Intro: The truth about SEO
SEO is the process of getting a webpage to rank for specific search terms. There is power in this, and in this post I’m going to show you exactly how I got this page to rank for the phrase “utah seo.” Whether you’re trying to sell a product, get noticed, or just gain further exposure, there are potentially massive amounts of people searching for you!
But how do I get in front of these searchers? This is SEO. Or as I like to call it, search engine manipulation.
Here’s the empowering reality: SEO is NOT complicated, and by the end of this post you’ll probably have a decent overview of exactly why I say that.
The core of getting a page to rank will always be about two basic principles; relevancy and authority. Someone needs to spill the truth about just how simple it truly is and I guess that person is me.
So here’s what I’m going to do, I’m going to give you an overview on how to get a page ranked for a specific search term. I’ll be using this page, yes the one you’re reading right now, as an example. In this case I’m targeting the term “Utah SEO.”
Basically I’m going to show you how to make a page relevant and authoritative from a search engine’s perspective. This will allow you to start creating pages that get recognized by search engines for yourself.
***Disclaimer…if you are one of the many businesses and small business owners that are being ripped off by SEO agencies, and supposed SEO ‘gurus’ read this! You are about to get exposed to valuable information that will empower you to make better spending decisions.
Put aside your preconceived notions, and start thinking like a search engine
Search engines are in the business of delivering content. Their entire goal is to send people to places they want to go! Simple right? In other words, if someone types in some phrase into Google, Google’s goal is to send them to the right webpage. Their goal is to send them to the content that they were originally after. This is their entire business model.
Modern search engines have an issue though, there are BILLIONS of webpages out there! How could they possibly achieve their goal of sending people to the content they desire with such a vast universe of content? When I type in “utah SEO” how does a search engine know to put this page at the top of the results?
2 simple ways: first they use specific criteria to judge what a webpage is relevant for, then they conduct a popularity contest and rank the list of relevant pages by authority levels. I’m going to explain more about this below.
Once you understand this, you can being the process of ‘reverse engineering’ your websites and webpages based upon what you know search engines are judging you by. This is SEO. This is search engine manipulation.
Step 1: Make the page relevant for that search term
Search engines use specific criteria or what I call indicators for what makes a page relevant for certain search terms. So if you want a webpage to rank for a certain search term, we have to follow the rules of what search engines are looking for. Don’t worry, this is simple, and here’s a step-by-step on how perfectly optimize a page around a search term.
1. Put the term in the title tag.
A title tag is nothing but a piece of HTML that indicates to search engines what your page is about. In this case, you’ll see at the top of your browser that this page says “Utah SEO Companies are a Scam! | The Sam Effect” Noticed how I put the most important element at the front of the title tag Utah SEO.
2. Put the term in the meta description tag
A meta description is nothing but another piece of HTML that describes to search engines what a page is about. Remember, we want to give search engines a clear picture on exactly what this page is about.
3. Put the term in an h1 tag
An H1 tag is another piece of HTML on a page that stands for “heading.” A page should only have a single H1 tag. I’ve heard is explained that an H1 tag explains what the page is about, H2-H4 tags explain what paragraphs are about. You’ll notice that Utah SEO is the title of this page and is wrapped neatly within an H1 tag.
4. Put the term somewhere within h2-h4 tags
After you’ve got the term within an H1 tag, ideally you now want to have the phrase within a H2 tag, H3 tag, or H4 tag. This will further indicate to search engines what your page is about.
5. Put the term in a strong tag
A strong tag is nothing but a way to bold text. Search engines use this tag as another indicator of relevancy. Here’s a quick example: utah seo. Simple right?
6. Put the term in an image alt tag
An image alt tag is yet another place search engines are checking out for the relevancy of a page and it’s another piece of simple HTML. This is also how Google image search works by the way. If you hover over the images on this page you’ll notice that “utah seo” is the image alt.
7. Have the term sprinkled throughout the content (don’t over-do…think natural)
Search engines are looking for content. “Content is king” is a internet nerd phrase that gets thrown around a lot. I have the phrase this page is targeted sprinkled through the content, did you notice? If you want a page to rank for a specific search term, this part of optimizing the page.
SEOmoz (a leading SEO research company) provides a tool to check your onpage optimization grade. Check out this page’s onsite optimization grade from the SEOmoz tool for the phrase Utah SEO.
***Click to see the full report card
Step 2: Make the page authoritative for that search term
Now that the page is optimized (we basically spoon fed the search engines exactly what the webpage is relevant for), it’s time to go out and get busy with making the webpage authoritative. The way modern search engines judge whether a page is ‘authoritative’ is simply how many links around coming into that webpage. These are commonly called ‘inbound links.’ So you can wait around and hope that you get other websites link to your page, or you can be proactive and go out and build links your self. This is termed link building.
ps. sitting around waiting/hoping/wishing other people will link to your pages is like sitting around hoping for a unicorn to come whisk you away; it likely won’t happen
So how do you actually build links? Well there are many many ways. You can buy links (which is against the Google’s self-proclaimed rules and is consiered “black hat”), you can create amazing content that people naturally link to (this is called “link baiting”), you can join link exchange networks (doesn’t work too well anymore because these aren’t one way links), you can join blog networks and do guest blog posts on other sites. That’s just a quick over view, but there are many ways to build links that I could explain in further detail.
I’m not going to list all the networks I’ve used and use here. However, I have access to many networks that are so powerful it’s almost sad (for the competition at least). If you want specifics, you can contact me about consulting or doing SEO for you here.
Overall, link building is the ticket to ranking your site for any term you’re after.
Conclusion: Utah SEO Ranking Commence!
Do you need some help? Don’t worry, I can help you out. It’s time to get your site(s) ranking for virtually anything you want….leaving your competitors in the dust and I’ll teach you how, or do it for you. Contact me and put in the subject line ‘SEO HELP!’
