- One Step at a Time
My next series of posts will guide you through the steps of investing effectively in search engine optimization.
An ongoing process, SEO involves using the right tactics at the right time to get a desired result. Knowing what those tactics are and when you need to implement them is what separates the professionals from the amateurs.
The first three posts in this series will discuss some of the first and most important steps in the search engine optimization process. The effectiveness of every search engine optimization tactic available to you going forward will be based primarily on how well you complete these three steps and the majority of your budget will be spent here.
No doubt about it, search engines scan and index words, so the language you use on your web pages is very important to consider.
However, the very first step in the process, while you are still researching and planning the words you will want to use on your web pages, is the structure and design of your web pages. Understanding and implementing programming code, url naming conventions, and a linking structure that does not in any way hinder access to your web pages by either the search engine spiders or your site visitors is a critical first step in the search engine optimization process.
Everything you do from this point forward will be affected by the architecture and usability of your site. You want to avoid errors, broken web pages, and certainly any complicated navigation that causes spiders to miss scanning your web pages or requires of your site visitors work to get to the information they want.
Keep in mind that the whole purpose of search engine optimization is to attract potential buyers to your site so you can persuade them to do business with you. With that in mind, you want your website to be:
- Easy to access
- Enjoyable and Simple to interact with
- Accurately representative of your professional image
- Free of errors and broken links
So step one requires you build a website that is technically sound and architecturally well thought out to accommodate both the scanning conventions of the search engines and the searching behaviors of your intended audience. In Step 2, I will discuss the beginning stages of content development: uncovering language.
