What the $#%@ is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization is an intimidating phrase. It may be the word "optimization" that makes it sound like a NASA project but it turns out the concept is pretty simple. The one thing everyone can agree on is that it results in more money.

So why is it so valuable? Google and other search engines are king because they find your target market and the timing is always right. If you're selling apples and someone searches "where can I buy apples," that's the ideal prospect! Why? Because they want your product now.

Other avenues are great in the marketing world like Facebook ads. The drawback with those ads is that the viewer may not be ready to buy. Maybe that person just likes apples occasionally, maybe they like apple pictures, maybe they were searching for an apple Halloween costume. It is a great tool for exposure but there's no guarantee they want to buy something today.

So how does SEO work? And how can I apply it to my site?

The reason why consumers continue to use Google is because it's so reliable. The searches are always very accurate for what they need! The way Google ranks pages is they have a software that "crawls" every single page on the internet. So what are they looking for during that crawl that sets up rankings?

First and foremost, if you're site isn't set up correctly then Google doesn't see you as a legit business! The basics are setting up your titles correctly, providing content that mentions the right keywords, making sure menus are set up properly and the site is attractive from the Google search view. These are just a few common mistakes we see frequently at PPL-Labs, especially with free sites.

It's also a big time popularity contest! The more you are mentioned out in the internet world, the better. Most importantly, the more you are mentioned by more popular sites ("authority sites") the more SEO "juice" you will get!

There is much more that goes into our approach for on-site and off-site SEO, but these are the basics we explain to clients very frequently.

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