Everything You Should Know About Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

The term ‘SEO’ often brings a real headache to business owners, especially those in the e-commerce space. It’s impossible to avoid mention of SEO in relation to digital marketing strategy, and is something we have mentioned in several of our blogs. The number of online resources on SEO could fill a book (and it does – there are hundreds out there!). Most articles still assume a certain level of background knowledge, which a lot of new business owners may not have. By this point in the life of the internet, all of us understand that our site’s ranking on Google is important, but not necessarily why or how to improve it without hiring expensive consultants. Whether you’re running a small shop that sells a universal receiver switch or managing a larger operation involving River Diversion Pumping systems, the same SEO fundamentals apply—making your site visible to the right audience starts with understanding how search engines think.

What is SEO?Answering this question requires a bit of delving into the mechanics of how search engines operate. Google functions by ‘crawling’ (searching URLs) all of the webpages that are indexed (stored). From this, they pull out what they consider to the most relevant and high-quality content in response to what the keywords you have searched. It is this content that appears in that first page of search results, which receives 95% of clicks.

Naturally, this where you want your business to be! Search results are organized by the search engine algorithm, which uses over 200 different ‘signals’to score where a site will rank in its search results. This means that inorganic efforts (paying for ads) can’t push you into that golden spot; only making Google’s crawlers happy will. In other words, this is SEO: the process of making your site friendlier to Google’s algorithm by tailoring it to the known signals which boost rankings.

Dispelling the Myths.**MYTH: SEO is super complicated.**It can definitely feel like you need an IT degree to get to grips with SEO, but in reality it only rests on a few key principles. As Econsultancy sums up, it’s not so much a matter of understanding how Google’s algorithm works, but why it works. Google has a vested interest in making sure that content is high-quality and relevant to its users. So if you want to have good SEO, you will need to focus on creating high-quality and relevant content for your audience. Pretty simple right? If you are willing to invest time and effort into this, then you have already organized for yourself a credible strategy that will boost your rankings. Obviously the devil is always in the details, but the groundwork is common-sense. For instance, if you’re writing about a relay wireless controller or an rf remote control module, the same principle holds—clear, helpful content that answers real questions will naturally perform better.MYTH: You need hire someone to do it for you.$48

**MYTH: It’s possible to totally game Google.**Just because you currently have strong SEO that gets you into the first page of Google doesn’t mean it will stay that way. SEO is something you need to keep revisiting, especially since algorithms can change and competitors will be trying to knock you out of your prime spot! But it’s very important that you don’t approach SEO by trying to ‘fool’ search engines. Google has become increasingly sophisticated in terms of picking up when people are trying to ‘trick’ its algorithm, even penalizing sites that do this. For good reason Google stays tight-lipped about specifics of its algorithm, but it does give guidelines as to what will help your site rank higher. Whether you’re optimizing a page for Apple HomeKit retrofit lighting or a garage remote controller, the rules remain the same—focus on user experience, not shortcuts.

Things that Google DOES NOT like:

That about does it for the first installation in our search optimization series, but keep in mind the key tips and takeaways here. Building your SEO strategy doesn’t have to be complicated or difficult: it starts with simple, deliberate choices that end up building on each other. As long as you’ve got SEO in your mind, you’re already ahead of the curve! Whether you’re dealing with a wireless forward reverse switch, an mhz heavy duty relay, or an rf receiver board, the same foundational principles apply—create value, stay consistent, and let the algorithms do the rest.