In our seo bootcamp we spend two days going through some of the do’s and don’ts of search engine optimization. Search engine optimization, often called SEO, is the process of optimizing your website so that Google, Yahoo! and MSN understand exactly what a page on your site is about and will show that page on their search engine for a determined keyword search.
I want to boil that definition down for you and give you a quick overview of how SEO works in this blog post.
My simple definition of SEO: “Making Google’s Job easy.” Building your site so it is easy for Google (and the other search engines) to find, crawl, and understand exactly what each page of your site is about.
How can you make Google’s job easier? Below are 4 phases of search engine optimization. They are not really steps because you are continually repeating these phases. It is important to understand that SEO is never complete. Your website is an organism and needs to be continually fed with content and updates.
Phase 1: Determining Your Keyword Phrase(s)
Often called keyword research, in this phase your are seeking to determine how your customers search for your products or services online. What exact words do they use and in what order. Do they call your product that same thing that you call it or do they have a different name for it. In my case, I’ve found that some people also call SEO, website optimization or google optimization. So I need to call my product what might customers might call it so that I can be certain that Google will find my website for the chosen keyword phrase. Here is one tool you can use for keyword research and another blog post I’ve written about this keyword tool
Phase 2: Writing content to address needs of your web searchers
In this phase you will take your keyword phrase and then write some content to address the needs, questions, or concerns that searchers might have when they are searching for this particular phrase. The search engines are not your primary concern at this point. You don’t even need a website to complete phase one and two. You goal is to take the keyword phrase that you’ve found and then address the concerns of your web visitor with content on your website. If you write for poeple first and not the search engines you will likely avoid getting into trouble with the search engines. Here is an article that gives you a few tips on laying out your content for people
Phase 3: Help Google Understand Your Webpages
This phase has actually has 2 parts. Part 1 deals with the content. Once you’ve written the content for your visitors, how do you go back and edit that content to ensure that Google understands what your page is about. This includes things like your meta description, title tag, link text, etc. Part 2 of this phase is geared towards the technical issues on your site. Do you have an XML sitemap? Is your menu structured properly? Do you use proper redirects? How are your URL’s structured? Did you get all that? Did that make perfect sense so far? 
Phase 4: Help Google (and Yahoo! and MSN) Find your website
Besides submitting and XML sitemap, the search engines will also find your web pages through in bound links to your website. Each link is sort of like a vote for your website. Some votes count more than others. The more “votes” that you have the better, but also the more quality votes that you have for your website the better. You should always be working to get more and more links and more and more quality links back to your website. The search engines do want you to get links along what they determine are natural means. Stay away from sneaky leaking schemes or link farms.
If you follow those 4 phases for search engine optimization you will rank higher in the search engines and your traffic will increase.
SEO does take time and it does take effort. If you are looking for search engine exposure instantly – Google adwords is the way to go.
If you have questions leave a comment below or attend our upcoming seo training to learn how to execute your seo strategy.
We have seo courses in Vancouver as well as SEO courses in Wichita, KS
All the Best,
Rodney Bartlett
Lead Instructor – Reachd.com
More contents add in your web sites, more ranking for web sites.