What is SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. SEO is not an easy thing to do in today’s competitive market. It requires thought, as just throwing out blog posts is not a strategy. At NerdBrand we implement a holistic strategy to your SEO needs. Because at the heart of what SEO is about is people! 

Also, content creation is the fuel that gives your marketing efforts what they need to connect to customers, and build trust. It gives you control of how you’re perceived online when people look at you after the networking event, meeting, or other offline source. 

Essentially without content there’s no SEO strategy that will work.

But to begin, let’s look at how often Google updates to get an idea of how often your SEO strategy is not something that is a lever pulled, then put aside for later.

Google’s algorithm updates

Google’s algorithm(s) advanced a lot leading up to Penguin. Take a look at this timeline:

• 2003 — Florida (anti-keyword stuffing spam)
• 2005 — Jagger (anti-link spam)
• 2009 — Caffeine (near real-time indexation)
• 2010 — MayDay (anti-thin content)
• 2011 — Panda (“quality”), Google starts using SSL in search, & Freshness (prioritizing fresh content)
• 2012 — Penguin (anti-link “spam”), Knowledge Graph, & EMD (downgrade exact match domain)
• 2013 — Phantom (quality update) & Hummingbird (core algorithm overhaul)
• 2015 — Rankbrain (contextual search)
• 2017 — Maccabees
• 2019 — Bert (no kidding)

Google never stops updating. So, you should not either when it comes to your brands communication channels. Click the link below to see what they’ve added since 2020.

source: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-algorithm-history/

SEO Expectations

Listen to Diana Richardson from Semrush talk about SEO and expectations you need to have below:

E-Commerce SEO

There are a lot of choices to set up an online store. At NerdBrand we have one we recommend for Louisville businesses starting to sell online. WooCommerce by WordPress. With over 3 million installations (WordPress websites) using it, you cannot ignore it.

Creating an e-commerce store so that your business can sell online is becoming sought after. In the current climate, businesses must adapt. It’s no longer something to be put off for later. But choosing the right one early can save you money. Especially if you plan to market and optimize for SEO your store. And without paying for another monthly app.

Why WordPress and WooCommerce?

WordPress has over 65% market share of all CMS’s (Content Management System) and over 35% of websites online use it. It’s a strategic tool for marketers and website managers. If you are a content specialist you already prefer WordPress. However, we recommend custom themes, instead of commercials. Commercial themes target mass sales and aren’t industry-specific.

Shopify is not a bad choice, just different for other reasons

Shopify is a closed end-to-end system for online sales. However, we’ve found that WordPress can make for a stronger e-commerce strategy. When implemented, WordPress is the platform for your informational content. As well as where your conversions will happen.

Big SEO checklist items to consider

1. Crawling: log file analysis, XML / HTML sitemaps, mobile bot crawl behavior – Look for this in Google Console.
2. Mobile: AMP, Progressive Web Apps, Responsive design
3. SSL: HTTPS, HTTP/2 – Google wants to see this!
4. Structured data: Schema markup, Micro data & JSON-LD, Rich Snippets tell users and Google more details about your content.
5. Migrations: domain migrations, relaunches, CMS changes, HTTP to HTTPS need to be communicated to the search engines.
6. Page speed: rich media and script compression, CSS sprites, CDNs, server speed optimization, parallel downloads and minify, caching.
7. Rendering: critical rendering path/lazy loading, DOM rendering, Javascript frameworks rendering – found in core web vitals.
8. Content optimization: entity optimization, duplicate content, thin content, all must be removed or repurposed.
9. Check your Status codes: 3xx, 4xx, 5xx
10. Indexation: canonicalization, robots.txt, meta-tags tell google bot important information when listing your links.
11. Site structure: internal linking, URL structure, taxonomies, and page need to be thought through to help users understand and Googlebot your website’s purpose and topics.
12. Check your indexing (crawling) – type site:yourdomain.com in Search and it will tell you how many results are there for your domain.
13. First thing you should do is check your site for indexing. If not indexed, then you’re not in the search results pages. In WordPress, simply uncheck “block robots” in settings.

Smart e-commerce web design and marketing strategy gives you ability to better track and invoice orders and follow up with customers. In addition, the focus is generating online repeated sales. A website (or platform) alone doesn’t generate sales month-to-month.

The best website for e-commerce is one that sells your product and is paired with a marketing strategy that gets repeat business monthly.

For more information on E-commerce services from NerdBrand click here to read what we can do.