What You Should Know about SEO

Robert Myrick
Aug 31, 2018 · 4 min read

The internet is full of information on Search Engine Optimization and its importance. There are literally thousands of companies out there that “specialize” in it. The truth is that SEO is much simpler than they would like you to believe.

The basics goes something like this; you go to Google and type in a couple of keywords that should get you to the desired information or company that you are searching for. A stroke of the enter key brings up hundreds of thousands of results that are all linked to the keywords that you selected. Now, why in the world did Google choose this particular order of query results? What makes one result better than another? This is where SEO comes into play.

It starts with your website. Every company that has ever created a website to gain attention online is noticed by Google, believe it or not. And while there are many factors that play into the almighty algorithm that Google currently uses to compile search results, it all comes down to your relevance. Google is in fact a business as well and they would not be so successful if the results that were returned for searches were mixed up or not applicable to the keywords that you used. That is why the “web crawler” scavenges the internet and builds profiles of every single page out there. It searches your website for all the right words and places you within categories to make you easy access for when those words come up in search.

Every company has their own thoughts and ideas on what templates to use, how many words you should have, where those keywords should be programmed in, etc etc etc. The honest truth is that this is a very slow game to play and no matter how great the initial SEO is, it always needs to be consistently monitored and updated over a long period to have the greatest success.

The next big factor relies on an age-old idea of relevance to others. To best explain it, we need to go back to the basics of Google. So picture this; you are talking to a good friend of yours about the best coffee. Your good friend is a regular coffee drinker and typically goes for the store brand. He/shoe doesn’t really have a favorite, but they mention that this one specialty coffee shop located downtown had one of the best cups of coffee they ever tasted. No big deal. Two days later, you’re talking with a coworker about a botched coffee order that you received at the local Starbucks. This coworker also mentions that same specialty coffee shop downtown and to top it off, another coworker passing by hears the conversation and chimes in on a specialty item that you can only find in that little shop. A week later, a family member mentions the same coffee shop.

Now, to simplify what I am writing about, imagine all those people that you spoke with to be websites. Each website has its own topics or focus but they all have a link to the website of that specialty coffee shop located downtown. All of those links just boosted the rankings of that coffee shop when it came to the keyword “coffee”. The more true links that you have flowing into your website, the more relevant your website is. See how that works?

In the beginning or initial website launch stage, you can gain some backlinks to your site by simply adding it to other pages. Think pages like Facebook or a newly created blog. These links will only get you so far though. Again, it is a long term game and links need to be established methodically and in places where they are relevant to the users. Spamming your website address all over the internet is NOT going to help your SEO rankings.

There are other factors in play and the truth is that reaching number 1 is extremely hard unless you are focused in a small area and in a specific niche with no competition. That is, unless you have the money to spend on Google adwords. This is the next factor of the algorithm. Big money will put you on top (with a few exceptions), but it is a pay-per-click world and can get expensive. Plan ahead for this one.

In the end, it comes down to how much you know, how in-depth are you willing to get in your online presence, and how much time do you want to spend on it. There is nothing wrong with managing your own SEO and most small businesses have the ability to learn it and do a good job of getting noticed where it counts.

The other option is to hire a company like Torched Web Solutions, LLC to handle it for you. It will save you time and you can rely on knowledge already gained to get your web presence headed in the right direction but it can sometimes be expensive, depending on how far down the rabbit hole you wish to go. It’s best to discuss that with the SEO company you are considering.

Robert Myrick

Written by

Electronics Technician, Web designer, and personal trainer. Always pushing forward and pursuing my passions.