SEO stands for search engine optimization. That means making changes and settings that will improve your chances of being high on the list of websites that Google shows to surfers searching for your topic. That is to say, the free “organic” listing, not the paid ads you see on the right hand side. It’s usually very long and goes on for dozens, maybe hundreds of pages, on that particular search term.
Paid Google advertisings (AdWords) will allow your ad to be shown when somebody types in a particular search term. You choose these search terms or “keywords” and you have to bid on them. The more you bid, the nearer the top of the display list you come.
As competition has increased over the years, you may find yourself having to pay $5, $10 or even as high as $50 a click, for the very popular search terms, if you want to come out top of the front page.
Not everyone wants to approach making money online with this pay-per-click (PPC) method. It need can be quite demanding in time and money. PPC managers spend dozens of hours a week, tracking their clicks and costs. Bidding can mean you are risking $1,000s.
The alternative, which is free, is simply to make yourself more visible in the organic listings by making certain changes in the settings and wording of your website. We call this call search engine optimization.
Obviously, if you sell golf equipment, you don’t expect your site to be shown when somebody types in “Ranch style cooking”. But you do want people looking for golf clubs, golf clothing maybe and improve-your-stroke DVDs to find you.
The important thing is to get yourself as high as possible in the organic listing for your search terms. Being on the first page is best, at the top if possible. The first few pages isn’t bad (people will look through several pages of listings to find exactly what they want).
But if you are a dozen pages down or more, that’s no good. You won’t be found often.
The way you get yourself higher in the list is to be clever about what people are looking for vs. what you are trying to sell.
If your chosen keyword is “golf equipment” Google returns nearly 8 million listings (check for yourself).
But if your keyword is “extra long golf clubs”, the search results drop to 356,000. That’s a little more in your favor. But you know what? Not one site on the first page the whole keyword, exactly as typed. One site on the first page had “extra long golf club” (singular).
So there is a lesson. Pay attention to every single letter in your keyword. If you had chosen the plural spelling, you might have been right at the top, the first page seen by someone looking for your product.
Notice also that if you type in “Maxfli clubs” (2 words) you get 691,000 listings. But for “Maxfli golf clubs” (3 words, same item) it drops to 169,000. So choose carefully.
But the important factor in your choice, of course, is not other websites. It’s simply ARE PEOPLE TYPING IN THAT SEARCH TERM?
That’s where Google’s keyword tool will help you. If you sold “Maxfli golf cubs”, 2,900 people per month type in that phrase.
If you narrowed it even more, to “Maxfli left hand golf clubs”, only 53,000 sites were listed and, once again, nobody carries the EXACT keyword. You could be top of the list.
A left-hander who likes Maxfli clubs would be almost certain to become your customer.
Do you see the value of narrowing the target down? “Inch wide and a mile deep” is the motto for keywords. Too broad a term and the competition is enormous; you won’t get a significant share of the traffic. Choose a more narrowly targeted segment of the market and you have a chance of competing for customers. Understanding these simple rules will save you a ton of money when it come to making money online with SEO.
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