Search Engine Optimization, better known as SEO, has become a bit of a buzzword in marketing circles these past few years. But what exactly is it?
As the name suggests, SEO is, at its heart, about improving search engine rankings. Due to the marketing value of high search engine rankings, many companies now employ people just to optimize their web content.
Why is SEO important?
So what does all this mean for you? In an age where many large companies are hiring Twitter interns, having at least a basic understanding of SEO and SEO techniques can help shift your resume higher up the stack.
So how do you optimize a website?
There are a couple of ways. Folks in the know often talk about black hat and white SEO techniques (and yes, they’re named to make you think of good vs. evil).
White Hat SEO
White hat SEO is pretty straightforward. Because most companies are looking for long-term high search engine rankings, the best way to optimize site content is to produce meaningful content with a strong focus on a given company’s market. The most common ways of accomplishing this are through the use of well-thought out site design, keywords, and link building (linking to other, relevant sites and generating return links).
Black Hat SEO
Because black hat (and yes, the name is supposed to sound villainous) SEO is easy and cheap to produce, it’s found a lot of favor among scams, pyramid schemes, work at home schemes and the like. Although black hat SEO also uses keywords (keyword stuffing), they’re usually scattered throughout unrelated content. Many black hat optimized sites are also full of hidden text and links, making loading times slow and inefficient. Oftentimes, though, black hat site optimization has only transient results – most black hat SEO techniques violate search engines’ terms of service, meaning that it damages rankings in the long-term.
SEO in Real Life
Like many things, SEO principles can be applied to other areas of job hunting. Consider some of the white hat techniques – design, keywords, targeted menus, and link building. Each of these techniques could be applied to a resume or cover letter.
DESIGN
A cluttered resume is a deal breaker for many employers – if it takes too long to parse the information on your resume, most employers will just put it aside. A quick way to tell if your resume is too cluttered: think about the white space. If your pages have no white space at least the length of your thumb knuckle to thumb tip, consider a redesign.
KEYWORDS
Although seemingly obvious, many job hunters don’t spend enough time thinking about their specific skill set. What is it you’re good at? Sales? What part of sales? Are you gifted in display design or customer service? Spend some time thinking about keywords that speak to your skills, and use them throughout your cover letter and resume to create an impression. Just don’t overdo it – remember, keyword stuffing is a black hat technique for a reason!
TARGETED MENUS
On a website, we follow menus to get from place to place, almost like skimming through chapters in a book. Your headings on a resume should be similar – make sure each heading flows into the next, and that it’s actually related to what you’re selling, i.e. your skill set. If you’re applying for a job as a freelance copywriter, for instance, does your resume really need to include your interest in cooking?
LINK BUILDING
Often under-utilized by job seekers, link building – or building relationships with others in your field – is essential in today’s job market. Just like a website lists links to other relevant websites, job seekers need to find ways to interact with relevant people – and web 2.0 makes this simpler every day. Some of this is obvious – spending some time on a regular basis combing through sites like LinkedIn and Facebook to find useful contacts is just plain smart. But another great way to build relationships is to get to know the blogosphere. Look through sites like Digg and StumbleUpon for relevant content, then start a dialogue with the writers. Keep it going – remember, to really build relationships, you need to give a little of yourself.
By Peta Andersen
May 18, 2009
© Daype Inc.
2 Responses to “SEO – What It Is And Why You Should Care”
nice post. it is very informative.
Internet has been and will be one of the prime source for drawing a large portion of the market. Your blog provides the excellent way to reach to the market without the bounds of recession and location. SEO helps popularize your product in such a sluggish economy. And internet marketing can outstand traditional and comparatively costlier marketing. Online marketing can lead your company to a never-before-thought heights. The internet marketing provides the new horizon to the marketing ideas.
I am a physicist practicing from about 7 years. I was also unaware of such a fruitful resource that can be taken care of. Then I came across a similar blog regarding the website for physicians. Then I consulted a web designing and marketing company named medicalwebexperts.com . They designed my website having a great amount of functionalities which includes, learning materials, tests and scans descriptions, information regarding what all we do, blogs where patients can comment on the articles, provide suggestions. And the most important function that was unparallel with every other function was e-Medical Records. They provided the functions to store the details of the test and scans conducted on the patient, hence providing them 24/7 access to the medical details to the patients. And after my website was host and marketed, I am able to feel the outcomes on my income. My patient count is definitely increasing (though not as fast), but quite distinguishing.
I would recommend other physicians to create some site and have an access to a new horizon of opportunities.