Search engine optimization (SEO) sounds like a buzzword that has been thrown around for years. What does SEO actually mean and how can it help small businesses in Atlanta, Georgia? Search engine optimization in the simplest terms is the method through which a company can improve search engine rankings.
How Search Engines Rank Websites
To understand the usefulness of SEO for a business, dissecting how search engines, such as Google or Bing, rank websites is the first step. Search engines utilize algorithms that scan all websites on the Internet and rank them according to the relevance of a user’s search term. These algorithms look at a number of factors, carefully categorizing the ranking of every website.
How to Optimize a Website
One of the most critical factors in an algorithm’s determination of how to rank a website is the website’s content. Keywords appearing on the first flap of a website’s page and how many times those keywords appear on the site are major factors in a crawler’s ranking. If a business in Atlanta, Georgia, was selling peach cobblers and held content on its website relevant to this topic, crawlers would “up rank” the website, indicating it is relevant to the user’s search term.
It’s important to note there are other factors taken into consideration when a search engine ranks a website, such as metadata, backlinking and brand prominence; however, content is a heavily weighted category in all of this.
Why Is SEO Important?
Search engine optimization is important overall because it allows users to find a relevant business. SEO brings free exposure that might not have had any otherwise. Whether a user is from Atlanta or is visiting Georgia, having a business presence on search engines can drive more traffic to the business overall.
