Understanding SEO
What is SEO?
SEO is short for Search Engine Optimization. If your website is optimized well, in a nutshell, it means Search Engines (like Google) like your website so much, they put you at the top of the list when someone searches for something.
It has been proven that most people never look beyond the first page of the Search Results, and as a general rule, they will click on the site closest to the top that seems relevant to what they want.
So, if you are on page 20, it is likely that the only one who is going to even know your site exists from searching is some poor lonely soul with a fascination with clicking through search pages.
What SEO is NOT
You’ve likely heard somewhere along the way about companies that charge you a fee to put you at the top of the Google rankings. It’s a scam!
Google has invested what is likely millions of dollars in creating algorithms to stop scammers from being able to rank at the top from these scams. What’s more, their algorithms are designed to seek out sites that do this and block them.
Then, there are the Web Developers that have been around a long time that tell you they will do SEO on your website by using something called “Keyword” stuffing. It means they put keywords throughout the page so the search engines will rank the page higher for a particular search term.
Google lumps those folks in with the other scammers, all of which are considered bad actors. And, you guessed it, the sites get blocked.
Search Engines Use Algorithms
An algorithm is a fancy term for software that sorts out the good from the bad. In the case of a search engine, its algorithms attempt to give people exactly what they want when they search for something. It does this by cataloging every website out there for every term out there from the best to the worst.
Most of the search engines work much the same, and let’s be honest, Google leads the pack as the innovator that most other search engines follow.
It is Google’s ultimate goal to make computer users who are searching for something happy. They want every search someone does to bring up the exact information that person is looking for, right at the top. So, you can imagine how disgusted they are with websites that use scams to try to get to the top even though they are not the best website for the search that was made.
They believe that if you are a site that resorts to scamming, you are unreputable, and no one wants to see your site anyway. Google does one of two things. They either block a site, which means it won’t show up on the search engine at all or they will penalize a site, which means they drop it in the rankings. For example, you might have been on the first page, but they gave you a demerit, so now you are on good ol’ page 20.
Needless to say, a whole lot of people would love to know Google’s algorithms because, well, then they would know how to place at the top.
Google doesn’t hate Web Developers. They just hate bad Web Developers. And let us clarify that if you are putting up your own site, you get lumped in because Google only sees that a site has been produced. So, they don’t give people a break just because they don’t really know what they are doing.
Understanding Paid Search
We need to discuss Paid Search. Most search engines offer a service whereby you can pay so much to get to the top of the search results for a particular search term.
If you look at your search results when you search for something, you will see these sites at the very top, but they will say “Ad” or “Sponsored” on them.
The cost to do this can be very high because you pay every time someone clicks on your website.
If you don’t want to pay through the nose, you need to score high on the organic search, which means you got there because the search engine thinks your site is the best for the search term. Given that anymore the paid ones consume quite a few of the sites on the first page of search, that means you need to score in the top five or so.
SEO with Manxx Sapphire
We do organic SEO, meaning we optimize your site to rank as high as possible without you having to pay for it.
Our head Developer was formally trained by Google, and spent two years being immersed in SEO Google’s way. Why would Google want to train people to beat its algorithms? It’s simple. Their goal is that the world be populated with great websites, and the best way to do that is to train great web developers.
We know what the search engines are looking for, and it isn’t a software or keyword stuffing.
Doing SEO the right way takes a lot of time, and a high level of expertise.
There is software out there that can help you with tags, but that is only one small portion of SEO. And it isn’t cheap if you get one that works. But Google looks at everything in their algorithms, not just tags.
How SEO Will Apply to You..Specifically
We’re experts in SEO, but at the end of the day, your company, your company’s reputation, and what you have to offer is also figured into those search engine algorithms. So, we can’t guarantee that you will end up on the first page of every search.
There are a lot of factors at play, including how you handle the site after we create it. So, with that said, we don’t offer any kind of guarantee about where you will land in search. We can only apply SEO best practices. And that will lay a foundation toward your success.