SEO From Spork
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Spork Marketing founder Jason Lancaster on the SEO process
SEO is pretty simple. Basically, there are two keys to success:
- Your website has to be easy for search engines to understand
- Your website has to trusted, which means you need links
Part one is called on-site optimization and part two is called link building. What you need to be number one depends on your website, your market, and your goals.
By the way – if the idea of reading about SEO makes your eyes gloss over, feel free to skip the info below and contact us for a free consultation. We’re happy to answer questions and explain our SEO services – give us a call.
On Site Optimization
Your website should be easy for the search engines to read and understand. There are a lot of specific, technical elements of on-site optimization that must be evaluated and “fixed.” Some of the most important on-site elements that need optimization include:
- Each page’s HTML title tag
- Correct use of keyword-sensitive on-site links
- Image alt tags
- Keyword(s) in file names and URI
- Keywords in body text
- …and dozens of other items, most of which are simple but important
Of course, none of these on-site elements are important if your website isn’t accessible to the search engines in the first place. If the person who designed your site used the wrong structure, Google and Bing might not be able to decipher it. So, on-site optimization also includes ensuring that your web site is search engine friendly.
Link Building
Links are a lot like votes – the more votes you have, the more likely you are to be number one. However, when it comes to SEO, not all votes are equal.
Some links – if they’re from a high quality and relevant website – can single-handedly boost your rankings.
On the other hand, links from low-quality or unrelated websites will do very little to boost your rankings, even if you have thousands of them.
The big take away: Link building is about acquiring links from good quality websites that are relevant to your business.
SEO Budget and Time Line
The SEO services you need depend on your existing website and the competitiveness of your industry and/or market. If, for example, you have an established website with a lot of good links, we may only need to “tweek” a few things to see results. On the other hand, if your website is new – or if your competition is fierce – it may take a significant investment to achieve the rankings you desire.
SEO also requires patience. It may take months for any link building or on-site optimization efforts to bear fruit. Generally, we see early returns in a few weeks, but the bulk of our efforts usually don’t benefit our clients for six to twelve months.
What To Look For In An SEO Company
Because SEO is such a new industry (it didn’t come into existence until 1999), and because SEO best practices are constantly changing, it can be difficult to filter good SEO companies from the bad ones. Here are some suggestions:
1. Danger words. There are few words that your SEO company should never use:
- “monthly submissions” or ”we submit to Google” – Google is more than capable of finding your site without help
- “Google certified” – Google certifies PPC experts, but they do *not* certify SEO companies or individuals
- “guarantee” – There are no guarantees in SEO because Google and Bing maintain full control of the results
2. There shouldn’t be any secrets. None of the best practices of SEO are secret – anyone with the time and energy can read up on the best SEO practices. Therefore, you should be leery of any SEO firm that isn’t willing to tell you how they’re going to fix your site and get you links.
3. Experience is nice, but constant learning is key. Every day, Google and Bing are changing the way their search engines work. Therefore, your SEO company should be doing research and reading every day. A true SEO expert is constantly learning, so go ahead and ask: How much time do you spend reading about new SEO developments, and what do you like to read?
About SEO From Spork Marketing
Spork Marketing manages SEO campaigns for a variety of clients – from individual professional services firms with a local focus to websites targeting nationally competitive terms. View our low cost SEO and Tundra Accessories SEO case studies for examples of our work.
Jason has written articles about SEO for Ward’s Dealer Business magazine and YOUMoz, a popular SEO industry blog.