The truth about SEO (it’s simpler than you think)

Every week, I hear from a current, past, or potential client who has questions about SEO and their website. Most people don’t know anything about what it is or how it works.

The truth is, SEO isn’t the black magic or voodoo that people make it out to be. If you’ve worked with an SEO specialist who’s promised magic results before, and it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. SEO is not something you can magically flip a switch and improve. It’s a long-term strategic play. But it’s also much more straightforward than you probably think.

SEO isn’t about optimizing the website so Google can see it and rank you. It’s not something you need to ​“add” to your website. It’s always there. Google already sees your website, and has already ranked you. SEO is just the term that people in the business use to talk about improving your position in the rankings for your keywords.

And that’s where people get confused. So let’s try and clear all this up. (And if you prefer to watch a video instead, you can do that too.)

SEO is a large field, but I want to focus on three basic elements that you might not know about. If you understand these things, you’ll be able to use your website like a tool, and you’ll have a better understanding of how SEO works.

Number 1: The content on your website

SEO is all about the content on your website. And by content, I mostly mean the words. The copywriting. If the words you want people to find you for aren’t in your website’s headlines, then people won’t find you for those words.

Clear as mud, right?

Look, let’s use me as an example. I’m a web designer and web developer. If my website’s main headline was ​“artisanal websites made for people who care,” that’s what people have to search for to find me. If my website’s main headline is ​“Web designer and web developer in Hamilton,” then I’ll rank high for that keyword instead.

There’s one extra wrinkle here: every page’s copy on your website needs to reinforce the same general idea. For example, if I wrote an entire website about web design and development, but then I had a page about how much I love cheese, Google won’t rank that page about cheese very high for searches about cheese. The rest of my site isn’t relevant to cheese, so Google doesn’t think I’m an expert in that area. (This blog post will probably not show up in searches for ​“cheese,” but maybe it will show up under ​“cheesy web design.” Who knows?)

A lot of what a good SEO specialist does is focus on your copy. They’ll look at what keywords people use to find you, and they’ll ask if those are the right keywords. They’ll ask what keywords people should search to find you. And if the copy on your website doesn’t match those keywords, they’ll tell you where that text should go.

So if you feel like your website isn’t optimized for SEO, start with the copywriting.

The easiest way to write copy is to talk to your customers. Find out what they’re looking for, and then write copy that addresses their needs. Experiment! See what works and doesn’t work. Your visibility on search engines is a dynamic, changing thing.

Number 2: Backlinks

Backlinks are the links on other websites that point to your website. It’s the organic conversation happening around the internet surrounding your business.

Backlinks are the reason huge companies like Apple and news sites like the New York Times rank as high as they do in search. People talk a lot about these large organizations, and link to them. Search engines use that as an indication of trustworthiness, and rank them higher for searches.

So how can you replicate that yourself?

This is the reason people will tell you to start a podcast, or guest on a podcast. It’s the reason people tell you to write guest articles for publications in your niche. Those things, ideally, link back to you and demonstrate your trust.

Quality is more important than quantity. Don’t put your site up on some junky links sites. Google knows all the dirty tricks. Don’t try them. But even a link from your local chamber of commerce, trade associations, or partners is hugely helpful.

Some of my clients hire PR firms to do this. It can be a full-time job trying to find places that will feature you. But backlinks are very often the part of the puzzle that’s missing for my clients.

Number 3: Clean code

This is less important than it used to be, but good, semantic code still makes a difference to Google. Clear hierarchies. Easy-to-parse HTML markup. Fast and mobile-friendly websites.

Here’s a simple example: Google, and other search engines, use your HTML structure to figure out what’s most important on your page. If you’ve ever edited a blog post, you’ve probably noticed you can choose a Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3, etc.

But you probably don’t know you make it easier for the machine if your content descends in a certain order.

Google likes it more if your page has one Heading 1. The next subheading should be a Heading 2, but a lot of people will use Heading 3 instead. It’s not that anything is broken, but it’s better if you use Heading 2 before a Heading 3.

Think of it like the Table of Contents for a book. Heading 1 is the book title. Heading 2 is the title of each chapter. And Heading 3s are the subheadings that make up the contents of each chapter. You can’t have chapter subheadings without a chapter heading. Your website should be the same.

There are lots of little tricks like this that programmers know. These things could improve your SEO.

But clean code can’t do anything for your SEO if your content isn’t right. Clean code matters, but it won’t help weak copy or zero backlinks. So if you want to rebuild a website so you can have better SEO, you really need to think about the content first.

And that means you need to figure out who your customer is. If you don’t know your ideal customers, it’s hard to get started on all this.

When to call a professional

If you aren’t sure who your customers are, and you feel like you’re too close to the process, that’s a great time to call a professional in. Don’t just respond to one of those spam emails promising miracles. Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Instead, do your research. If this is an SEO project, you’ll want to find a highly-rated SEO specialist. You don’t have to redesign your website at the same time, but if you do want to redo your website (and maybe even your brand identity while you’re at it), then call a reputable design studio instead.

The outside professional will be able to ask pointed questions about your business, your customers, and your long-term goals and mission that will clarify a lot of the questions you’re asking about SEO. In my web design projects, this is part of the first phase. In that phase, I try to help you create a brief so we both understand the scope of the work and the strategy. A big part of that is asking who your ideal customers are, making personas, and giving each persona a name and treating them as a person. That’s also hugely clarifying for SEO as well.

That being said, while there are advantages to hiring a pro to do this, if you keep the tips above in mind, you might not have to hire anybody at all. Keep an eye on your metrics and your analytics and see if any of your copy changes induce improvements. And don’t stop trying new things! Good luck.