One of the keys to success in online marketing and sales is a website that attracts a good crowd. And one important way of drawing more visitors to a website is by employing smart search engine optimization, or SEO.

SEO is techie jargon for a very simple concept: Getting the best visibility for a website in widely-used search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo. Each engine has its own algorithm for deciding which web pages should pop up first in any given search query.

Yet the tactics for getting to the top of the heap have always been relatively straightforward and simple: Choosing the right words to describe your business, service, agency or non-profit.

Beyond that obvious step, there are a smaller number of savvy website owners who are also keenly aware that some often-used words or phrases are pertinent to the goods they have to offer, and if those words are on their website, it can help them draw more traffic.

But that’s not where SEO stops.

Google, the king of all search engines, released Panda and Penguin recently, two complex updates that ultimately will filter which websites get priority in searches. Ideally, all publishers will be on a more equal playing field, with those that provide the highest quality content for audiences and keep people coming back to visit winning out, according to AdAge.

Of course search engines aren’t the only way to find compelling content in the days of social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter. Indeed, the links on such sites are not generally searched for at all; they are discovered by people through trusted sources, such as Facebook friend feeds or Twitter follow feeds.

As AdAge notes, “Ironically, a New SEO expert will probably need to focus more on Facebook than on Google to improve search rankings.”

Perhaps so. Or maybe it is more prudent to say both — and more.

The upside of some of these changes is that being compelling and creative — and maybe even unexpected — can win the day. If you keep readers engaged in your content, they will keep coming back and, in turn, that will be good news for your SEO and your bottom line.

Need a little help? Read more about our SEO services. Then give us a call at (763) 548-2297 or shoot us a note here. Snap Agency is an SEO Minneapolis company that specializes in helping businesses grow through Internet marketing.