How do I get my company to show up on the first page of Google’s search results?
That is the question that all entrepreneurs ask themselves.
Search Engine Optimization or SEO generally refers to making a company’s website more attractive for Google’s search algorithms. Google is the most popular search engine there is, and countless of people search for products and services they need each day. However, Search Engine Optimization is a complex matter affected by eternal forces, too.
Google does not tell us everything
The hardest part about SEO is that Google does not share all of its information freely. We know some of how their algorithms work and we can observe them in action, but we also know that there are gaps in our knowledge. Many questions regarding SEO have gone unanswered in the past, because Google, naturally, does not want to share its trade secrets.
Another thing we don’t know is what Google plans for the future.
SEO is changing all the time
Since we aren’t being told all there is to know about Search Engine Optimization, we also do now know when or how it will change. Sometimes, Google will let us know how and why things have changed, but the information is rarely complete and it often comes only after the changes have already taken effect.
In other words, SEO can fundamentally change tomorrow, and we will not know about it until it happens.
Everybody wants to be number one
Even professionally done SEO will not ensure that your company will rise up to be the first hit with Google’s search words. This is simply because everyone wants to be number one. Every single hairdresser in Helsinki wants to be first whenever someone types in “hairdresser Helsinki.”
Therefore, what we call organic traffic has grown to be more and more important. It’s not enough to have a site that is optimized for search engines, and it may not even be enough to have paid Google campaigns going. What companies need are ordinary consumers sending each other links to the companies’ sites or talking about the sites in their social media.
First repetition of search terms, now image metadata
Originally, a lot of SEO was focused on the repetition of search terms. The more times you used a certain term in the content of your site, the higher it ranked on Google. This lead to keyword spam on uninteresting sites, which forced Google to change the ways it works.
Now, it is not only the visible, written content that matters to Google. It has started to pay more attention to things like the metadata of images. Partially, this is merely customer services, since many people use Google’s image search to look for a specific product.
If you can, hire a professional
No one has limitless power over how search engines behave. An expert, however, will know how to avoid the biggest beginner mistakes and is likely to come up with the best key words for the company. That is why there is no need to feel alone with SEO.