ELWsoftware.com

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the term used to describe changes to your web site that make it easier to find on search engines.  When I read about SEO services offered by others I get a bit discouraged.  Here are a few myths about SEO I see regularly:

1. Submitting your site to search engines = SEO. Yes, this is important.  If you don’t submit your site to the major search engines it is possible that nobody will ever see it.  Too bad it only takes a few minutes to do!  I could do it for your web site in less time than it took to write this paragraph.  So, anyone who charges for this or considers it SEO is full of it.
2. Guarantee 1st page of Google! Wouldn’t it be nice if some professional with all the knowledge in the world could guarantee that your page would show up first in the search results in Google?  Well, they can!  The only trouble is that they don’t say what the search was for.  I guarantee that there is already some search phrase that will produce your page as the 1st result! Guarantees are as dangerous in SEO as they are in any other business.  Would you trust somebody who guaranteed to double your money?
3. SEO can be done quickly. Yes, you can change a few things on your site quickly, but good SEO practices take time to see results improve.  SEO is like public relations or advertising since it costs time and usually money to get real improvements quickly.

So, to summarize the above points, if you aren’t careful you can spend money and get nothing.  What should you be looking for in SEO?

1. Keyword analysis. For at least the near future, search engines will be using keywords as the primary tool for their search technology.  There are better techniques that find better results, but they are still far too slow to be used by major search engines.  So, your keywords should be the important focus of SEO.  We suggest starting with the most basic description of what you offer, then add your location.  Example: We would use web design riverside, or SEO inland empire.  Professionals should also be able to provide you with statistics showing how many people search for these terms.
2. Paid search placement. Yes, if you are willing to pay for it, you can immediately get your site placed on the first page of results for ANY keywords you want.  Google, Yahoo, and Bing all have options for paid search.  While you are waiting for regular SEO to take effect, consider using Adwords to increase traffic immediately.  Some snobs out there say paid placement doesn’t count as SEO.  Find out what they charge, then ask us how much traffic we could get you with that money.
3. The Long Tail. The best way to beat the big search engine machine is to use long tail keywords.  These are the more specific phrases that big companies can’t waste time with.  Competition is the key to successful SEO.  It is way too expensive to compete for keywords like music, so why not focus your energy on inland empire reggae music.  Being more specific gives you less traffic, but people searching for specific phrases are more motivated!

Keyword density refers to how often a word is found on a page as a percentage of the total.  There are plenty of articles and arguments about how placing a single keyword many times in your page could be a bad thing.  This morning I discovered that this might actually be effective.

Certainly we are aware that ELW can mean many different things to different people.  Now we find that it is used to abbreviate the E.L. Wright award at the Darlington School.  It turns out that this award looks like one of Michael Scott’s Dundie awards that everybody gets.  So, as it turns out the word ELW is listed after just about everybody’s name.  I have no disrespect for these future leaders of the world.  Good luck kids!

What ELW readers should be aware of is that as a web design company paying very close attention to SEO, everyone at ELW knows when somebody new on the internet uses the letters ELW.  As luck would have it, there is also a student at the Darlington School with the last name SEO.  Seriously, sometimes you just get unlucky with keywords!

It is obvious that the above mentioned page with zero inbound links should suddenly appear at the top of the search results for the phrase ELW SEO.  The relevance for this page to someone looking for SEO should not even come on the radar.  I’m sure the student with the name SEO is aware of what shows up when you search for SEO using any search engine.  The Phrase ELW is what is important, and its keyword density is right around 5%.  This just happens to be the suggested keyword density many professionals suggest to optimize a page for a keyword.