The Internet has introduced a plethora of new tactics and tools for attracting new customers, and business owners have always been looking for new ways to become more efficient at customer acquisition.
It's no surprise that a healthy showing of Ocala, Florida business owners attended the Ocala, Marion County Chamber of Commerce’s August Power Series Workshop event to see A Beginner’s Guide to SEO, presented by Rasmussen College Online Marketing Manager Josh Braaten. Josh led the audience through an SEO crash course where he educated business owners about online marketing opportunities.
How Search Engines Work
Josh began his presentation by first explaining how search engines work. He pointed out that it would be difficult to optimize your website without first gaining some insights into how a search engine functions. Josh explained the concepts of:
- Crawling – How search engines discovery your website
- Indexing – How Google builds a mirrored copy of the web to power search
- Relevancy – Different factors that Google considers when determining what’s relevant to a given user’s search
- Results – How Google returns search results – this is the part of Google that is familiar to most people
Factors Involved in SEO
Once the audience gained a basic understanding of how search engines work, Josh went on to describe main tactics to optimize for search engines:
- Architecture – Can search engine spiders find and read the content on your website?
- On-Page – The process of identifying keywords, mapping them to pages on your site, and creating or editing the content of those pages to include increased keyword prominence
- Links – Links are the cornerstone of the Google algorithm. A link is like a vote for your page form another website
- Social Media – Social media engagement is emerging as an important signal in search engine algorithms
Implementing SEO through Inbound Marketing
After talking about SEO factors, Josh suggested to unify tactics as a part of an overall inbound marketing strategy, in which helpful, engaging, and optimized content on a page pulls new customers to the website through search engines and social media. Additionally, Josh described the ethical considerations that are often debated in SEO.
Josh wrapped up by pointing out that SEO isn’t something that can be learned in a day, which is why Ocala business owners will want to attend the next Power Series Workshop on website videos and blogging scheduled for August 23, 2011. The Rasmussen College Ocala Campus and Josh Braaten were proud to be a part of this event, and extend thanks to the Ocala, Marion County Chamber of Commerce for making it all possible.
Presentation: A Beginner’s Guide to SEO
About the Author: This article was transcribed by the Rasmussen College Blog team. Are you ready to take the plunge into a new, successful future? If so, learn more about our degree programs today.
Comments (15)
Social Media - Lori Reed
Social media is where I got lost. iIt is lot to take in. I never realized there was so much involved with a website.
Thank you for this information and slideshow - Internet Services Providers
Thank you for this great information. I really enjoyed viewing the slideshow it was a very great compliment to the article. Keep it up.
Nice - pan card status
Really nice review.Thanks mate.
Useful Presenttion - JohnPaul
Thankyou for your useful presentstion. I got ideas about latest updates in SEO industry
good info - Kevin
thanks for the info. it helps
Helpful presentation - Onkelseoserbe
I am a SEO-newcomer and I have only started a few weeks ago with thinking about Seo! Especially your presentation has been very helpful for me! Thank you! Best regards, Onkelseoserbe
SEO - techuth
Always a big problem for me. Thanks for help
Perth SEO - Pert seo
Thanks for this post. I really appreciate the guideline about the SEO.
Event Recap: A Beginner's Guide to Search Engine Optimization - Somanabolic
Took me awhile to read all the comments, but I really love the article. It proved to be very helpful to me and I am sure to all the commenter here!
getting rid of bed bugs - Bizz
Of course, getting links from respected sources will greatly enhance a site's search engine rankings and presence...
Search Engine Optimization - Olympia SEO
Great SlideShare. Josh really nailed his presentation.
I think any SEO beginner or advanced SEO professional can watch the slides and get a great understanding and take the mystery out of SEO.
Great Job!
Thanks.
Excellent! - Steve
This research is excellent and should be helpful with my doctoral work that I am writing.
-Steven
SEO - Medigap
This is a very good help for me and also for web masters. Thank you for sharing this wonderful post.
Great summary. I would add that it is important to stay up to date on new developments. New search engines that use different criteria are popping up left and right, and Google frequently changes the factors it uses to determine its rankings.
SEO Firms - Scott Langdon
This is a good beginners guide to search engine optimization. I think many people will find this helpful!
