Your Business on the Web: Episode 1 - The Basics of SEO

Below is the first video in our "Your Business on the Web" series where we discuss the basics of SEO.

This video is the first in our series on SEO for your business. Our intent is to demonstrate the value and the strategies involved with SEO to boost search engine Page Rank and visitor traffic to your website. Below is a transcript of the video and, of course, we welcome your feedback!

Ed: Hello and welcome to the first episode of our series, “Your Business on the Web.” In this episode we will be discussing the basics of SEO. SEO is…

Phil: Santa Eating Oreos.

Ed: No. Seo is…

Phil: Swirling Earth Orbits.

Ed: No. SEO is…

Phil: Actually, Sweaty Engaging Omelets

Ed: No! SEO is Search Engine Optimization.

Phil: Right. Search Engine Optimization is about increasing the visibility of your website through unpaid, natural, organic search results.

Ed: That’s right. In general, the higher a website ranks in the search results and the more frequently it appears in search results, the more traffic those websites can anticipate from search engine users. There are different types of SEO targeting such things as Keyword Search, Image Search, Video Search, Local Search and more.

Phil: As an internet marketing strategy, SEO is about looking at what the search engines are doing. It’s about look at how people behave and, more importantly, what words or phrases they’re using in their searches in a search engine.

Ed: Optimizing your website for search engines involves developing a content strategy, paying close attention to how your webpages are constructed, and developing more inbound links pointing to your website.

Phil: Ultimately, for every business owner they want their website to be ranked #1. They want it to be in every search. What it boils down to is you want to be the master of Google. You want to rank #1 but think of Google as a potential dating partner. You have Google and they might look at your website and its cute, but if it’s a shallow website, if it doesn’t have any friends or it can’t carry a conversation Google isn’t going to give you the long-term relationship you want so you won’t get that Google love. And ultimately you want Google to respect you and notice you.

Ed: With the rise of the social web, what’s good for people is also good for SEO. A well-crafted site that’s engaging and has interesting content that people enjoy will, in general, help your SEO efforts.

Phil: And the biggest question we usually get with SEO is “how much is Google’s love going to cost. How much is it going to cost for a date.”

Ed: Well, the answer to that is question is fairly simple. “It depends.”

Phil: Similar to being a homeowner, there are a lot of things you can do yourself or you can hire a contractor to do, like us. We’re going to show you throughout this series some of the things we do to help improve the visibility of our client’s websites.

Ed: There are three aspects to a good SEO plan and they are Research, Content and Links. Phil: In terms of links and research tools, what we’re doing is research on the words people are using in search engines. Then we’re going to develop a strategy based on those keywords or phrases to develop unique and interesting content for the users, for the search engines that apply directly to the queries that people are using in the search engines. Ed: When we talk about content, we’re talking all about the written copy on your website. SEO is heavily focused on content.  Without content, there can be no Google love. Because if there’s one thing that Google loves, it is websites that put out…..content.

Phil: And Links. Consider them friends. Links help indicate to Google exactly what your website is worth. What its stature is. So, for example, if you have a website that doesn’t have any links to it, then it’s not going to rank very well in the search rankings. Conversely, if you have a website that has hundreds, thousands, millions of links pointing to it, it’s going to signal to the search engine that it’s a website of importance and its going to boost your page rank.

Ed: SEO essentially boils down to increasing your website’s visibility in search engines through the creation of engaging content and the development of inbound links to your website.

Phil: One thing to keep in mind, SEO is typically a long haul strategy. It’s something that takes time and while it’s not rocket science or heart surgery, it does take a bit of doing. Still, it’s not a pie in the sky kind of strategy. It works.

Ed: Last time I checked, it was not a pie-in-the-face strategy, either. SEO is getting Google to see that your site is worthy of its affection.

Phil: Hi, my name is Philip Stevens. I’m the Search Engine Optimization and Marketing Specialist here at Edgeworks Creative.

Ed: And I’m Ed Rooney, co-founder and web strategist at Edgeworks Creative. Stay tuned because we’re going to take you through a lot of steps we take and also, I’m going to get my revenge.