If you own a business and haven’t yet heard the term “SEO” tossed around, it’s entirely possible you’ve not been talking to the right people. In short, search engine optimization is the process of boosting your website to the tops of online searches in an effort to draw in as many visitors as possible. At Fistbump Media, this happens to be one of our areas of expertise.

Quite a few steps are involved in gettingto the point where your website is reaching its full potential. Some aspects of SEO take shape within your website whereas others come from outside sources. Known as internal and external factors, both work together to boost your online visibility as long as they’re implemented effectively.

Internal, or on-page factors as they’re known in some circles, are the inside elements plowing through your competitors to bring you out on top of the public’s search engine results pages, or SERP’s. They basically include everything on your website, and keywords are, well, the keys to success. Ideally, your website’s domain name and URL should be among your top priorities in this regard. According to a number of SEO experts, backed by exhaustive research on the subject, the one internal component holding the most weight in the eyes of search engines is your website’s title tag. As alluded to, it should contain those omnipotent keywords.

Meta tags have some bearing on just how relevant search engines believe you are to a prospective client’s inquiries. They don’t appear on your website for viewers to see; instead, they remain hidden behind the scenes to quietly fulfill their duties. Heading and subheading tags also carry their own weight when using your keywords. All this can be fairly complicated subject, but it gets a bit more clear from this point forward.

Those tags are tidbits pertaining to your website content, which is equally important to website ranking. Again, keywords come into play. They should be worked naturally into well-written, meaty content relevant to your industry in general as well as your company on a more specific level. Keyword and phrase variation, albeit in moderation, is critical as it gives you broader reach without making your information read awkwardly or appear spammy.

Visual content likewise helps enhance search engines’ opinions of your website. Display pictures and videos relating to your company and what you have to offer, but set these elements off with keyword-infused captions. Add your all-important phrases into image alt text, so they’ll still be indexed by search engines in cases where the visuals themselves can’t be loaded. Pack as much high-quality content as you can above the fold, and sprinkle in some internal links between different pages of your site.

As far as external aspects of SEO go, inbound links are crucial. These are links from other authorities in your industry to your own website. They lend more credence to your company while increasing your visibility. Inbound links work in your favor providing they come from trusted sites offering the same high-caliber material as your own.

The true effectiveness of social networking has come under fire from time to time in the world of search engine optimization, but it’s yet another channel for businesses like yours to explore. People see your site, like what you have to say and share it with others in their social circles; keep in mind, those circles are continually broadening and spiraling into new realms. One positively charged blog post referencing your company could divert traffic to your website for months to come.

In a nutshell, people are looking for the goods or services you bring to the table. Their journeys begin by typing certain words and phrases into their search engines of choice. This action sends web crawlers out scouring the internet for websites matching those parameters. Companies incorporating effective SEO services into their overall online marketing strategies rise to the top courtesy of organic search results while all the others are forced into oblivion.

If you perform a random search, you may notice a few blatant sales pitches hovering over your organic results. Those are the products of pay-per-click advertising. While you may gain a certain amount of traffic from this type of tactic, most consumers admittedly ignore those ads and skip straight to the organically generated options.

When you combine all those basic internal and external factors of SEO with email marketing geared toward current customers and getting yourself featured on online directories, you’re generating highly sought-after organic results. Those are the powerful and perpetual word-of-mouth advertising tools companies strive to build. Search engine optimization isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it service, though.

It’s an ongoing process fostered by continual content updates, developing new online marketing strategies and remaining vigilant throughout all the evolutions in search engine algorithms and consumer mindsets. Success also entails preventing any negatives from neutralizing your positive impact on current and prospective customers. Fistbump Media is here to spin it all in your favor.