What is SEO? And how can it benefit you in 2014?

By now, I’m sure everyone has heard how SEO (Search Engine Optimization) can be beneficial to your businesses and brands, but nobody has a full understanding of what it really is and how it works. We all hear various theories, practices, and even get direct advice from some of our friends and business relationships all to help us generate more leads on our websites. But the truth is, there are many aspects of SEO that are in the gray area and undefined.

The first and most important thing to consider is, you want to register your company on as many directories as possible; this will give your company the base it needs to build a great SEO campaign off of. The next step is going through your websites keywords, Meta tags, and Meta descriptions and appropriately set them up (you can Google tips and advice on how to select the most effective words for your industry).  I know there is an argument going around in the tech world in regards to this, how it’s not effective since Google changed their algorithm, but I say,  “It can’t hurt!” And last but probably the most important is to Blog, blogging keeps you relevant, informative, and if done with strategy can generate hits on your site.

This is a very general introduction to SEO, how it’s done and to what extend is an art form on its own, as nobody has a step-by-step playbook of exactly what to do and how to do it. SEO companies will try to sell you on all sorts of promises, collect thousands of dollars without having to prove anything, because as we all know, SEO is not instantly obtained. Moving up in Google’s organic search takes time, commitment, and repetition and hopefully you’ll see some results within 6 months to a year.

Be careful who you hire for your company’s SEO needs, consider doing it yourself is probably the most effective route. The one thought I would like to leave our readers with is this, Interview several SEO companies, really pick their brains about exactly what they will be doing for you? How many times a day/week/month? Where are they submitting your blogs? And last, do your homework on their clients, maybe even try to reach out to them and see if you can get some information.

Good luck everyone, and we’ll see you on the Net.

Allure Apps Team