodology of making something (as a design, system, or decision) as fully perfect, functional, or effective as possible…” Therefore, S.E.O. is the process of strategically working with aspects of a website to effectively match it to search engine parameters through relevant keywords.

A user types in keywords, “oscillating fans", into the search box on Google.  Google crawls the internet looking for websites that match the keywords then lists them according to relevance, substance and links.

Why S.E.O. should matter to you?

Search engine operators use a formula to determine standings for each site.  Your strategic S.E.O. plan’s goal is to ensure a high placement on the search engine results page (S.E.R.P).  

Google uses links to your site as one determinant of your placement.  The thinking is, if credible sites link to your site then your site must be, by association, credible.  The best way to to get links to your site is great quality digital content.

The areas of your website affected by  S.E.O. plans are titles, content, links, site maps, and pages.  The list is not meant to be exhaustive, it is an example of how important S.E.O. is to your site.

What stage of development?

When thinking about how the search engine will list your site there will be a number of considerations. One such consideration is, at what stage you should begin thinking about S.E.O, ideally, S.E.O. begins in the planning stages.  Don’t be discouraged if your site has been up and running for quite some time it is never too late to take action and partake in S.E.O. friendly best practices.

Thinking about SEO from the get-go is very important.  For example, quality content is instrumental to keeping your site up-to-date, readable, SEO friendly and factual.  Prior to writing your content, consider doing keyword research K.R. K.R. is simply brainstorming the number of ways a consumer might enter keywords into the search engine.  Example, fans that move, turning fans, fans oscillation etc.  Type in the keywords and see what comes up for each combination.

Google researches how users input keywords and in what combination.  The keywords should then be organically placed into the content. You might have a first sentence like, 'The benefits of a fan that oscillates is numerous.  You have used the keywords without making it awkward.

How can you work it into your design and development to be SEO friendly?

As discussed earlier a search engine crawls the internet looking for relevant keywords.  This can affect your design and development in two ways; source code and content.

The source code, "a text listing commands to be compiled or assembled into an executable computer program" (Google), should be included with S.E.O. friendly keywords especially in your title and the first couple of lines of your content.  It would be great if the name of your website could be the keywords people type i.e. www.oscillatingfans.com and it is in one case.  However, after that it’s every site for themselves.  As long as the title contains the keywords or combination of keywords it will still work i.e. www.suziesoscillatingfans.com.

Content needs to be updated often and should continue to include the keywords or combination of keywords.  It may be to your advantage to update your keyword research annually or biannually to keep up with trends.

Another important consideration according to Matt Cutts from Google’s Search Quality Team is when designing your site keep in mind that meta tags have absolutely no bearing on the SERP.  Meta tags are, however, still very useful for the description of your website.  They will use that description for the snippet under the name of your website on the S.E.R.P.


Most of the information provided pertains to Google, because Google is fast becoming the dominant search engine.  Google has learned from past mistakes by combating spammers and other unethical practices.  Google, Yahoo and Bing all provide a great deal of information on how they crawl the web and how you can make your website as S.E.O. friendly as possible.  Go type in some keywords and see what pops up.

3 Great ways to produce content quickly

Learning to write is easy.  Learning to write well is subjective and not so easy.  The best you can hope for is to get your point across and maybe, just maybe, your reader gets something out of what you have written. However, we bloggers, sometimes forget about our audience and think only of getting content fast.  If you're a blogger trying to meet deadlines and you need an article quick you may consider those cheap software programs, but first, follow these three ideas and see what happens. First, try to pick a topic you already know, always think of three main points to make about the topic, and finally, write your main topics first.

Pick a topic you already know

Learning to write quickly is important in the blogging industry, however, quality should also be your focus.  In today's market of digital content people are using software programs to pull off 30/40 articles a day.  Mass produced digital content will lack quality when not much human thought is put into it.  How can a software program connect to your human customers?

Think of three main points to make

When writing content for your audience, or when you hire someone to write for you (like me), look for the three main points to be made.  It is three points because that is standard essay style.  Every simple essay should have; an introduction - what your going to say, three main topic sentences - each a paragraph, and finally a conclusion - what you just said. A standard essay will have at least five paragraphs and each main topic will be backed up.

Write your three main points statement first 

The main topic should be clearly stated in the first sentence of each paragraph and every sentence in that paragraph is meant to back up the main topic sentence.  The sentences after the main topic is the meat of the essay.  The meat of  your essay is an opportunity to solve your reader's problem and show them why your product is the best option for them.

In this essay, I discussed three main topics; writing what you know about,  make sure you have three main topics and write those topics first.  I also discussed, when you use mass produced digital content or buy mass produced digital content you miss the opportunity to show your audience why your product will solve their problem.