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You are here: Home / blog / The Skinny on SEO

The Skinny on SEO

09/24/2014 By Kristen Day 21 Comments

get the skinny on search engine optimizationI recently had someone ask me what optimization meant when I was talking about SEO and saying that a website is optimized has better chances of being crawled.  I thought about it and it made perfect sense… surely not everyone understands what I do, or rather what search engine optimization was, so I took a moment to explain to her.

What is Optimization?

First, you have to look at what optimization is. Optimization is making something more functional. So, in this case, optimizing a website would be to make it more functional.  Just that alone would be two-fold, in that it brings up a second question – functional for whom?

If you think about it, you have your website established for the ease to the consumer by making your products and services available onlineclean website for consumer ease of navigation 24/7, or in many cases.  It provides a place to go to get more information when the store, for example, is closed or a place to go when researching more information about a company.  So, optimizing your website would be to make it functional for the consumer.  You want to be sure your website is user friendly, that the consumers find what they need with ease – this is often called website usability or readability.  If they, the consumer, can’t find what they are looking for, they will leave and find it on a site that is easier to navigate.  So, I’ll leave that thought with this – be sure your website is clean, easy to read, easy to navigate and provides the answers to the questions the consumers may have about your products or services.

Next onto Search Engine Optimization

the benefits of blogs in SEONow that we get a little more about what optimizing a website is about – for the consumers, what about search engine optimization?  Just like you’d expect, search engine optimization is about making a website functional and user friendly for the search engines.  SEO’s main things to consider, but not limited to, are keyword rich content, links and meta tags such as title tag, meta description tag and less important meta keywords to name just a few.  Doing these things as well as ensuring your website is fully functional by not having broken links, having a sitemap and having nofollow on your robots.txt file where the robots don’t need to crawl, for example will aid the search engine spiders in crawling the important parts of your website.  This indexing of your website will then be cached with the search engines for when a user searches a keyword phrase, in hopes that your website will be returned in those results for the user.Search engine spiders crawling your site

So why do we need SEO?

Remember those consumers we were talking about earlier?  They can’t be searching your website for your products or services if they don’t find your website.  So, you need to optimize your website for the search engines to help the consumers find your website as well as optimize your website for the consumer ease to keep them there in hopes of buying your products or services.

Keep in mind that SEO takes time to do and should be done on a monthly basis to keep the search engine spiders coming back to your website. If you would like further information on search engine optimization, please check out some of my other blogs on search engine optimization.  If you are interested in outsourcing the SEO so you can focus on building your business or would like a 1on1 so you can learn how to Do It Yourself, let me know as I offer monthly maintenance as well as educational consulting services.  Contact me today with any questions.

~Kristen

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Kristen Day
Kristen Day
CEO/Founder of A Visual Business
Kristen is a small business owner and thus dedicated to other small business owners by helping them improve their online presence with search engine optimization, social media marketing, email marketing and pay per click advertising all of which are necessary 'evils' in the digital marketing sphere but enables small business owners the opportunity to compete with larger companies. When not in the digital arena, you can find her riding her Honda VTX1300 or drinking a margarita.

Filed Under: blog, search engine optimization Tagged With: search engine spiders, seo, website readability

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Comments

  1. Beth Niebuhr says

    09/24/2014 at 12:50 PM

    It’s a wakeup call when someone doesn’t know the meaning of something we work at every day, isn’t it. I thought this article gave a very good description.

    Reply
    • Kristen Wilson says

      09/24/2014 at 2:38 PM

      I know right.. however, often times we are in networking groups and it’s hard to explain all of what we do anyhow! Thanks Beth!

      Reply
  2. Jackie Harder says

    09/24/2014 at 2:20 PM

    You are SO preaching to the choir here, girlfriend. People who write website copy for themselves as simply stroking their own…egos. It is NOT about showing off your intelligence, your education, your products or your services. It’s about connecting with your prospects in a way that is meaningful to them. If your website is not drawing the traffic you want, look in the mirror for the reason why. Then hire Kristen to help!

    Reply
    • Kristen Wilson says

      09/24/2014 at 2:39 PM

      Ohhhh, thank you Jackie! You got that right… it’s about informing the consumer, hopefully in the same way to work with the search engines! Thanks for the Shout out!

      Reply
  3. Roslyn Tanner Evans says

    09/24/2014 at 4:48 PM

    You make a complicated topic make sense. Myfriend and I have been reading many of your articles that explain everything. I have a webmaster handling mine and I like to know what has to happen.

    Reply
    • Kristen Wilson says

      09/26/2014 at 8:48 AM

      Thanks so much Rosyln, glad that I have made it more understandable as you are right… it can be very complicated! I agree, good to know the workings of what you are paying people to do.

      Reply
  4. Sonya says

    09/25/2014 at 8:09 AM

    Who asked you that question then? 😉
    Thanks for putting it into a blog

    Reply
    • Kristen Wilson says

      09/26/2014 at 8:49 AM

      Thank YOU Miss Sonya! I appreciate you and I figured if one person had the question, others would too. My industry is often misunderstood… if so, we aren’t doing our job to educate!

      Reply
  5. michael kawula says

    09/25/2014 at 8:56 AM

    Great info and it’s all important. If people can’t find you, he great information you have to share and the great products or services mean nothing.

    Reply
    • Kristen Wilson says

      09/26/2014 at 8:50 AM

      That’s right Mike. Why spend hours and dollars on this great website if it can’t be found.

      Reply
  6. Stacey McCoy says

    09/25/2014 at 4:50 PM

    Thanks so much for this article. It’s difficult to be a jack of all trades. So glad to have friends that are experts in different areas!

    Reply
    • Kristen Wilson says

      09/26/2014 at 8:50 AM

      It is difficult that’s why we need to remind ourselves that we don’t have to and to outsource where we can. Glad to be a friend and to help. Thanks Stacey!

      Reply
  7. Yakini says

    09/26/2014 at 7:16 AM

    Thanks for the in depth information. It is clearer now and you are right this needs to be done often to make sure those spiders are coming back. Thanks.

    Reply
    • Kristen Wilson says

      09/26/2014 at 8:51 AM

      You are welcome Yakini, glad to help.

      Reply
  8. Dan & Laurie Neumann says

    07/18/2016 at 9:51 AM

    Hi Kristen,

    Do you think inbound links are as important as they used to be? Or has social media interaction taken over?

    Thanks!

    Reply
    • Kristen Wilson says

      07/19/2016 at 5:54 PM

      Absolutely Dan, the catch is now that you don’t want to be buying them like back in the day. I post to social bookmarking sites and then of course social media. I write a new blog a week but post to social media a blog a day. That should give you an idea of what I am trying to do. Plus, posting to bookmark sites as well like StumbleUpon, Delicious, etc.

      Reply

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I would highly recommend working with Kristen if you need help with any SEO work, she's great.

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Kristen took a subject (SEO) about which I was completely ignorant and frankly, afraid of, and made it understandable. After just an hour with her, I'm confident that I can implement the changes she suggested. Her professionalism and knowledge are exemplary. I will heartily recommend you to others! Thank you!

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I took a class with Kristen on Social Media and while I knew a bit about how Facebook works but after the class and some additional question and answers, I began to understand better how it works. I just wish other people and business owners understood the filters in Facebook and the value of the comment and share versus the like. I would highly recommend Kristen’s classes, using her services or having her help you with a consultation as it would be valuable to you and your business.

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Kristen Wilson of A Visual Business knows about search engine optimization and social media marketing. Just a few tweaks here and there to my website and I have seen a difference in the stats. I really like how she also takes the time to not only explain what she will do, but breaks it down into laymen terms so I understand just how it will benefit my business. She's been a real treasure to work with!

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I had the pleasure of attending Social Media/Network Marketing training today with Kristen Wilson, the owner of A Visual Business. She has a refreshing approach to a tedious process we all deal with, Internet Marketing. I was immediately able to take her ideas and implement them on my company's Facebook page with instant results. No sooner had I made the updates she taught in class, than responses started pouring in. If an Internet presence is key for your company, if curb side appeal is and element used in your Social Media, if you want to be the one that stands out in your industry, then Kristen has the components you've been looking for. The great thing is that the information is in a digestible format and will give you the edge you need to get your company noticed.

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I have known Kristen Wilson for several months and have worked with her not only on my site but as a partner with one of my own website development clients. She is knowledgeable, responsive, thorough and very easy to work with. I would highly recommend her for anyone who is looking with help on SEO or PPC for their website.

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I started working with Kristen about a year ago. I just started researching around on creating a new website for my company and I ran in to her at a local networking group. She helped me create my current web page and boosted it to the top 3 home inspection web sites with in 7 months. She is always by the phone and is happy to help . Thank you Kristen for all your hard work and your honest opinion it really shows in my business everyday.

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I can't recommend A Visual Business strongly enough. I have spent thousands of dollars on traditional magazine ads that yielded little to nothing in return. Kristen goes out of her way to ensure that her customers are happy and well taken care of. She always exceeds our expectations.

When I reached out to AVB, Kristin reviewed my website in advance, and at our first meeting, she suggested a lot of improvement before we initiated the contract. Within days of moving forward, our new patient volume increased dramatically. We have been consistently busy ever since.

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