The Burlington Post recently published a very informative article that helps spell out what it is that SEO specialists can do for business websites, including businesses in Portland, Oregon that need search engine optimization. Here is the article as it appeared. We trimmed a bit for length.
Sooner or later, if you have a commercial website, you will begin to worry about search engine visibility, and its technical counterpart, search engine optimization.
In a nutshell, when a potential client types a search inquiry on a website like Google, you want your web page to come up, preferably as the first “hit” or at least on one of the first 10-20 items. If it does, then you have good SE visibility. If not, then you may need to change your website and this process is called SE optimization, or SEO.
Your website designer, or an SEO specialist, will make the changes to help this happen, but he/she can’t do it without your help.
Before you meet, here are some things you should know:
It’s tough to be No. 1. As an example, there are as many as 37 million responses for the search term “widgets”.Knowing that fact, what are the chances that your business will appear as the first one on the list. Winning can be just temporary. Suppose your designer creates a page that manages to mention “widgets” 3,492 times on one page, and you’re now ranked No. 1. How long will it be before Widgets R Us changes its page to use the term 3,500 times? Besides, most search engines realize what you’re doing and will de-list you if you use blatant tactics like that, and as well, your clients may get really bored reading it.With that in mind, prepare for a meeting with your SEO specialist to consider presentation alternatives. Maybe your business specializes in antique widgets. A smart consumer will give up looking through 37 million results sooner or later and search for “antique widgets” (Putting the words in quotes makes most search engines look for the exact phrase). Now you’re only competing with only 83 sites found on the first page. That’s a much easier task.Consider other phrases that may describe your product. Make a list and prioritize them. Ask your clients how they found your website. Bear in mind though, that asking clients or looking at your website statistics — a topic for a future article — will only provide data about words and phrases that actually found your website.You need to investigate and determine those phrases that people may have used which unfortunately didn’t find you, because those are the ones you need to add to your site.Although website advisors can do marvellous things, you alone know the business and the clients. Use that knowledge to help your specialists do a better job.