Interline’s view on SEO follows the major two rules of using Google to help customers and prospects find a company: 1)content, and 2)linking.
Content has to be generated and distributed mainly on the client’s website. It can also appear in media outlets and drive people back to the client’s website. The objective is always ending up on the client’s website.
Linking means having website other than the client’s link to their site. For example, if a media outlet publishes a press release on the client’s product, there is usually a link back to the client’s website. Or, it means linking within the client’s website story to story.
Those are the two basics of Search Engine Optimization.
For example, if someone Google’s “insulation” there are 457,000,000 results delivered, not enough time in a month to go through them all. So the theory of SEO is that customers and prospects don’t get past page one in their desire for information. Therefore, a company needs to be on page one – and maximizing or optimizing your content is how you do that.
On page one in that search for “insulation.,” there are ads – all of which are largely bypassed because people don’t read ads. Also, because of the digital ad fraud that exists, many ads are not even seen by searchers. To illustrate, 50 percent of ad impressions served on Internet Explorer were to non-human traffic (FraudLogix, 2016). Google itself has to study this problem because they have the most to lose as it spreads. And it is spreading. Here is a reference report for your review.
The best “organic” link (which is content that is NOT paid for) in the Google search for “insulation” is https://www.homedepot.com/b/Building-Materials-Insulation/N-5yc1vZasbs. This link leads to content with the title: Insulate Your Home. The word “insulation” is used 66 times on the page – largely in the directory on the left that leads to other pages within the Home Depot website. That is why they are on page one in such a search and have such excellent SEO.
If you Google “insulate your home” which is how the average consumer might search in Google, 15,400,000 results are served. Again, there are companies buying those words so their ads are served up first and on the side. But the organic search results (below the ads, which is where people go), are the key to understanding SEO.
https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/weatherize/insulation/adding-insulation-existing-home is first, which is the government with tons of content. This is followed by Wikihow.com, familyhandyman.com, and a website from a company called Assured Comfort Heating Air and Plumbing – a business located in Georgia. This company has mastered SEO because they are on page one with their story: 8 Little Known DIY Tips on How to Better Insulate your Home. This is a blog that exists on THEIR website.
So if you Google “How to Insulate your Home” or “best way to insulate your home” or other combinations, their content – and their company – are on page one. They are providing such content to people even OUTSIDE their business area, but gaining that number one, page one spot for people IN their area. They win, period.
This took them probably three to six months to accomplish. It’s not like buying an ad and being there for those words when people search. But, their way is BETTER because no one reads ads. Along with the growing fraud around the ads themselves, people just don’t go to the Internet for advertising: they go for content. It is similar to how you by-pass ads on television: you DVR your programs now.
Interline’s investment in content can help a company achieve such results. The company we used in this example only has half of the battle. The other half – linking – is a combination of having websites link back to a client’s website and linking within your own website to and from your own content. Also, you need to drive people to your website, which is achieved through publicity and content distribution OUTSIDE of client’s website.
For example, a client can publish a white paper, post it on their website, send a release out to media outlets who pick it up and published it with a link leading back to the client’s website where the white paper is located.
This also takes time. Advertising is so attractive because it is virtually instantaneous; that is, you purchase the advertising, you see the results. However, it’s not results – or response – that is the key: it is conversion of that response. Content consumption – not clicks or hits (How Idiots Track Success)– is the key to achieving better results.
Interline would be happy to prepare a plan on developing SEO. Please contact us for an estimate and a discussion.
Thank you.