How Does SEO Work?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing your website based on search engine guidelines to help your website appear prominently in search engine results. So, how do Search Engine Marketers (SEM’s) at Echero do it? How exactly does SEO work?

Search Engine Algorithms & Ranking Factors

To understand SEO, you must first understand how it came to be. We’ve all heard of the search engines Bing and Yahoo, but when we talk to our clients about search engine rankings it seems the only engine that really matters is Google. Whichever you prefer, these search engines all use algorithms that crawl the internet looking for the best websites to recommend to their users.

From a user’s perspective, Google is the most popular because it’s easy to use and gives you the results you want. From a SEM’s perspective, Google is most popular because its extensive algorithms make it so much more effective than Bing and Yahoo. Knowing what those algorithms qualify as a “ranking factor” and using that to optimize your website is what SEO is all about.

Here’s our top list of Google ranking factors:

Keyword Optimization

Knowing which keywords you want to rank for is the first step in any SEO campaign. From here you can build content, backlinks and know what your customers are looking for online. Let’s give it to them!

Content

Google gives ranking preference to websites with quality, informative and relevant content. Google doesn’t want to send users searching for “auto repair” to a collision repair website because then they would not be the search engine titan they are today. The more informative content you have on your website, the more likely you are to rank. This is where terms like Click Through Rate and Bounce Rate come into play.

Backlinks

I say this to my clients all the time, “You are who you hang out with!” Google pays close attention to who you hang out with online, and backlinks are a good indicator of that. If you have few, but quality links from very reputable sites, you’ll rank much higher than a website with a thousand backlinks from very spammy, poor websites.

Consistency

Google wants to give reliable sources to it’s users. So, if your website says your address is 1234 Candy Cane Lane, Denver CO 80202 but your Yelp page says your address is 1234 Candy Cane Street, Denver 80204, you’re not presenting yourself as a very good source for quality information. Making sure your information is uniform across all platforms is key for rankings.

Contact SEO Experts in Denver Today

So, you know the keywords you want to rank for but you aren’t sure where to go from there. That’s a great starting point! At Echero, we can help discuss an SEO campaign with you and get started optimizing your website for better Google rankings. All you have to do is contact Echero today!