SEO is short for Search Engine Optimization, and there is nothing
really mystical about it. You might have heard a lot about SEO and how
it works, but basically what it is is a measurable, repeatable process
that is used to send signals to search engines that your pages are worth
showing in Google’s index.
Basically Google uses a complex mathematical formula called an
algorithm to give a score to every website and every search people to do
in Google to figure out which website should rank best for what people
are looking for. Think of the algorithm like a collection of empty
buckets. One bucket gives you a score for the quality of your site, one
bucket gives you a score for how many sites link to you, one bucket
gives you a score for how people trust you. Your job is to fill up more
buckets in the algorithm than any other website. You can affect your
search engine ranking by having the highest score in terms of quality of
your site, of having the highest score in terms of authority of your
website, of having the highest score in terms of the most trusted store
for that search that people are looking for. The good thing is that
there are hundreds of buckets, and for every single one of these buckets
these scores put together in the algorithm to figure out where you rank
is an opportunity for you to fill it up and rank better. So optimizing
your site for search results really means getting the highest score in
as many of these points as you can.
Now, some buckets are worth more than others, and the three main
buckets that you need to be aware of for search rankings are quality,
trust and authority. So quality: what Google is trying to measure when
they’re trying to figure out what sites should rank is offering
something valuable or unique or interesting to googles searchers. For
example: good content - if you are selling t-shirts
and you are using the same description that every other t-shirt seller
is using on their website then you are not offering anything unique to
Google’s searchers. Even though your t-shirts might look pretty cool,
the content is the same as everybody else’s, so Google has no way of
telling that your t-shirts or your t-shirt site is better than anybody
else’s. Instead, offer people interesting content. For example: offer
them the ability to personalize their t-shirt. Give them information on
how to wash it. What’s the thread count? Is it stain resistant? Is this
something you should wear in the summer or is it more heavy for winter?
Give people information, or even be more creative. Get people to share
pictures of themselves wearing the t-shirt. Create a community of people
who are interested in your product. Get a famous person to wear it and
share that picture online. Do something different, do something unique.
Show Google that you are different and better than the other search
results.
Trust is another important bucket that you need to be aware of when
you are trying to get your site to rank in Google. Google doesn’t want
to show just any website to it’s searchers, it wants to show the best
website to its searchers, and so it wants to show sites that are
trustworthy. One thing Google has indicated it likes to do is penalize
sites or stores or companies that consistently have poor reviews, so if
you have many poor reviews, in time Google is going to figure out not to
show your site in their rankings because Google doesn’t want to show
those sites to their searchers. So prove to Google’s algorithm that you
are trustworthy. Get other highly authoritative websites to link to you.
Get newspaper articles, get industry links, get other trusted sites to
link to you: partners, vendors, happy customers - get them to link to
your website to show that you are highly credible and trustworthy.
And finally, the other really important bucket is authority. Google
wants to show sites that are popular. If they can show the most popular
t-shirt seller to people looking to buy t-shirts online, that’s the site
they want to show. So you have to convince Google - send them signals
that your site is the most popular site for the kind of t-shirts that
you sell. Fill this bucket by building a fan base. Build a social
network, get people to link to you, get people to share your t-shirt
pages on their social network saying ‘I want this!’, get people to
comment, leave testimonials, show pictures of themselves wearing the
product or using the product, Create a fan-base and then rally them to
link to you and talk about you. That’s how you prove to Google that you
are trustworthy and authoritative.
So if you think about it, SEO is really just a process of proving to
search engines that you are the best site, the most authoritative, the
most trusted, the most unique and interesting site that they can offer
to their customer - the searcher. Get people to talk about you, produce
good quality content, get people to link to you, and Google will be more
confident that you are the best result that they can offer to their
searchers, and that’s when you will start ranking on the first page of
Google.
