By Agbolade Omowole

PEOPLE like to know a little about you before meeting you in per son. If for instance, you are prospecting someone online or via social media, the first thing he/she will probably do is to search your full names and company name on Google. The basis of every relationship, including business and emotional relationship is trust.

If your record on Google is convincing enough, the client will be convinced. Trust is built when someone knows that you are active online. Search Engine optimization can help build your credibility which make people believe in you and want to do business with you.

Perception is reality, What you don’t know can hurt you. So let’s explore the rudiments of search engine optimization.

Search engine optimization refers to techniques that help your website rank higher in search results, thus making your website more visible to people who are looking for your product or service via search engines. The search engines consider two main areas when determining what your website is about and how to prioritize it.

• Content on your website: The web crawler will look for clues about what topics your website covers
• Who’s linking to you: The more links a website has, the more influence or authority it has. A link from a highly authoritative website like The New York Times (nytimes.com) will give a website a bigger boost than a link from a small blog site. Search engines actually attempt to scan the entire online universe and index all the information so they can show it to you when you enter a search query.

If your website is not indexed and optimized to show for keywords and phrases that are relevant to what you have to offer, all of that potential traffic is going to your competitors. Blogging on a regular basis (once per week is ideal) can have a dramatic impact on SEO because every blog post is a new webpage. That said, simple search engine optimization techniques include:

Give the search engines an extra hand by including alt tags on all pictures on your website. Title tags max out at 75 characters, so choose your words wisely. Use Meta tags wisely. Meta descriptions are usually the first place a search engine will look to find text to put under your blue link when they list your website,

As a best practice, it is recommended to put 5-7 keywords in the meta keywords, headline tags will also give the search engines definitive clues as to what is important on the page. If you are not a website developer, I suggest you hire a search engine optimization expert to work with you or your company.