When building a website one of the most important items that should be taken into consideration is your visibility on the world wide web. I cannot stress enough the importance of this factor. You can go spend all the money you want on the most high-tech website and a stunning logo if no one sees it what was the point behind those purchases?

You basically just poured a whole lot of money into something no one will ever see. If you think about the proverbial saying if a tree falls in the forest, your website is that tree that falls. No one is going to see it, but it’s still, there right?

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In my thoughts it does not matter if its there. You want people to see it, use it and know about what you have to say and offer!

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It must be noted you need to have access to the code or to a website framework like WordPress to be able to put these items in. All things I will be discussing will be applied directly to your website. Will discuss other items in future blogs that will require more in-depth knowledge. Baby steps my friends.

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Let’s start this off right with looking at SEO. I know the novices in the room are asking what this SEO thing is you keep mentioning. That is where we will start today.

What is SEO?

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SEO is an acronym that stands for Search Engine Optimization. This is what gets you seen on places like:

1.      Google

2.      Yahoo

3.      Bing

Just to name a few of the search engines we all use daily to find everything from a recipe for banana bread to where should you buy your goods and services. I know I personally use Google at least a 100x a day and that’s no exaggeration.

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Currently according to Net Market Share Google accounts for 74.54% off all internet searches in 2017. That is a crazy number if you think about it as they are not the only player on the court. That means all the others account for less then 25.46% combined.

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With all that means if you are not set up to be findable on google you are losing a potentially large segment of your possible audience. That is a very bad thing for you and your business in the long run. Odds are your competition has an online segment and this would put you at a disadvantage.

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If the first thing you are telling me is well, we do not have a website then that is a far larger conversation you need to investigate. It is getting to a point that some potential clients will not even visit your product or services if you are minus a website.

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This is not the POINT of this blog though. I will be assuming you are on the web and need to be picked up by search engines. We are going to start very simple with items on your website.

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First things first do you have meta data set up on your website?

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Meta data comes in various forms but the two most common would be Meta tags and Meta Description. Meta Tags are used to hold keywords that relate to your website and your products or services. The search engines pick up these tags and based on them will “rank” your website online.

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For example, if you are a company that sells sports equipment specifically Baseball items, you would not be using keywords of “Football”, “Bowling”, and anything not related to your target market. This would be a waste of keywords and bring in the wrong type of traffic to your website in general. Your tags would have to reflect what you sell or provide. 

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Meta Description plays out similarly except it is the description based on the page you are describing. If you are a group that helps underprivileged youth and that is the point of that page this would be in your meta description. You would not however be putting your recipes for the best meatloaf on the planet.

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While meatloaf is awesome it is far from relevant to the group. If this was a page of quick meals for those youth and teen mothers, then you might MENTION the fact that its recipes in the description. These descriptions are what you see when you search a company. They appear below the page title on Google.

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The key is MAKE THEM RELEVANT!!

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To hand code this information it is added to the head area of the html on a website. I have place an image below as an example.

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An item that ties into these meta tags and descriptions are ALT tags and titles on images. Websites are full of images and text. Things like screen readers for the visually impaired also rely on these tags. The screen reader will read out what is on that tag and it will basically tell them what is on the screen.

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Those same tags can be used in your favour. When doing your ALT tags follow the same principals that you did with the meta tags and description. This not only helps the visually impaired, but it will ensure that those tags are picked up by the search engines.

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To put an example to this I will use a Facebook button on your website. That button or image should say that it is a Facebook button, but it should also say whose Facebook it is and most importantly what you offer. Very important that you are transparent and keep it short and simple to ensure the proper tracking on Google.

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This is where I will end for another week. This stuff will take time to learn and understand. Keep working at it and you will get to your end goal.

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Till next time …...