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Before we go further, let’s go over the definition of SEO.
SEO, according to Wikipedia, is “the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a web search engine’s unpaid results—often referred to as “natural,” “organic,” or “earned” results.” Moreover, per Wikipedia, “SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search, academic search, news search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.”
To put it another way, SEO is the process undertaken to maximize a webpage’s (and a site’s) position in “organic” search results. Organic means are unpaid in this application. In future blogs, we will cover paid search strategies. But for our purposes here we are strictly referring to unpaid or natural search results.
In the past, SEO teams and affordable web design teams were constantly struggling against each other for what was more important for the website – content vs. design.
The SEO/digital marketer would optimize the page to meet the maximum SEO specifications and “best practices.” But, in their attempt to hit all the points in SEO, the content and layout may not have delivered the best user experience. And bad user experience means that visitors to the site won’t stay on the site long, if at all. Conversely, if the design team focused on the best possible aesthetics at the sake of meaningful content, the site, and its pages would have a very difficult time ranking with search engines.
The good news is in today’s SEO world the search engines are paying attention to not only the content but also the design of a website. The point is you can now provide rich content, be it video, graphical, or textual AND deliver a great user experience and interface while not have to worry about shortchanging your sites SEO and results in ranking. The takeaway is that you can have both great design and content and your rankings will no longer suffer.
Local SEO is gaining more popularity and importance thanks in part to the proliferation of smart GPS enabled devices over the past few years as well as search engine improvements that have focused on localized search results based on a user’s geo-location. It requires all the skills sets for that of normal SEO and a little bit more. When you consider local SEO for Houston there are numerous factors to consider including target zip code, search terms that are colloquial to the area and schedule of seasonal or important events.
Knowing these factors can significantly boost your results. In fact, to help bring you to this article, we looked at search term originating in Houston and found that “local SEO Houston” was how most searchers were entering their queries and ensuring that we would rank high on those search terms we used them here in this blog about SEO – judiciously. Did I mention local SEO, Houston? Just kidding…..
Once again we wanted to make sure that companies looking for SEO help in Houston would find our blog and by extension our website, and hopefully then inquire as to what we could to help them with the local optimizing needs focusing on Houston. Another common query was “Houston SEO Company.” So to get maximum value and not “keyword stuff,” we used it as the heading for this paragraph and included it a few times – where it made sense. And yes we do SEO for companies in Houston that are targeting markets in Houston.
By learning how people were searching for help with SEO in Houston, we were able to determine what keywords were being used. We then crafted our content to help you find our site and learn about our services to help you get the most out of your marketing.
By doing your homework on your target market and how they search and what terms they are using in their searches, you can better target them by creating content that responds to what they are looking for. Moreover, thanks to most search engines’ algorithms increasing sophistication, you can now provide great content AND great design without sacrificing how your page will rank in searches. Though simple to state but hard to execute, provide your visitors with a great experience on your website, and watch your KPIs go up.
Of course, there is a myriad of factors in the coding, design, server configurations, tagging, etc. that go into ensuring your site is search friendly, and we stand at the ready to help you shore up an area that you are concerned about.
We live and breath SEO and all things related to digital marketing and e-commerce, so don’t be shy about shooting us a question or comment. We look forward to hearing from you.
