SEO for Beginners: Basic Ground Rules

If you’ve been wondering how to get clients for my home care business, a big part of the answer lies in SEO, or search engine optimization. When it comes to SEO, there seem to be several schools of thought, oftentimes with one faction arguing with another faction regarding what is most important or what will make the most impact. And then you get into talk about AJAX and algorithms and you start to feel like you’re back in 9th grade algebra without a pencil.

I’ve been sitting in the back of the classroom observing the SEO theories for quite some time now, and feel there are a few basic tenets about SEO on which experts agree. And if your mind seems tangled in the world wide web of SEO, these simple rules will help to lay the groundwork for better understanding. If you are truly a beginner and are even new to the SEO terms used below, check out www.seobook.com/glossary/ for excellent, easy-to-understand definitions.

  • Keywords are king. According to a recent Marketing Sherpa report, 83% of SEO marketing agencies thought good keyword research was the most effective SEO tactic in the toolbelt. You can go to Google’s search-based keyword tool to look up keywords and see how they rank. Once you’ve selected your magic bullet keywords, be sure to sprinkle them liberally and strategically throughout the text of your website.
  • If your website doesn’t have “good bones”, the best keywords in the world are not going to do you a whole lot of good. It is best to design a website right off the bat with a design team that understands good SEO practices. A good web design foundation will help the search engines find and rank your site faster and more agreeably.
  • There are a lot of people who think that SEO for their website is a one shot deal. You get a designer in there to add some keywords and tweak some things behind the scenes and you’re set…right? Au contraire…I once heard a professed SEO fanatic describe SEO as creating a fine wine. You need to spend a lot of time tending the vineyard and fine-tuning this and that in order to get just the right flavor. I think that is a vivid interpretation of what good SEO entails.
  • The rules for SEO are not stagnant. Rules that reigned five years ago are not the same as how search engines such as Google are ranking websites today, and you can bet they won’t be the same tomorrow. I think it’s always best to have a SEO guru on your side who eats words like “algorithm” for breakfast. SEO can get expensive….so you’re going to want to make sure whoever is messing with your website knows what they are doing.

Still wondering how to get clients for your home care business? At corecubed, we love our resident SEO techno wizards. They are always on the top of the latest news and tips regarding how to get your website ranked higher on the search engines.  They speak the SEO language so you don’t have to. Give us a call today at 800-370-6580 and find out how we can help your website crawl up the page rankings.