SEO 101 | May 2009

I feel like sharing a bit of common information, but share it none-the-less, I will. The basics of SEO. Now there's so much going on past the sound SEO design of the website and chasing what's new and shiny in the online social mediasphere to be on. Sometimes marketers can suffer from a bit of ADHD - "Look Facebook! Ew that's cool. Forget Friendster!" (oh remember that one hit wonder? here and gone by the speed of the internet), and tromping off we go in a marketing guru stampede. So often I hear, "Are you on Twitter? FaceBook? (so old by today's terms), YouTube? Ning?" What's next? That's the big question that a good, quality SEO marketers is always working on. 

But I find that so many business owners get lost in the sea of information that is search engine marketing and their SEOs forget to get back to the basics and take baby steps to teach their clients. So your thinking, "What is this SEO stuff, it changes so often how can I possibly understand it all, and most importantly, how can it make me more money?" SEO is not hard, I've said several times, it's not rocket science. It just takes time and a sound marketing strategy. It's about understanding your target audience, knowing what the competition is doing, and sound web design that appeals to your website visitors (that happens to include search engine robots as well as humans).

Since the robots don't buy your product, good SEO online marketing strategy starts with learning about your target market, how they use the internet in their personal consumption, then designing a strategy that fits your market segment, appeals to your online visitors, and ultimately brings revenue and success to your businesses.

Take a step back and let's look at marketing strategy from the 30k foot view. The true first steps of good search engine optimization start with these three things:

1. Know your consumer, target market.
Do you have a local market or service? National? International? What is the makeup and count of your target market? Do they use the internet and how do they use it? Not just in search, but socially. What does your marketing company/SEO know about your target market's online behavior?

Know which keywords are your most important, which ones are attainable organically as well as with ppc and affordable (especially if you are up-and-coming in a mature industry/mature web space), which ones your consumers are using, which ones your competitors are using. 

How you build your site around your keywords, whether it's a fully hosted site, a word press or studio press, or even just a blogspot site, effective keyword use on and off site are more important that the host. 

And you should also consider which search engine you want to focus on and then there are the vertical search sites such as Squidoo, Technorati or even FaceBook (whether or not your target market is there). Getting that strategy in place ahead of time can also have an effect on the methods you could employ for good online presence. 

But instead of trying to tackle them all, learn more about your consumer and how they search for your type of product. Understanding your consumer and their online habits will do far more to enhance your business, gain more consumers and make more revenue for your endeavor. 

In the next article, I'll cover the second point, Know Your Competition. 

To get the most of your internet presence, visit Idaho SEO. 71% of all consumers begin their search online - do they end with you? Let our professional marketing efforts put you ahead of your competitors. 

Are you where your consumers can find you? Are your competitors? Bring a decade of internet marketing experience to your marketing department, email Idaho SEO for expert SEO consultingservices to get your website and marketing strategy optimized.