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What is search engine optimization (SEO)?

Search Engine Optimization is the process of improving your website so that it attracts more visitors who are using search engines. When a user searches for a product or service, they will type keywords into the search engine. With help from those keywords, bots called “spiders” will crawl the web and generate a list of organic sites. Those sites are ordered in terms of what website is most helpful in answering exactly what the web user has searched for. This order or ranking stems from factors such as relevance, trustworthiness, and usefulness.

How to implement SEO strategy and best practices

1. Do keyword research.
   1. With keyword research, it is important to be specific. The broader the term, the harder it is to be one of the top site generated.
   2. Try using a long-tail keyword instead of simply a keyword. For example, instead of using the keyword “marketing,” use the long-tail keyword of “marketing solutions for small businesses in Chester County, Pennsylvania”.
2. Create content around your keywords.

Add the keyword to the page title and URL

1. Additionally, add the keyword to the body and headers to your website.
2. Search engines do not read images. Search Engines read the alt tag of the image, a small description that has information about each image on your website. Make sure you are linking to the alt-text, because the image itself will not link.
3. Place the focus keyword in the meta description. This will add additional relevance to the web users search query and create more of an opportunity for them to click on to the page.
4. Include relevant internal and external links within the content

Promote your content

1. In order to do so, make sure your website is easy to browse and available on mobile devices.
2. Social media (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Google+), is a great way to promote your content. Make sure to track your following.
3. Target segmentation is a necessary step to effectively promote your content. Factors such as demographics, geographies, and psychographics should be taken into consideration to establish a target market and ultimately, buyer personas. Buyer personas are representations of your ideal customer based on real data and some select educated speculation.

Build relationships

1. Making relationships with customers will help build traction to your website through ways such soft buzz, or word-of-mouth.
2. A large following can aid in promoting your content because the more traction to a website, the higher up it will appear in the generated list. If your website appears at the top of the list, your following will increase due to increased visibility.