Website Design and SEO Class

Last night I attended a class on Website Design and SEO.

For the un initiated SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.

I was under the impression the class was going to tell you about how to design a Website, but that goes right back to my not being very bright at times. It was geared to aspects of designing a website. How you want your website to look? What do you want it to do? What do you want it to do for you? Plus a lot of information about Search Engines, how you can optimize them to make sure it is doing what you want. If it is not then you have to adjust it, optimize it, change it, to get the results you want.

I think I am pretty confident that anybody who has a website, their goal is to turn web surfers into Internet Customers.

50% of mobile device searches turn into sales. 90% of mobile user’s searches will result in some sort of action within 24 hours.

A mobile device would be anything device you can search on the web with that isn’t a laptop or desk top computer. Pads, certain e-readers, and CELL PHONES!

I wish I would have written down the statistics of Internet Surfing that were presented for Japan, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy. When they started the presentation off they said in a moment we will tell you why we are focusing on Asian and European Statistics. I should have been taking notes.

Research shows that the United States actually follows the trends of Japan and European countries. So those who are in the know about Search Engine Optimization study those countries to get a glimpse of what will be happening here in the near future.

The Class focused on Google as a search engine because currently Google holds 80% of the search engine traffic.

A search engine is any program that has a search bar for you to put input into so it can then go out on the web and bring back potential sites of interest based off the criteria you gave it.

The input you put in a search bar on a search engine is called Search Terms.
These are important!

On the front side Search Terms are input by regular people looking for something and in today’s society you want it now! So a search engine to be effective has to be able to search in an organized fashion and bring to you all the information which will be most pertinent to you. It obviously can’t search everywhere or else you’re stuck watching the hour glass thingy or the swirly thing on your phone cussing out your device, your service, the search engine or all three.

So the search engines have to devise ways of narrowing their search to get you the most pertinent information as quickly as possible based of the search terms you provided. Not all search engines are equally up to the task. They use parameters to narrow the search and find results as quickly as possible. Google which has the biggest share of the job than anyone for the moment restructures these parameters, optimizes them, focuses them, and updates the software about every quarter. So the process is ever changing, dynamic and extremely fast!

The factors used to weed through the multitude of possible sites are enormous. It uses these factors to pull and compile a list of possible sites for your search. Google actually pays attention to the things you look for, where you are at when you are looking, what you are currently looking for, sites you regularly visit, and then predicts the sites you may search for and want to see in the future. This means the searches are localized specialized to your interests, your regular trends, while also paying attention to what your search terms are for what you’re looking for.
This is all pretty amazing when you think about it. This is a hell of an improvement from running to the library, thumbing through a phonebook, and asking around to those people you know.

The class went over a lot more stuff which I will be sharing in subsequent posts, so be sure to stay tuned. Stay tuned – that really shows my age doesn’t it.

I could have done one really big post explaining everything I learned but I will get more mileage out of the information by doing it in pieces and I have to get back to writing. Deadlines you know. I find I work better under pressure and a deadline that makes you do a double take and wonder if you can make it is good starting pressure. Plus I may be getting some help with info and research related to this series of posts.

Get back to writing, have a great day. There is no TGIF for writers! Sharpen the pencil and get back to work. If it is still in your eye, pull it out, slap a bandage over the hole, sharpen the bloody pencil and get back to work. – That’s for those who have been following along for a while.

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