YOU’RE NOT ALONE. A lot of people don’t really understand what SEO is, why it’s helpful, and what people are doing when they do it. But if it’s as important as people say it is, feeling clueless about it isn’t good. Let’s fix that right now.
What Exactly is SEO Again?
It’s basically the way that you get potential customers to visit your website from Google (and the like) without paying for ads. About 10 of the spots on a search results pages are not ads (i.e. “organic”). SEO helps you show up in one of those free spots when people search for jewelry. It stands for Search Engine Optimization.
Why SEO Is So Valuable
People pay good money for ad spots on Google, but organic spots are free. If you can get a lot of clicks without having to pay for each one, it’s like cheaper advertising.
Also, visitors often trust organic results more than ads. And once a page starts showing up in search results, it usually stays there for a while and is easier to keep there. It’s a long game but has a big payoff.
Google Just Wants Good Search Results. You Just Want Good Visitors.
Those two facts drive everything that’s done in SEO.
What Google Looks For
Google knows that if they can show people the best results to match their search, people will continue to use Google. They are laser focused on figuring out which pages on which websites match best with searches.
Here are some things that Google looks for:
- Relevant information
- Trusted sources
- Well written content
- Satisfied searchers
- Nearby locations
- Good website experiences
How does Google know? Lot’s of practice. Ultimately, it’s a computer that is evaluating your website to see if it has the best information, but they’ve gotten better and better about figuring out what people like by looking at a whole bunch of factors. For example, if a lot of trusted sites link to your page, Google considers it a sign that your page is probably trustworthy since other people are “recommending” you.
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What Jewelers Should Look For
On the flip side, you want lots of people who are going to buy jewelry sometime in the near future visiting. This is where research and targeting come in.
When specialists work on SEO for you, they do research into the searches for keywords related to buying jewelry.
Here are some things SEO specialist try to figure out:
- Relevant keywords
- Frequent searches
- Local searches
- Likely buyers
- Searcher’s expectations
Giving Google What They Want
This is the hard part. This is why SEO specialists are worth it. Because Google looks at so many things, skills are needed to send the right signals.
In general, these are the things that SEO specialists do to keep your site relevant:
- Write and update “metadata” (info about the page in the code)
- Add and update image alt-text (info about the image in the code)
- Write new (or rewrite old) website copy
- Find “backlink” opportunities (getting others to link to your site)
- Find and troubleshoot page speed issues
- Add “internal links” (linking to pages within the site for a better experience)
- Update pages to provide a better user experience
- Evaluate and reorganize website menus
There’s a lot more that goes into it, but this gives you the idea.
Don’t Get Cross-Eyed
You don’t necessarily need to know how all of this works. Unless you plan on taking on SEO as a hobby, the important thing to know is that everything in SEO is about making important pages on your site more helpful to Google.
Are you looking for an agency that understands SEO for jewelers? Contact suits@fruchtman.com.