The Truth About SEO
Search engine optimization is still one of the biggest challenges faced by any webmaster - even in the socially-saturated world of web 2.0, ranking well in the search engines continues to be the foundation to a successful website. Thousands of dollars are spent each month hiring specialists, buying links, and investing in ‘the latest’ optimization tricks…but is it worth it?
The Ever-Changing Face of Search Engines
I was talking with a web design and branding specialist a few days ago and we were discussing the SEO needs of a few of his clients. “There are so many different companies out there and things change so fast,” he said. “How can you know what’s going to work and what’s not?”
It is estimated that Google provides results for more than 90 million searches each day. What company would jeopardize that sort of success by placing irrelevant or nothing but ad websites in their top results? Photo by manfrys via Flickr
Well, the first thing to remember is that success doesn’t happen overnight - even in the search engines. Promises of “instant rankings” and “thousands of backlinks” are usually not as good as they may sound. Search engines like Google and Yahoo are continuously changing their ranking formulas to prevent successful results from methods like these.
So What Works?
While gaining your company first place ranking on Google does require the right combination of several different factors, search engine optimization is really not as complicated as you may believe. The first logical step in determining the best strategy is to consider what the search engines like to see - Google’s webmaster guidelines are probably the best resource for this.
Webmasters who spend their energies upholding the spirit of the basic principles will provide a much better user experience and subsequently enjoy better ranking than those who spend their time looking for loopholes they can exploit.
Taken from the Quality Guidelines section, the above passage sums up the foundation to SEO that works. Before spending time, money, and resources on strategies and programs to improve your search rankings - invest in techniques that will benefit your readers and improved search rankings will naturally follow.
There Must Be More to It…
You’re right, simply putting up a website with a few informative articles and a how-to will not put you at the top of Google. Search rankings are primarily determined by keywords and their relativity to the site and the number of links pointing to the site, as well as the wording and context of those links and the authority of the linking site.
So What’s the Truth About SEO?
Like the driving force behind a successful brick-and-mortar business, the reputation of a worthwhile website will pave the way for longterm success. Easy navigation, a well-designed site, and interesting, entertaining, and informative content related to your niche will increase the possibility your visitors will return, it will generate backlinks from other related websites, and it will allow easy access to search spiders that determine rankings.
Photo by jeffrey Beall via Flickr
There are a number of details that can improve your chances of success:
- The quality and usefulness of information.
- The keywords and phrases selected.
- The placement of those keywords in the content and website.
- Techniques to boost the visibility of the website.
But the foundation of search engine success, as well as business success in general, is providing your audience with something they consider useful enough to share with their friends.
Subscribe to our blog to learn more useful tips on search engine optimization and making your content work for you and be sure to sign up for Priceless News to learn the frightening facts SEO firms hope you never learn, coming in the October issue.
This is sooo true!!