Do you have a website, but it’s not getting found online? This is a frustrating experience, but there’s a solution called SEO: Search Engine Optimization. SEO is the process of getting your website rank higher in search results from search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask, and more.

What is SEO?

SEO is getting ranked better in organic search results, which are non-paid online searches. SEO is not advertising; online advertising can be called SEM, or Search Engine Marketing or PPC, Pay Per Click.

What does better rank mean?

When you do a search from a website like Google, the search engine displays results in a list. Being placed higher in the list is good, because many more people click on the higher results. 42% of users click on the #1 search result, more than the next 5 combined!

Better search rank results in more website traffic, which may directly translate into more sales, leads, or ad revenue.

What determines your search position?

There are over 100 factors that search engines like Google consider, but here are a few:

  • Content
  • Website title
  • Website structure
  • Links coming in to your website
  • Links going out from your website

How can I do SEO?

Edit your content for SEO

Search engines want to know that your website is the most relevant for the user’s search, so you want to make sure that you use the search term in your content. If you can, use the terms as link text, headline text, and the title of your page (the "title" tag is in the code of your website).

Get local search engine results

Do you want to be found locally? If your business is only relevant to your region, then you should use the city, state, or region in your content, right next to your main keyword, such as "Denver SEO", rather than "SEO." This is a benefit because users often search for local results in this way.

Discover what people are searching for

One of the challenges when you’re doing SEO is knowing which words to optimize for. Here are a few ideas:

  • Define your website by making a list of key words and short phrases you would use to describe your services or product that your website features.
  • Create variations of each word or phrase.
    • Consider plurals
    • Can you use the word as a verb or noun?
  • Think like your target user: how would you ask a question about your service; if you were a plumber, you might want to optimize for the question "How to fix a leaky sink" in your content
  • Competitive analysis: perform a search for your industry or service. What words are some of your competitors using frequently in their website?
  • Research the best words by using the links in the right column of this page.

Denver SEO tips

If you have a Denver website that has poor online visibility, that’s not good! You can take some simple and effective steps to make sure your website does better for SEO near Denver. You’re going to be using some local websites and directories to improve your rank.

Get on the map for Denver-based searches

Get mapped: Sometimes when you perform a local search, search engines show a map with some business listings on it. These results are driven by search engines’ local services.

Getting added Denver map results is easy: add your site to the links below.

Use Denver websites to your advantage

The Denver Post and Rocky Mountain news have an insert called YourHub. Did you know that YourHub has a website? The YourHub website allows you to post events.