SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO), is a fancy name for using internet tools to increase presence on the web to drive business sales. When someone searches on Google or Bing for a product or service I sell or a business like mine or in a geographic area where I am located, my business website might be able to move up in search engine results through SEO. It has something to do with algorithms, keywords, and data. I’ll let Wikipedia explain…
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic to a website from search engines. SEO targets unpaid traffic rather than direct or paid traffic. Unpaid traffic may originate from different kinds of searches, including image or video search, academic search, news search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.
Note to the reader,“unpaid traffic” is the key here because those who pay will be at the top of the search list with “AD” in their title. You’ve all seen them and drilled down past them; I know I have in almost every Google search. Wikipedia continues…
As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work, the computer-programmed algorithms that dictate search engine behavior, what people search for, the actual search terms or keywords typed into search engines, and which search engines are preferred by their targeted audience.
It makes sense, in a scary sort of way, that keywords drive this train. I am the Queen of Google, and at this point in life, who isn’t? We all are curious to immediately know the answer to a burning question such as, “How tall is the lead actor on Outlander? (6’3” in case you wondered, although his character in the books is described as 6’4’, close enough.) The magic of Google is that you often get way more than you asked for, including hundreds of photos and info on whether the two main characters are romantically involved. (Just very good friends, despite their obvious on-screen chemistry for the past seven seasons.) Another question, “Can you freeze Gazpacho?” Answer: (“It freezes quite well if you don’t make it too chunky.”) Thousands of hits on both questions, the ones at the top, most relevant if you ignore the AD hits.
In a GUERILLA MARKETING TACTICS webinar, I learned that togrow my business, I need a “call to action,” i.e., to ASK for something rather than waiting for nature to take its course. Following the Guerilla Tactic, I put the word out to various friends and colleagues to please subscribe to my blog. As of today, I have 69 active subscribers (although still not my husband), and thanks to analytics, another term like algorithms, I learned “Old Man’s Friend,Refuse Antibiotics to Achieve a Peaceful Death?” was the most read of all my blogs.
Here are some things I learned about this “blog subscribing” adventure and SEO. First, you NEED TO ASK PEOPLE to subscribe. Once I did, I got a lot of new subscribers. If people like what they read and SHARE or COMMENT, even better, as this is also magically picked up by SEO and helps drive your business.
Second, MAKE WHAT YOU ARE ASKING FOR EASY TO SPOT. At first, you could only find my subscriber info by clicking on a blog post. People don’t like to waste time drilling down to find something; one click should be the rule. Once I added a bold print Subscribe to the first page of the Blog, no drilling down was necessary, and I added more subscribers. I also added an Unsubscribe and lost two subscribers. Ouch…
Third, INCLUDE A LINK that will bring people to the precise spot they need to be. This is the key to success. Follow that link to put yourself in the shoes of the potential subscriber. I thought my link was bringing people to the right place until I found the original link lost something in translation (algorithm??!!!). A big thank you to the people who gently pointed this error out.
I am not sure if having people subscribe to my blog will change my internet presence or increase my business, but it’s been an interesting way to reach out and implement a tactic and get my message across.
Here we go…please subscribe to my blog, and here is the link: Ending Well Patient Advocacy – Blog Did you get that, Hubby?
Althea Halchuck, EJD, CT, BCPA
Ending Well! Patient Advocacy, LLC
