SEO & Internet Marketing Tips & Tricks!

 

         SEO & Internet Marketing Tips & Tricks!

Table of Contents

First Post:

• What does a search engine do?
• How can a website be optimized for a search?
• What matters for SEO?
• Is search engine optimization expensive?

Second Post:

• How does this correlate with internet marketing?
• What is important in marketing?
• The four steps to online marketing
• Is this the future of marketing?

Third Post:

• Does social media contribute to SEO?
• Habits that boost SEO
• Social media platforms ARE search engines?

Introduction

SEO and Internet Marketing has become an extremely important facet of businesses and economic improvement. The aspect of marketing has become the most prominent in regards to how to promote an online business. Prior to the Internet, it had been widely accepted that much of the growth of businesses or companies came from word of mouth, among other variations. Fortunately, companies can invest their funds in the diversification of consumers whilst covering far more bases in much less time.

What is "SEO"?

SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization”. All of the massive engines that we use daily such as Google or Yahoo, have primary search results that lead to other web pages. These results are shown on a basis of ranking on what the engine itself considers most relevant to the user and the search that said user has done. There are a ton of different factors that SEO will end up boiling down to. Search engines have become the management of all webpages across the globe (more or less); the rank-based search engines are supposed to work by scanning the entire page and matching it up with particular search results.

What will be covered?

Quite a bit of information will be covered in this thread. In contrast to Sith Lord’s thread, I will not be compiling a list of threads and sources to look into. If you're looking for that sort of material, go ahead and take a look at his thread! Overall, this thread will cover what a search engine does, how it operates, as well as a wide array of details on how to properly optimize your website for the best results in each engine. I will also delve into the realm of social media platforms and their particular impact on companies and businesses in obtaining success for their website or their brand as a whole.

What does a search engine do?

A search engine allows for a simple browser such as myself to allocate the best website to fulfill a particular search or duty. Let’s say, for example, that I wish to find car dealers in Mississippi. The engine will then use the key terms that I put into the search bar and it will have a pre-determined list of websites that are ranked purely on their relation to the key terms that I used. This list will appear and will be in the order of rankings; the top website should be the one that meets my criteria the most.

How can a website be optimized for a search?

Well, there are specific aspects of a website that a search engine will use in order to manage which keywords relate most to the particular webpage at hand. The optimization focalizes on making sure that the page has the necessary facets for the search engine’s algorithm to pick up on. A title, for example, is an essential piece of information when it comes to landing the page on a proper list within the search engine. A pet store should obviously have a title that somewhat relates to the genre of animals and pets as well as the category of shopping and stores.

What matters for SEO?

• Words - The words put on a webpage are extremely important when it comes to SEO. The engine will scan the website and input many of these words into the algorithm.
• Links - The links between the webpages definitely matter. A singular website that has links going to it from multiple other websites will present itself as very reputable and reliable for search engines. It should be noted that creating trash websites and linking them to your own won’t boost the websites standing much; more reputable websites have more weight in regards to linking.
• Titles - While many people won’t go into the coding and look at the “official title”, search engines do exactly that. The title in the code is the official title and often summarizes the contents on the page; thus, making it that much easier for the search engine to categorize the page.
• Words in links - The words that are used within the links themselves are important as well. When someone searches for a particular topic, it helps to have some of those similar keywords in the links.
• Reputation - Websites with a lot of links tend to have a growing reputation which is considered in the algorithm for the search engines. 

Is search engine optimization expensive?

As noted in the above section, most of the changes that can be made to optimize a website does not cost money at all. People tend to correlate spending money with earning a higher ranking in search engines; however, that really is not the case. It is possible to invest money in the optimization process but it is not a necessity.

How does this correlate with Internet marketing?

Well, the answer is quite clear! As a website becomes more optimized for each search engine, it is essentially marketing itself to all of the persons in a specific niche. With an ever-improving ranking on multiple different search engines, the company will began to expand it’s name and will simultaneously bring in more sales and profit for themselves. The correlation between the two fields is extremely prominent and important.

What is important in marketing?

Believe it or not, much of the field of marketing revolves around the presentation of the item at hand. A website or webpage is no different in regards to marketing; aesthetic appeal is one of the most important aspects of obtaining success. If a website lacks professionalism and attractiveness, the traction from a search engine is not important because it really will not lead to an increased amount of activity or sales.Aesthetic appeal could arguably be the most important aspect in regards to becoming successful and marketing the company.

The four steps to online marketing:

• The Audience - The audience is arguably the most important factor to consider when you are planning to advertise online. The product should definitely target those within the consumer market; as a company understands their audience, they will be able to determine the best route to reach them properly. First and foremost, the audience will likely all visit a few different popular websites; the sites that the audience visits will be beneficial in formulating a design and a platform for your own website.
• Advertising Budget - The second step in marketing a company is recognizing the amount of money that a business can afford to spend on marketing. Some routes of advertising will cost quite a bit more money than some might be virtually free. A company can always hire an SEO expert to analyze the website and to make any necessary changes or transformations that will provide higher-quality marketing content whilst tracking the progress of the website.
• A Business Model - Traditionally, companies will creating a marketing plan for their initial business model that they have established. With that, they can work off of the current status quo in order to determine the proper strategies to market themselves online as well. Many companies take the route of sending emails for marketing purposes with access to email lists; realistically, the choices for online marketing are quite broad and are entirely based on a company-to-company basis.
• Business Environment - This is quite probably the most important aspect when it comes to achieving success in online marketing. As a business brand, it is important that the company stands out among us all of the competition. Selecting the proper Internet marketing strategy is imperative when it comes to achieving the recognition for a brand that all competitors wish to achieve. 

Is this the future of marketing?

The future of marketing will likely shift entirely online at some point. Although there will always be a need for some marketing in the real world, the Internet appears to be the next big thing that companies have been integrating into their marketability and success. Hell, take a look at Amazon. The company solely operates through online and Internet marketing; at this point, it has become one of the most successful and powerful companies to span the globe. I would recommend that companies seriously begin dipping their toes into the water at least if they intend on being a growingly successful business.

Does social media contribute to SEO?

In short, yes. Social media most definitely contributes to the particular optimization for all of the search engines used. While social media itself will not necessarily lead to a higher ranking or anything in that sense, it will definitely assist in the marketability for the company and business alike. Essentially, social media marketing and SEO are two extremely interwoven portions of the markets; thus, they will benefit the company quite significantly if they were to focus on both SEO and the social media platforms alike.

Habits that boost SEO:

• Grow your following - The total number of followers on an account can reflect the connections on a social media platform and profile. It does not have much influence on the rankings themselves; however, Google can detect the quality of followers on an account. Posting useful links and general pieces of discussion will lead to engagements that help build a following that will similarly access the website of said company.
• Encourage external inbound links - Social media often leads to linking to external sites which can be your content. The more diversified external links to your business or website, the more reputation you will gain in the eyes of search engines. In the case of social media platforms, they have essentially become a broadcast channel; the content would serve as bait which would cause the right followers or viewers to gravitate towards your social page and your webpage alike.
• Increase a brand awareness/presence - This is likely the most important aspect of a social media presence. It allows the account to quite literally build a following around their particular brand itself. With this, the follower-base will potentially be more committed and dedicated; thus, resulting in them visiting the webpage for the company and increasing the attractiveness to a search engine.

Social media platforms ARE search engines?

To some degree, yes, social media platforms are definitely search engines as well. Companies need to move away from thinking that SEO focuses solely on Google; these social media accounts can be extremely beneficial in creating an online presence. Realistically, social media platforms have become a relatively new version of search engines to some degree; companies and businesses should definitely focus a lot of their time and attention on social media platforms as well as search engines.