The primary purpose of Search Engine Optimiation (SEO) is to increase how high up your site is displayed on a search engine query. As a WordPress Virtual Assistant my job is to help your site reach that coveted #1 spot so your sales will soar through the roof.
There are many different primary, secondary, and targeted search engines on the Internet today busily crawling, cataloging, and indexing the billions (soon to be trillions?) of websites out there. Google, and the other search engines (SEs), rank these sites based on a combination of the following:
Click-throughs – aka, how popular your site is in comparison to similar sites. SEs monitor the number of clicks each search result receives. Yes kiddos, it’s just like high school: jocks get picked for the team based on their ability to deliver the ball. Similarly websites that deliver the goods get picked more often and subsequently rise in the rankings.
Frequency – how often a key word appears on a page affects ranking. HOWEVER don’t be greedy and think you can type your keyword a dozen times in tiny print at the bottom of the site. The spiders can, and will, discover your deception and ban your site. In fact they have given this practice a name: key word spamming. The goal, as always, is to write relevant and interesting content for your target audience.
Links – This includes links into your site from related sites, relevant outgoing links, links within your site. Once again, the key is relevancy.
Location – I’m not talking about your web address, “www.XYZ.com”, but the physical location of key words and phrases on the page. Don’t forget to put your most important key word in the title, and use those key words and phrases in the first few sentences if possible.
Just a closing word of caution here – do not try and out think the search engine spiders and algorithms. Google and the other SEs hire very smart engineers to combat fraud, and the consequences of trying to procure undeserved gain won’t serve your business goals any more than being a petty thief will make you rich.
