SEO from the eyes of an Amateur

From Daniela

Being as old as the Internet, it is amazing to see just how much it has evolved. In high school yahoo was the main search engine with ‘Yahooligans’ being a favourite with the kids. Not long after, Google became the next best thing. Studying education and design, I have observed that my students all use Google over any search engine available.

From a designers perspective Google’s aesthetics are pleasing and not overpowering. A search engine shouldn’t be over whelmed with too much design, as it has one important and basic job, and that is to search. That is when SEO comes in.

To me, SEO is about helping clients reach a possible result of being located on the first page of a results list in a search engine, which are linked, to popular keywords associated with the clients business. If that makes any sense. So some key factors to be alert about would include:

• Keywords: The logic towards SEO is providing the client with certain keywords which could help improve the clients chances of seeing their site ranking very well. In a way, finding the correct keywords is like detective work. Researching the company and other companies of similar titles could help. Also keeping a good rapport with the client could also help. The client is the one who understands their company the most, so asking them what keywords they believe links them to their company is beneficial.

• Links on the site: Part of researching and detective work is by scanning the client’s sites for any possible links that could boost the chances of higher ranking. Links to sites such as government websites or social networking sites such as Facebook can help increases these chances.

These are just two of many ways I believe can and does increase the chances of a site being ranked well, increasing the traffic to the website and the views which is one of the main priorities to do with SEO.