No matter how big or small your online marketing goals are, understanding SEO is one of the key components to building an online brand. Getting your website ranked higher in Google or making it easier for people to find you online using Bing, Yahoo and other search engines can be difficult to do if you don’t understand the basics of how Search Engine Optimization works.

Here are three things that will help you with SEO:

1. Understanding the SEO beast. Before you hire someone to help you with SEO marketing, you should do your homework and get to know what SEO is and the basics of how it works.  There are no secret tricks to maximizing your presence online at least none that aren’t already public on sites such as http://www.google.com/webmasters which is an excellent resource for anyone that wants to know more about SEO Marketing.

2. Investing in the proper foundation. Most modern platforms are search engine optimized meaning they are coded to properly interact easily with Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines. This has more to do with the way the code, tags, titles, keywords and meta-tags were written and it is what lays the groundwork for successful SEO. It is ultimately what divides websites built on modern platforms that ease the optimization process versus websites that are not optimized and require a developer to manually manage the optimization process. A good website is better than your best employee because it is built to work for you 24/7.  One that is optimized minimizes time and money spent down the road.

3. Keep it Fresh. Review and refresh your content daily or weekly because as Google sees it you are only as pertinent as your most recent communications online. If the last article you wrote was a month ago and you haven’t changed the text on your site in a year then your SEO is going to be very low. Try social media feeds or blogging so your audience can access new information every time they visit your site.  Make a personal connection using social media or engage your readers with a company blog.  Fresh content keeps your company at the top of the rankings as long as it is within your specialty and makes positive use of your keywords.

The bottom line is no one can guarantee you that they will get you #1 on Google rankings.  It may not even make sense for your company to be #1 depending on the business you are in and what the search is for. Read the Google Webmasters site and analyze your position, goals and needs before you interview any company for SEO work. The first step to harnessing the power of SEO is to understand what it is.

Written by: Erika Rossi Raia, Right Brain Media