Your website is up and running but what’s next? In short, search engine optimization is the next step. Websites are not like the Field of Dreams. If you build it, there’s no guarantee that they will come. You need good search engine optimization (SEO) to help people find your website and to know what it’s all about.
What is Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a way of making sure that your site is found by Google, Bing and other search engines. There are millions of websites in the world and for someone to find your website it is kind of like finding a needle in a haystack. SEO is a way of making it easier for Google to understand what your site is all about and to help people find it when they do a search.
How Does SEO Work
Google and other search engines use the content of your website to understand what it’s all about. They also take cues from how people are finding your site. When you share your website on Facebook, Pinterest and other sites this gives people a link to your site. This is called a backlink. Backlinks are key to helping people find your website and the more links you have the higher Google will rank your site.
How Do I SEO My Website
One way to make sure that your site has good SEO is to target a certain area of expertise. You’ll hear this referred to as a “niche”. The more narrow the focus of your website the better you’ll be. Let’s use an example. If you have a sports website and try to rank on Google for football, soccer, baseball and every sport out there, it is going to be tougher for you to compete. The focus of your website will be too broad and that makes it tougher for you to rank in Google searches. But if you build a website around a particular niche, you will have better luck ranking on Google. And let’s face it, Google is where most people start their searches so it’s import to have good Google search engine optimization.
Using Keywords for Search Engine Optimization
Once you’ve decided on the niche for your website, you need to find the right keywords to help. Keywords are just what they sound like. They are the “key” words that people use when searching for your site. As with a niche, keywords should be as specific as possible. You can’t expect to rank your website for the word baseball. When people do a Google search on that word it gives you a Wikipedia page about the sport and the MLB website. Next in line is ESPN and other top sports channels. These are big companies and you would never get your site to compete with these. But if you can focus on a specific area of baseball, then you can have great success. Here are a few examples of keywords and niches that you could build a baseball themed website around.
- How to improve your baseball swing
- How to prevent baseball injuries
- Exercising for baseball
- Baseball gift ideas
Summary of Steps for Website Search Optimization
There is a lot to learn about SEO and hopefully this article has given you a good beginning. We will go into each of these areas in more detail, but for now you should have enough to get out there and improve your site’s SEO. Remember to focus on a niche, use good keywords and build backlinks from reliable websites.
Nice! Easy to read. Good information.