What is SEO Really? 

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, what it really means is doing things within your content, your website, your blog, your podcast, to facilitate it's inclusion in search engines.  When your content is included in the search engine it can then be available for your potential customers looking for solutions using the search engine. 

 SEO can be an effective way to tap into increased reach and engagement for your online business.  At the end of the pandemic in 2024 over 8.6 billion searches per day were reported to occur on the largest search engine platform.  Imagine you could tap into a small percentage of that pool of the searching public... what an opportunity!

Clues and Insights

The first SEO activity is preparing your content pieces to be read by search engine robot programs.  These robots are also known as spiders because traverse the Web like a spider going from page to page consuming content.  The preparation steps are meant to give these programs clues about the nature and meaning included in your pieces. 

For each content piece there is a title and description.  In preparation for program reading, you will choose keywords identifying the main idea of your content piece.  Keywords are also the link to your customer who will be searching.  They are the words, phrases or sentences your customer will type or speak into the search engine platform to find what they are looking for online.  When the spider program reads keywords in your title and description it will gain insight into what it will read next in the body of your text. 

Keywords are also used in the main headline of your content to further reinforce the expected meaning of the content as well. 

Another way to give insight into your chosen main idea for your content piece is to choose images and/or video to support your ideas and use your keywords in the description field for the media item too.

Used together as a powerful tool

Once you identify your keywords and place them as clues for the spider programs you are setting your content up to be read successfully.  However, using these techniques alone will not guarantee your content will be served to searching customers.  The primary purpose of your content must be to provide ideas that are helpful and useful, topics that aid the searcher.  That means understanding your customer's needs and delivering something to help them along in their quest for a solution in the best possible way.  

SEO is a powerful tool when used with exceptional topics speaking to your customers core values and purpose.  A tool every business needs to maximize viewers, readers, and visitors to your online content, whether a blog, podcast, or website.