Complicated systems like houses and websites require a team of professionals to put them up and keep them functioning at their best. Unlike a house, though, an electrician’s website doesn’t exist in a physical space, making it harder to see when it’s not working well. Just because it’s up doesn’t mean it’s reaching the people who need you. That’s what search engine optimization (SEO) is all about!

What SEO Is and What It Isn’t

Everybody has seen those annoying emails promising that some random person can get you to “number one on Google.” It sounds pretty awesome, really. Why wouldn’t you want to be number one?

The problem with these emails is that they promise something that can’t actually be delivered. SEO is about showing up in search engines, for sure, but being the “first” in Google simply doesn’t happen. There’s no first. There’s only showing up for the people who need your services.

See, anything you might imagine about a user goes into Google’s determination about what sites will serve their users best. That means basic things like location and search terms, as well as their intent (Google can figure this out most of the time), but also other elements like past search history and ads that the user has clicked on are all sorted via algorithm, the numbers crunched in an instant, and the most likely sites pop up like magic.

But try the same search with slight changes to those elements, for example, from a different location or after changing the search term slightly, and you get a whole different list. This is why you can’t get “number one” on Google. It’s just not a thing.

How an SEO Can Help

A good SEO expert can still be your best friend when it comes to your website, despite the reality that there’s no #1 on Google. They work to make sure that Google sees you when people run their searches. Instead of filtering to the bottom of likely sites for their search, your electrical service “bubbles up”, meaning it’s sorted toward the top.

SEOs make this possible, using a number of methods to show your site is more relevant to the search query and is user-friendly - and by giving Google extra information to help sort you properly. There’s no one solution because the algorithms are always changing. Good SEOs are on top of those changes, though, and will adjust to meet Google’s criteria as necessary.

Finding an SEO Professional

When looking for an SEO pro, the first thing to know is that those emails are not the way to go. If you get an email from an SEO promising “number one,” toss that thing away. Those guys aren’t worth their salt. However, there are plenty of SEOs who are legitimate and can do an excellent job of keeping your site visible to future customers.

A great place to start is by asking other people in your field who they use. Referrals are easier to feel confident about because you can ask your friends or associates about their own experiences and how the SEO in question helped them.

If you have to find an SEO on your own, all hope is not lost. Ask potentials about their track record, how they plan to help your site, what kind of results you can expect and in what time frame. If the answer is too good to be true (first in Google overnight, for example), keep looking. Just because someone runs an ad doesn’t mean they have the experience to back up their assertions.

Good results, reasonable costs, and other happy clients are a good sign you’re on the right track!

How did you find your current SEO? Are they getting you the results you expected?

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