Many companies and authors are not up to speed on SEO (Search Engine Optimization). That’s understandable, SEO is a constantly changing and evolving creature. If you’re not familiar with the term, SEO is the process by which we design our websites so that an individual searching for us, our product, or service can easily find us.
I recently typed into Google “running a bed and breakfast” and came up with over 17,000,000 hits. Yes, that is seventeen MILLION hits! If you’re like me, you probably don’t bother looking at sites past the first page or two on any search you run. If you have a book about your experiences running a bed and breakfast, it’s crucial that you appear on the top of that very long list.
It used to be you would load your website with key words and phrases that internet searchers were using and make sure your content was updated frequently. Those two activities were sufficient enough to raise your internet profile. Not anymore.
Google now has a series of top-secret algorithms they have code-named “Panda,” “Penguin,” and “Hummingbird.” The new focus is on quality rather than quantity (of key words in this case). So how do you make sure your website is providing the quality that Google values? Well, it will take much more than a short blog to answer that, but here are some simple tips:
• Make your website all about the visitor – what you can do for them rather than how wonderful you are (which I’m sure you are)
• Short statements rank far higher than large blocks of text
• Photos and graphics over words
• Use as simple language as you can to convey your message
• Go beyond facts and make your customers emotionally connect with you or your message
• Create as many backlinks to your website as possible.
As more and more people turned to the internet to search for information on products and services, and more and more companies pay more and more attention to internet marketing, search engine companies such as Google have been forced to keep updating their formulas and strategies.
I’m as baffled as you are at how Google is accomplishing this feat, but they are. It is critical that we respond to the changing landscape to make sure our messages are getting out loud and clear – with lots of photos, simple language, and an emotional hook, of course.
CLIENT SNAPSHOT
When it comes to the Bible, you have to ask the tough questions. Vince Latorre seeks to answer some of these tough questions in his book, The Bible Can Be Proven. Check out his website or order the book here to see what he has to say.
