Web Design Springfield MO | SEO Springfield MO

This week, I’ll be starting a new series called “SEO 101.” SEO is a major buzzword these days, and I am here this week to teach you the basics. When it comes to the work force, you are only as valuable are the skills you possess. For this reason, I highly recommend adding the 3 letters S-E-O to the skills section of your resume. If you follow me through to the end of this series, you should be confident enough to do just that!

Our first post in this series will teach you what a keyword is, and why your business or the business you work for needs a keyword strategy. If you read this post to the end, I promise you will have a keyword strategy in the next 15 minutes (and that you will impress and/or confound your boss, big time).

First, let’s define search engine optimization. The practice of improving your ranking on Google is referred to as search engine optimization (or SEO for short). SEO has become a major buzzword. I tend to network around Springfield frequently, and SEO is often a popular topic of conversation.

Next definition: keyword. So what is a keyword, you ask? A keyword is any word or phrase that describes your website. A keyword or keyword phrase is also what a user enters into a search engine (like Google) to find what they are looking for on the Internet. If you go to Google and search for “stock picks”, than “stock picks” is your keyword. Get it? Good.

Here’s the first thing I want you to know about SEO: Working on SEO without a keyword strategy is like trying to start a car with no gas in the engine.

So before beginning an SEO campaign, you must what keyword or keyword phrase you are optimizing for. How do you decide what keyword or keyword phrase to focus on? I’m going to make this extremely easy on you. Use the Google Adwords Keyword Tool. It’s free. Once you load the tool, enter a few ideas and see what Google has to tell you. They will give you the monthly search volume and competition level for each keyword or keyword phrase you enter.

Needless to say, you want to find a keyword or keyword phrase that a ton of people are searching for and that also has low levels of competition. You want low competition levels because you want to get on the first page of search engine returns for that keyword. Right? (The correct answer is yes – 60% of all search engine clicks come from the top-3 results on the first page of Google.)

Have fun with this free tool. Experiment. Try out some different ideas. You now have a keyword strategy. That wasn’t so hard, was it? If you own your own business, adjust accordingly. If you don’t, march right into your bosses’ office and ask them what the firms’ keyword strategy is. If he looks at you like you are an alien, tell him you’d like to schedule a meeting with them to lay the strategy out for them. Yeah…that’s right. You are going to lay it all out for the boss. Feels good, doesn’t it?

Tune in to the next post in the SEO 101 series, when I will teach you everything you need to know about keyword density (and why it matters).

What did you learn from the Google Adwords Keyword Tool? What untapped market did you discover? Did you find a keyword term that hundreds (or even thousands) of people are looking at – each month? Better yet…did you find a popular keyword or keyword phrase that nobody else seems to be optimizing for? Did you teach your boss something new about SEO today? Let us know in the comments.