Search Engine Optimization is one of the ever changing industries in marketing. The techniques and tactics change regularly as Google, Yahoo and Bing try to make searches more relevant and return better results. You are at their mercy.
Search Engine Optimization in South Florida is a competitive market. We recently had someone call ask what we would do for Search Engine Optimization services. We spelled out our services and explained what we do in layman’s terms to attain the results they were looking for. They called us back a few days later asking explain services outlined by another South Florida SEO Company in terms they could understand.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a technical industry with technical terms. In our office we are just a bunch of caffeinated geeks who love to rank on the internet. Here are some simple translations to make a bit more sense of the SEO lingo, jargon and fluff some proposals contain:
Anchor Text – AHOY! As fun as this SEO term sounds, it has nothing to do with sailing. Anchor text is the actual text of a link to a web page. Search engines use anchor text to understand what the destination page is about.
CSS – One thing the internet is not lacking is acronyms. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is the part of your code that defines how different elements look on your site. The old school way of coding websites was to stick everything in a table, now we are designing in style.
The Fold – Since when did websites start folding? The fold is a print term that some carry over to the web world. It’s the point where your website gets cut off by a user’s monitor or browser window. A well-built site will have the important information and call to action points that users look for “above the fold” since that is the part people see first.
Javascript – We love this one because it reminds our team of coffee junkies. Search engines don’t really like this because they have difficulty reading the code that is inside the Javascript. Website Admins use it to apply various effects or changes to the content of the website as users continue to browse the website.
SERP – OH look another acronym! Search Engine Ranking Page (SERP) is the first page that would come up on Google after you type in your search.
Spider – We strongly believe that the person who came up with this computer program that browses the internet and collects information about websites was really into the Matrix. Why else would you name something after a creepy 8 legged BUG!
There is a very different language in the marketing world that sounds like rocket science to some. I think that some Search Engine Optimization companies try to make it confusing and sound like rocket science on purpose. What we actually do is harder; it involves people with emotions, swayed by advertising, driven by buying habits and marketing trends. Mix all that up, and it’s easy to see why I think Search Engine Optimization is more difficult than rocket science.
The bottom line of current Search Engine Optimization is relevant real content that people want to read. Good, honest, frequent content that is helping others understand, learn or explain how to do something. Search Engines are so smart that they can spot duplicate content, fluffy keyword-stuffed paragraphs, too technical or irrelevant articles. Keep it real, relevant and authentic and you will start to see your content get read and draw in traffic to your website.
If you have questions trying to understand what Search Engine Optimization or SEO is, don’t feel bad. Once you start to get a grasp of it, the rules will change again!