3 Fundamentals for Better SEO
First, There Ain't No "Magic Bullet"
I was speaking to a prospective client earlier this week. His website traffic has dropped off significantly over the past year. And he was looking for the "magic bullet" to get back the search engine visibility he had before. So I wrote him an email giving him an idea of three key fundamentals that need to be addressed to better his SEO and gain improved search engine visibility. See below for the gist of what I sent him.
By the way, there ain't no magic bullet for SEO. If you have the budget you can buy your way into visibility with search engine marketing channels such as Google AdWords or BING advertising. But when it comes to zooming up the 'organic' side of search engine rankings very, very, very rarely is there any "magic bullet". The reason I hint that there might be a magic bullet is because... if you are in a keyword category that has little to no competition a few smart SEO tactics might get your some good results fairly quickly. If you are in any competitive category as Donnie Brasco says... "forget about it!" Overall, it takes lots of continuous, strategically-driven hard work to get high rankings and maintain them.
1. Your Website Needs to Built Right
Your website needs to be the HUB of your online world. And it must be technically well-built. Recently, there is more focus on 'technical SEO'. Technical SEO stuff refers to utilizing semantic markup; XML sitemap for pages, video and images; using canonical programming; site / page caching to speed up page load time, and so on. 'Non-technical' SEO might be referred to as the softer side: keyword research, keyword placement in website URLs, headline tags, content, etc.
The site also needs to be built for your visitors. Don't design and develop just for search engines. It must be strategically designed to be visually appealing so that relates to your website visitors. The search engines can track how 'successful' your website is and having sites that sell or produce engagement is another legitimate SEO tactic.
And your site needs to be built in such a way that provides strong call-to-actions to ensure you direct visitors to either buy via a shopping cart or other payment gateway or start a relationship with you. What's the relationship stuff all about? Think "Liking" your Facebook page or subscribing to your email.
2. Freshness of Content Counts Big Time
Google, BING and Yahoo favour sites (and social media channels such as Facebook) that have lots of fresh content. This ain't no big secret. So routinely blogging, adding new product pages, posting to your Facebook page, and such is important! Using your social channels to interact with others is great. But your social media channels are also a great way draw new traffic to your website. Promote your new website content with Tweets, plus posts on Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+.
That's why we like to add content to our client's site on a regular basis. Any content that has RSS capability helps even more so blog and event calendars are great places to add content. The quality of content matter too. A well written, informative article that provides your website visitors with value in return for their attention works. Poorly written nonsensical posts just suck, in more ways than one.
3. Backlinks to your Site = Votes for Better Rankings
The quality and quantity of incoming website backlinks pointing to your website is critical to increasing your website's visibility. And continually acquiring new links over time is another critical factor for overall search engine visibility. You acquire links from a variety of sources including blogging, social media, public relations, etc.
Quantity of websites, blogs, or social media channels that links to your site can have a significant impact on your website's search engine visibility. But links from spammy or unrelated sites won't do you much good. In fact, such links can hurt your website's reputation.
A high-quality site is well trusted; for example NewYorkTimes.com is an extreme example of a well-respected website. A site with a domain name like Casino-Betting-Online.com is very likely spammy and is not going to give you any value with Google, BING, etc. It helps if the site is somewhat related to you. For example, if you are a Hawaii hotel then a link from a Polish dentist's website isn't going to be of much use. Whereas a link from the NewYorkTimes.com travel section is a big time quality link for your hotel site.
So There You Have It - 3 SEO Fundamentals
ONE: make sure your site is built well keeping in mind 'technical SEO' tactics.
TWO: Think of your business as a publisher. Continually publish content of value to your target market.
THREE: Acquire links continually over time. Better put... EARN backlinks from others by being strategic, developing relationships, and offering quality online products.
Got Something to Say? Sharing is Caring
So what do you think? Have we missed anything? Have questions? Then fire away! Add your comments below or feel free to share this post using the social media buttons on this page. Thanks.
By Roy McClean