Chances are, if you’ve been around marketing or business in the past few years, you have heard these three little letters circulating around any discussion about websites or digital marketing. But even if you’ve heard the term “SEO,” you may still have questions about what it is and what it means. Don’t worry — it’s a lot simpler than you think!

Search Engine Optimization

SEO or Search Engine Optimization refers to activity that attempts to improve search engine rankings. When you search for something on Google, Google displays links to the pages that it deems relevant and authoritative. Although Google’s algorithm for determining these factors remains a secret, years of practical experience in SEO has led many professionals to have a pretty good idea of what Google is looking for on a web page.

Google’s Algorithm

There are two types of factors that the Google algorithm considers when ranking pages: on-page SEO factors and off-page SEO factors.

On-page SEO factors are the things that you, as the owner of a site, can control within your website. Things like content, site speed, and the structure of your site all contribute to your on-page SEO score.

Off-page SEO factors relate to the number of times your site is linked from other websites. The more links that point to your site, the higher up your page will appear in a Google search. One way to increase the number of links to your site is by creating quality, authoritative content that other sites want to share.

Optimizing Your Site

The most important thing you can do to optimize your site for Search Engines is to understand what kind of content your potential customers are looking for. The more relevant your content, the more likely people are to share your site, thus increasing the number of links to your site. Focus on making your site easy to use and share, with lots of content relevant to your target audience.

Stay tuned for our next post about SEM!

Optimizing your site can take a lot of time and effort. It’s important to trust your site to professionals with years of experience with SEO and the Google algorithm. At Navigation Advertising, our experienced professionals can help you navigate the world of SEO and build a site that meets your needs. Contact us today to get started.