Are you getting ready to launch your business? Is your business already established?

If so, one of the first marketing items on your list should be to build a website with the hope that everyone can find you on the web.

Within 48 hours of launching your website, you will be getting calls and emails, and not from potential customers, but from optimization experts. It is amazing that they can find you yet your potential and current customers cannot. In fact, as I am writing this article one of those companies contacted me on a site I launched this past weekend.

My goal here is to help you gain a basic understanding of Search Engine Optimization and Keywords.

In today’s day and age, the term “Google” and search seem to be interchangeable. Although Google is the largest search engine, you still need to consider the other search engines as well, particularly Bing and Yahoo.

Before you can optimize your site, it is a good idea to understand what these search engines do so that you can leverage their capabilities.

The importance of search engines

Search engines follow links from one page to another. A part of the search engine includes a crawler, index, and algorithm. The crawler follows the links on the web, 24/7/365, and saves its findings in a database. After adding the information to the database, the crawler will most likely revisit your website to see if there is new information. If it finds new information, it will update the database. The crawler will determine the frequency of visits based on your site traffic and frequency of changes.

Based on this, it’s important for the search engines to know that your website exists. The best way to help the search engines obtain that knowledge is to generate a link from another site to your site —  a website that the search engine already knows. Once that happens, consider your site indexed.

Once indexed, your site should come up in searches (not on the top pages mind you). The various search engines have different algorithms, and how they work is a mystery. However, one thing we do know is that the algorithms do change and that impacts where your site will appear in the overall search results.

If you search on Google, you will notice 7-10 links that best relate to your search term. The first couple on the top of the page, and on the right side of the page, will be paid advertisements. The ads appear based on specific terms that individuals or companies purchase. The links that appear in the left column, under the paid ads, are the result of the organic search.

What is SEO, anyway?

Search Engine Optimization is the process of helping a website rank higher in organic search results. The goal is to optimize a site, to appear first (on the first page, or in the No 1 position on the first page) in the organic search results.

The optimization process takes on-page and off-page considerations into account. The on-page factors can include the quality of the code that you build your site with, the structure of the website, and the use of text in different pages. Then there are the off-page items you need to consider, like the number of links to your site, as well as the other websites linking to your page relevant to your content.

What I want to focus on is on-page elements, specifically what you need to do with your “Keyword Strategy.”

The first step is to decide on what keywords you would like to associate your site with, and the rank within the different search engines. Your best bet is to do some research, because the right research will help you determine which search terms your potential customers are using for the products and services you provide.

Although we say “keyword” quite often, the keyword does not need to be just one word. In doing your research, you might come up with keywords called “longtail keywords.” These are keywords containing multiple words and can help in generating an online presence within the different search engines.

It is important to make sure that the work you select fits the content of your business and/or website. If you select words that are not relevant, you will most likely increase your bounce rate (people coming and leaving your site, as the content is not appropriate).

Getting your keyword list right — the first time

Making your keyword list will be the hardest part of your process, as it is something that you need to implement right the first time, and also revise on a regular basis. One of the easiest ways to check which keywords are hot is to use the Google Adwords Keyword Planner.

This tool will help you find new and related keywords.  There will be much information provided with this tool, but focus on the words. The goal is to decide which keywords are most used by your potential audience. You will need to set up a Google account, but it is well worth the investment of time.

Make sure you do your keyword research on a regular basis.  It does not have to be daily or weekly, but every couple of months could not hurt.  With your market being new, words and terms are evolving.  As the market evolves, the keyword strategy should be following a similar path.

Some other things to consider:

• How does your audience talk about your business? You need to mirror the vocabulary of your audience.
• How do people search? What topics does your website cover?
• Are your meta titles and descriptions for the pages optimized with the keywords?

Once you have your keywords set, you can start the works of optimizing your pages with those words. It is also a good idea to create some pages for keywords you want your business and site to be known for on the Internet. Also, think about generating content or articles, as well as internal links (it is just one of the things the search engines look for when crawling).

Yes, text IS important, too 

The text on your web pages is an important factor in Google’s algorithm. You should write your own text in a manner that your keywords and search terms have a prominent place. Just make sure not to use your keywords too often, as it can impact the readability of your text in a negative manner.

Remember, users want content that is understandable, easy to read, and well structured. A good rule of thumb is to use your search term in about 2 percent your text and make sure the number of words on the page are at least 300 words. As a result, a 300-word article would have the keyword term listed six times.

If you are using WordPress, make sure to install an SEO plugin. Most are easy to use, and if you do the legwork outlined above, in conjunction with the plugin, you should see some positive results. Additionally, you can always return one of the calls or emails you receive from the SEO folks hawking their wares — but you might want to do some of the work yourself.