What is Website SEO?

Internet marketing is a complex and many-faceted strategy. With an Internet presence, businesses such as legal firms and attorney offices are able to access an enormous population of potential customers. However, the Internet is vast, and competition for consumers is tough. Many businesses use a strategy known as SEO, or search engine optimization, to improve their ranking statistics on search engine results pages.

Optimizing for Search Engines

Consumers use the Internet to find out information about every topic imaginable. There are billions of web pages on the Internet, so it would be impossible for a human to sift through every site to find the information for which he or she is searching. Search engines, such as Google, take care of this sifting process on behalf of people. When consumers search for terms such as "legal advice" or "attorneys in Ohio," Google evaluates all the websites on the Internet and displays a list of results that it has determined to be relevant. Ranking high in the search engines will drive more traffic to your website. Greater traffic means a larger population of leads who can eventually become paying customers.

How Does Google Measure Site Value

Google and other major search engines have algorithms that "crawl" over the visible and hidden content of a website to evaluate the merit, value, and quality of the website in question. Google's algorithm searches for evidence that website is authoritative, managed regularly, helpful to consumers, and valued by other industry leaders. The algorithm's intention is not to make web designers jump through hoops. Rather, the entire purpose of the algorithm is to make Google's sorting process as efficient and worthwhile as possible.

Inbound Links

Inbound linking is another effective strategy for search engine optimization. A search engine algorithm like Google's assumes that if several different websites are linking to a specific website, the site that is being linked to must be an authoritative and beneficial site. Often, Google evaluates the anchor text that is used in the link. If several websites are linking to your site with anchor text such as "attorney" or "lawyer," Google will assume that you have a reputable website for consumers looking for an attorney.

Site Content Communicates Expertise

The amount of content featured on your website is another important element of an effective SEO strategy. Google's search algorithm assumes that a website with a great deal of content related to a specific industry is a website with authority and expertise in that particular industry. Content, however, must be high quality, well-written content in order to have any SEO merits. Poor content that is simply stuffed with keywords will actually cause a website's rankings to suffer.

Put Customers First

The best SEO strategy is one that puts the customer first in all things. Writing content that appeals to consumers, creating the most attractive and easily navigated website possible, and attempting to be an authoritative and helpful resource for Internet searchers is the best way to rank well with the search engines.