If you own, manage, monetize, or promote online content via Google Search, this How-To is meant for you. You might be the owner of a growing and thriving business, the website owner, the SEO specialist in a Web agency, an SEO expert passionate about the mechanics of Search or you might be trying to find out if the person you hired did the job right: this How-To is meant for you. 

I am won't provide any secrets that'll automatically rank your site first in Google (sorry!), but following the best practices will hopefully make it easier for search engines to crawl, index, and understand your content.

So, what is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

SEO - Search engine optimization is the process of making your site better for search engines in order to improve your presence on the web.

But before we go far, let's first look at some of the important terms you must remember:

Index - Google stores all web pages that it knows about in its index. The index entry for each page describes the content and location (URL) of that page. To index is when Google fetches a page, reads it and adds it to the index: Google indexed several pages on my site today.

Crawl - The process of looking for new or updated web pages. Google discovers URLs by following links, by reading sitemaps, and by many other means. Google crawls the web, looking for new pages, then indexes them (when appropriate).

Crawler - Automated software that crawls (fetches) pages from the web and indexes them.

Are you on Google?

To determine whether your site is in Google's index, do a site: Search for your site's home URL. If you see results, you're in the index.

For example, a search for site:humphreytugume.com and see what results are returned.

If your site isn't in Google, and Google crawls billions of pages, it's inevitable that some sites will be missed. But when the crawlers miss a site, it's frequently for one of the following reasons:

1: The site isn't well connected from other sites on the web

2: You've just launched a new site and Google hasn't had time to crawl it yet

3: The design of the site makes it difficult for Google to crawl its content effectively

4: Google received an error when trying to crawl your site

5: Your policy blocks Google from crawling the site

How do I get my site on Google?

Inclusion in Google's search results is free and easy; you don't even need to submit your site to Google. Google is a fully automated search engine that uses web crawlers to explore the web constantly, looking for sites to add to our index. In fact, the vast majority of sites listed in the results aren't manually submitted for inclusion but are found and added automatically while crawling the web.

Here are a few basic questions to ask yourself about your website when you are getting started.

1: Is my website showing up on Google?

2: Do I serve high-quality content to users?

3: Is my local business showing up on Google?

4: Is my content fast and easy to access on all devices?

5: Is my website secure?

Do you need an SEO expert?

An SEO expert is someone trained to improve your visibility on search engines. This can be done even if you are not a techie, however, you may want to consider hiring an SEO professional to help you audit your pages.

Deciding to hire an SEO is a big decision that can potentially improve your site and save time. Make sure to research the potential advantages of hiring an SEO, as well as the damage that an irresponsible SEO can do to your site. the services to be offered include:

1: Review of your site content or structure

2: Technical advice on website development: for example, hosting, redirects, error pages, use of JavaScript

3: Content development

4: Management of online business development campaigns

5: Keyword research

6: SEO training

7: Expertise in specific markets and geographies

Before beginning your search for an SEO, it's a great idea to become an educated consumer and get familiar with how search engines work. We recommend reading this article by Google: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/beginner/how-search-works

How to hire an SEO Expert.

If you're thinking about hiring an SEO, the earlier the better. A great time to hire is when you're considering a site redesign or planning to launch a new site. That way, you and your SEO can ensure that your site is designed to be search engine-friendly from the bottom up. However, a good SEO can also help improve an existing site.

For a detailed rundown on the need for hiring an SEO and what things to look out for, let me know in the comment section below and we can work something out!

In the next how-To article, I am going to talk about 11 tips you need to know when you optimize your site, so if you haven't subscribed so that I can notify you when i publish a new article, please join.

Till next time, Shalom