Why You Need A Search Engine Optimization Specialist

A gentleman approached me the other day and said, “I think Search Engine Optimization can only be done by the business owner.” His argument was that only the business owner truly knows their industry and his the knowledge to use the correct keywords. The spirit of this statement certainly rings true, but there is a big issue here: business owners don’t have the knowledge (or time) to properly apply Search Engine Optimization to their website. So, the end question is “how do we apply in-depth industry knowledge with great SEO skills?”

The answer is collaboration! The SEO specialist and business owner must work together to get the best Search Engine Optimization. When we work with our clients on their SEO, sometimes it takes several consulting sessions and a lot of Q&A in order to figure out what are the industry terms that people may search for on the internet. Armed with that information, our SEO specialist can then use specific tools to identify which of these industry keywords and phrases are searched for the most on search engines like Google. Once both sides have agreed on the best keywords and phrases, then the magic of Search Engine Optimization takes place.

Great Keyword Rich Content

Having great content is the first step. Search engines like Google are looking for sites with great relevant content that is of value and meaningful to searchers. The quality industry keywords must be used frequently and properly throughout the content. Remember, of course, that it must be readable by humans. Overstuffing your content with keywords can actually hurt your page rank.

Here is another place where collaboration is really needed. The SEO specialist may need some guidance on how to properly use those industry terms within the content, especially if they are technical in nature, or in the medical field, for example.

Page Headings, Meta Tags, and Alt Tags

One could argue that any business owner or marketing agent could create some keyword rich content. But there are other elements that make up great SEO. Page headings and paragraph titles need to be keyword rich like the content, but they also need the “<bold>” tag applied to tell the search engines, “Hey, this is really important!”

In addition, each page should have unique title and description tags chock full of keywords and location information. These Meta tags tell Google how your page rank listing should appear. Leaving these to chance is no good. However, overstuffing must also be avoided as page rank results get truncated after a certain number of characters. The key is to have the right balance of keywords and character length, while still being useful and relevant. This is where SEO is both an art and a science.

Alt tags are specific information sets that must be applied to the images on the website. First, they open up doors for accessibility such as screen readers. Alt tags describe what information is displayed in an image. Title tags, like alt tags, tell search engines the title or theme of an image. All of this information is used to decide whether your web page is rank worthy or not.

Creating and applying these important title and description Meta tags is something that is best left to the SEO specialist. Depending on the type of platform the website is running (WordPress, Joomla, or plain HTML for example), there is a required technical knowledge that most business owners don’t have. That doesn’t mean they couldn’t take the time to learn, but their time may be better spent on other things in the business.

Conclusion

While it is usually true that no one knows a business better than the owner, in order for great Search Engine Optimization to happen on a website, the business must partner up with an SEO specialist. By working together and collaborating, the website can be optimized for the search engines with the correct industry keywords and phrases, and have those keywords be applied properly to the content, title, and description Meta tags.

Next Steps

Beyond applying SEO to your website, Google Analytics reporting is a must in order to ascertain the success or failure of particular keyword sets, or just overall website performance in organic search. If you need help with applying Search Engine Optimization to your website, or would like assistance with Google Analytics reporting, contact us today to get started.

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