How To – Search Engine Optimization Share: Felix Is Marketing, LLC Date Published 2 March 2020 Categories Blog Reading Time 4-Minute Read This article will cover what Google deems important on websites. In 2020, it seems like everyone has a website. However, I hate to break it to all you business owners out there that all websites are not built the same. This is why you see many websites ranked on the 2nd, 3rd, and even the unspeakable 4th page of Google. Talk about something that puts a bad taste in your mouth. So with this article, I want to go in-depth about what search engine optimization is, and why you need it if you want to receive more customers to your business. According to Google, search engine optimization (SEO) is “the process of maximizing the number of visitors to a particular website by ensuring that the site appears high on the list of results returned by a search engine.” What this means is, the more valuable your site is, the higher Google, Bing, Yahoo, and any other search engine will place your website within their organic search results. In order to get to the coveted number one spot in Google, or at least hold one of the ten slots within the first page, your site needs to dominate in four areas. These areas include: Site Age The age of your site is important to Google when it determines who will be featured on the first page of its search engine. Although it is not the most important factor, it still needs to be considered when viewing your competitor’s websites. If a competitor’s website is older than yours, usually it will rank higher than your site if your site has poor SEO. Think of it this way, if your website is a newly graduated college student who is competing for a job with a person who has 5 years experience in the same industry, most likely the hiring recruiters of that company will overlook that college student and take the person who has more experience. In the same way, Google views older sites as ones that have more knowledge and wisdom to share with potential customers in that niche. Backlinks Google defines backlinks as being “an incoming hyperlink from one web page to another website.” In other words, think of backlinks as being votes to your site that say your site is most credible for information in that niche. To get backlinks, or votes as we are calling them, it is as simple as posting a comment to a blog that contains your website URL, a comment, and your name or business name/keyword. However, all backlinks are not built the same and discreditable votes to your website can actually hurt your ranking within Google. Backlinks are the most important factor that determines rankings within Google and they should be crafted carefully and skillfully to have a good effect on your business. Citations Google defines citations as being “an online reference to your business’s name, address, and phone number.” And this is exactly what they are. Think of citations as being a postcard plastered digitally to online websites such as Yelp, Yellowbooks, and Whitebooks. This postcard provides metaphorical juice to your website that centers your website as being an authority to Google. Citations primarily determine how well your website will rank in the map pack. Keywords & Content Keywords and content matter to Google. I will say that again, KEYWORDS AND CONTENT MATTER TO GOOGLE. The reason being, the more content you have on your site, the higher Google will rank you within their search engine. Think about all the highly ranked sites on Google that provide you with information when you are looking for info in a hurry. For example, Wikipedia, the reason why Wikipedia continues to dominate the search engines is because they produce so much content. If you want more viewers and customers then write meaningful and helpful content. If you need help developing your marketing strategy, click this link.