Search Engine Optimization is a long term investment in your company.
Let us help your business get the organic visibility it deserves.
Search Engine Optimization is a long term investment in your company.
Let us help your business get the organic visibility it deserves.
What Is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
Why Is SEO So Important?
Over 50% of ALL online sessions begin with an organic search. That means half of the time someone logs onto the internet from their computer or smart device, the first thing they do is search Google.
What’s more, is that 75% of Google users will never go past the first page of Google results when looking for information or an answer to their search query.
This led to possibly the most staggering statistic of them all: Over 40% of revenue is captured by organic search traffic.
Your website being able to be found by potential customers and clients is crucial for the overall success of your business. Search Engine Optimization is no longer an option in digital strategy — it is absolutely imperative.
What about a true definition of SEO?
Why Is It Always Changing?
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What Are The Different Types of SEO?
On-Page SEO
On-page SEO includes:
- Structuring content by using the correct header tags in the right locations
- Featuring copy in digestible paragraph lengths
- The constant creation of informative content
- The proper use of internal linking
- Correct URL structuring
- Well designed metadata
- And, of course, a coherent keyword and keyphrase strategy
About 10 years ago, in the earlier days of search engine optimization, on-site SEO was incredibly effective on its own. While it is still of paramount importance, on-page SEO alone can longer net-front page ranking results.
In order for the best possible position on a search engine ranking page, an SEO strategy must include technical SEO and off-site SEO, as well as on-page SEO.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO includes:
- Website and page loading speeds
- Mobile-friendliness and screen size responsiveness of specific pages and the overall site
- The availability of the website and its pages to be indexed by search engines
- Third-Party Robot crawlability
- The overall website architecture and structure
- Security measures such as the inclusion of a secure socket layer
Technical SEO includes much more than just the basic aspects listed above. It is named as such because much of the strategy in technical SEO cannot be easily learned by the general public. It involves a knowledge of different coding languages and different areas of web development.
Technical SEO is the most overlooked type of SEO, as many self-proclaimed search engine optimization specialists do not have the necessary skill set to optimize a website from a technical standpoint. With both technical and on-site SEO explained, we move onto what is widely considered the most important type of SEO: Off-Site SEO.
Off-Page SEO
Off-Site SEO includes:
- The accumulation of high-quality backlinks
- Natural Links: when other websites link back to yours naturally
- Manual built links: links that come from contacting others such as influencers or bloggers to link to your web content
- Self-created links: links created through practices such as adding links to directories like Google My Business, Yelp, or in the form of press releases that are distributed manually or through the newswire
- Social media marketing
- Guest blogging
- Influencer marketing
- Email marketing
- E-Word of Mouth: When local customers share your business organically on social media or other channels
As you can probably tell, the main focus of off-page SEO is backlink building.
Schools Of Thought Of SEO: Black Hat vs. White Hat vs. Grey Hat
There are three schools of thought of SEO:
- Black Hat
- White Hat
- Grey Hat
In short, Black Hat SEO refers to tactics which Google does not approve of and can ultimately penalize a website in the long run. Black Hat is still practiced by some specialists because of its high risk, high reward offerings.
White Hat SEO refers to practices that work alongside the Google algorithm rather than trying to trick it. White Hat tactics can take longer to see effects from but run absolutely no risk of penalization.
Grey Hat SEO is a bit more difficult to define. This school of thought includes some questionable tactics which blur the lines between what is acceptable to practice. While Grey Hat tactics carry some weight in terms of reward, they also hold serious risks for websites. Let’s take a deeper dive into each, so you can understand why GriffinWink only practices White Hat SEO tactics, and so that you can also identify when you might be being sold snake oil from other SEO providers.
Black Hat SEO
Google’s algorithm is constantly evolving. Google uses an enormous team of individuals as well as deep machine learning to continually create an algorithm that searches out the best answers for search queries. This means that trying to “trick” Google has become increasingly difficult, if not impossible.
Black Hat SEO specialists will try tactics such as buying backlinks in bulk, stuffing sections of websites with keywords that sound unnatural, or even creating hidden pages on your own website that link back to their other clients without your knowledge!
When Google uncovers the use of any of these tactics, and they always do, your website can suffer penalties such as a severe drop in rank to being removed from Google’s index permanently.
White Hat SEO
White Hat tactics commonly take a bit longer to reap rewards from, but they carry absolutely no risk. White Hat SEO includes bridging on-page, off-page, and technical SEO practices.
While results may take a few months instead of a few weeks, it is entirely worth pursuing as if Grey Hat or Black Hat tactics get flagged by Google, there is little chance your website will ever recover. Remember, in the world of SEO – if it sounds too good to be true, it almost definitely is.
Grey Hat SEO
Some Grey Hat tactics include:
- Purchasing old domains which have a level of authority associated with them to form backlinks
- Duplicating content from other websites and using “text spinners” to change the content just enough to avoid being flagged for plagiarism
- Purchasing backlinks through other means than a cash exchange, such as sponsorships
- Social media automation techniques such as “follow/unfollow bots” or straight out purchasing followers
Grey Hat tactics can be summed up as practices which technically do not violate Google’s terms but ethically are viewed as shortcuts to sound SEO practices. While they have benefits of Black Hat practices such as quick jumps in the ranking, they do carry a certain amount of risk.
It is best not to get on the bad side of Google, and with their machine learning becoming more sophisticated every month, it is only a matter of time before Grey Hat tactics are seen as entirely unacceptable.
Local vs. National SEO
Practicing SEO for national-level clients is different than working for local clients, and it is worth understanding the differences in how we approach clients who are looking to gain visibility at different levels, as well as the differences in the different markets we currently operate in.
At GriffinWink, we have called Lubbock home for over 10 years, and our employees and founders have lived here for decades. We have seen the city change before our eyes and understand the driving force behind commerce in the city. This understanding has created Lubbock SEO practices which are tailor-made for our Hub City clients.
From working alongside local blogs and influencers to craft high authority backlinks, to keeping a finger on the pulse of what your company’s competitors are doing, we know how to help local businesses in Lubbock start to rank for localized keywords and keyphrases.
Albuquerque SEO
Having an understanding of the driving forces behind the economy and the people of Albuquerque has helped Griffinwink determine specific practices for Albuquerque SEO. These include working with local organizations to craft organic, high authority backlinks, to creating content which speaks the hearts of ABQ residents.
Albuquerque is seeing an influx of national entities throwing out incredulous claims about how they can boost local company rankings, but without an understanding of what motivates the city, their strategy often falls short.
Rest easy knowing that at GriffinWink, our Albuquerque SEO strategy goes beyond what the competition can offer, as we have tirelessly worked to gain an all-encompassing understanding of what drives the digital market.
At GriffinWink, we have worked on dozens of Amarillo SEO campaigns ranging from local civic initiatives to new businesses operating in competitive industries. Our Amarillo SEO strategy comes from an understanding of what drives the search queries of the local population.
Through comprehensive research and real-time data analysis, we implement strategies that wouldn’t work anywhere else in the country to help Amarillo businesses find the highest level of search visibility possible.
Amarillo is far from ordinary, and we believe that a cookie-cutter Amarillo SEO strategy does not cut it for a city that is growing at a rate that almost defies logic. We can do the heavy lifting for your Amarillo company so that everyone – from those passing through on I-40 to lifetime residents – are finding your business on the front page of Google.
While this growth is great for the local economy, it also brings with it a higher level of competition when it comes to small business.
GriffinWink has its roots in the Permian Basin, as a predecessor to our company started in Odessa in the mid-1970s. This history has enabled us to watch the Permian Basin change and grow over several decades. Our Permian Basin and Midland SEO strategies take into account factors that those not intimately familiar with the area would overlook or brush to the side.
From accounting for motivations of local residents to understanding the changing focus of the local business proprietor, our Permian Basin and Midland SEO clients can relax knowing that their organic search presence is being optimized and monitored by a company with a deep connection to the local market.
At GriffinWink, we have worked on several national-level SEO campaigns across multiple specific industries. Our national-level clients are consistently floored by our long-term strategies that account for where the organic search industry is heading.
While SEO in its nature is a reactive science, we pride ourselves are staying ahead of the curve and setting trends in the industry rather than only hoping new algorithm updates don’t hinder our clients.
It is this forward-thinking mindset, mixed with an unmatched knowledge base, that helps our national clients consistently rank for high-volume key phrases, no matter where their customer base submits search queries from in the country.