SEO is practice of improving a websites ranking within the search engine results for a given keyword. To put this in simpler terms here's an example:
Joe Blogs has a Window cleaning business based in Leicestershire. His business wants to attract new clients from within this area.
It stands to reason that his potential new clients would search in Google (or any other search engine) for something like "window cleaner Leicestershire".
To attract more leads and visitors to his website Joe Blogs should be as close to the top of the search results page as possible, with the top position most favoured.
So from this simple exercise we can see that Joe Blogs most obvious (and important) search term is "window cleaner Leicestershire". So, his site should be tailored around this keyword wherever possible.
It would be pointless for Joe Blogs to target "window cleaner" as his keyword as the internet is global, this would return many thousands if not millions of results which would be very difficult to get to the top of. Many of the competitors for this broad search term would have many times more budget to spend on SEO and advertising.
Also the keyword "window cleaner" isn't targeted enough. Someone searching for this might be looking for a product to help them clean windows. So even if Joe Blogs did get to the top of the rankings for this search the visits he might receive to his site may not be targeted enough to convert into actual sales.
This is the key point about SEO - you need to focus on your business and effectively target specific areas in which you can then dominate.
There are two approaches to SEO that need to be considered. The first in on-site SEO, the second is off-site SEO. As you may have guessed on-site SEO is everything that happens on the page. when having your website built you should ensure that this is carried out from the very start of the project. Ideally the web team working on your project should carry out keyword analysis to ensure the content and construction of your website is built with your specific keywords in mind.
Off-site SEO is everything that happens away from your website. One of the main methods Google and the other big search engines rank websites is on how many links from other sites point to them. A website that has lots of inbound links from reputable sources is viewed as being important within that subject, and as such is given a rankings boost. Other forms of off-site SEO include social networking. The act of getting your name (and web-link) around the web will draw in more traffic to your site. More traffic is always good, and naturally if visitors like what they see they may link to you.
If you need any assistance or advice about your new web project or existing website please get in touch with Nice Price Websites on 0333 600 1025.