The beginner’s guide to SEO – a web design company in NYC unravels the mystery.

Part Four – Improving Relevance

In Part Two of our beginner’s guide to SEO, we examined how Google looks at Relevance and Authority when ranking sites. In Part Three we looked at how your website can be seen as an authority. Next, we will consider the tools and methodologies of a web design company in NYC uses to help a site to rank better according to relevance.

We have explained that relevance is the first thing Google will be looking to establish, so what do providers of search engine optimization services in New York do to demonstrate to Google that your site is the most relevant one for the words that have been typed into the search box?

Keyword research

Keywords are the phrases that someone will type into a search engine like Google, so it is essential to get into the minds of your potential customers and know what they are likely to be searching for. A “keyword” in this sense is not necessarily a single word but is likely to be a phrase, and we have previously used the example of “web design company in NYC” as a keyword that someone looking for that kind of service might type.

Identifying the keywords that rank best for your site is one thing, and there are tools such as Google Adwords that can help you find out which keywords will bring traffic to your site. However, you don’t just want traffic – you want the right kind of traffic that will bring conversions and turn visitors into customers.

This is where the concept of “long tail keywords” crops up. If you looked at some keyword data relating to the above example, you would probably find that “web design company” has hundreds of times more searches than “web design company in NYC.“ But adding that long tail will bring in more targeted visitors who are likely to convert.

Using your keywords

Once you know what keywords you wish to focus on, you might think it is merely a case of making sure you use them on your site. This is true to a certain extent, but sometimes you need to think of those Google bots as small children that needs to be led by the hand. There are ways of ensuring your keywords are effectively shown in flashing neon lights that the bots cannot help but see. Here are some examples of how SEO professionals go about it:

• Headings and the opening paragraph – if the keyword is in the title of your articles and blog posts, it will be more obvious to Google. It is also worth including it again in your opening paragraph.
• Image descriptions – it is always good to have relevant images on your site to improve user experience. After all, a picture tells a thousand words. But the Google bots understand words, not photos, so always use the alt tag to provide a description, and make sure it includes appropriate keywords.
• Bullet points – bullets or numbered lists make your content easier to digest, both for readers and for search engines.
• Meta description – this is the small paragraph of text that appears below your site name in the search results. It tells visitors what your site is all about, and Google uses it for the same purposes.
• Url slugs – this is the web address for the site. If you add a blog post, it might have a default url slug of http://www.website.com/blog1234. Instead of those numbers, it is far better to have a descriptive keyword.

Be careful with the keyword density.

One thing you will have noticed is that most of the above points benefit the visitor as well as Google. This is a core consideration in SEO – Google is looking to find the best results for the visitor, and therefore user experience needs to stay at the forefront of your mind.  When looking for a web design company in NYC to help with your SEO, choose a professional and reputable company. And working with a local company you can trust is best!

If in our example, the web design company uses professional content writing services in New York to create blog posts, then they will know how to include the keywords in the content correctly. This means using them in the headings, first paragraph and so on, but in such a way that they appear natural, and they add to the user experience as opposed to detracting from it.