There’s so much hype in the Search engine optimization industry probably because it is a techno field plus is very competitive so everyone is trying to eyebrow everyone else and get the upper edge.
Being in my antiquated 40’s – hippy 1965 baby to be exact – I have been around the IT industry well before most of the current players were out of diapers. I was there in our computer room when they unveiled the latest hard drive – it looked like a modern day top-loader washer and was the same size! All up it held a ‘breath-taking’ 40 Meg of data. Yes that is right 40 Meg! When we saw the new micro PC’s come out we felt they would never take off (we must have had IBM blood in us!) and the IT journey went on from there.
Today my ‘long teeth’ dip in my beer and my eyeballs roll back in their sockets when I hear some of the hype plastered around the SEO playing field.
Yes SEO can be technical but only usually while you got it drastically wrong at the start – your internet site that is. If you did not hire a good Search engine optimization consultant to give you the run down BEFORE you started building then you probably wound up with a web site pierced with a trillion Search engine optimisation holes. Websites like these normally takes some fixing for sure. Most web designers don’t know anything with regards to SEO and what they do know they rarely put into practice because they are not requested to by you! Not hiring a good Search engine optimization consultant is like developing a three storey home without having an architect and engineer and expecting the builder to get it right – no way.
I run into a great SEO site once in every 100 web-sites. It is a terrible track record for web-developers. Nearly every other single web site is a ship filled with holes sinking in the lower regions of page 196 of Google!
So apart from adding some colorful pros to this piece I guess I should add some substance. Well here it is – short and simple (well maybe not that short!)
Content is King
Google makes use of back-links a lot at the moment to judge a sites popularity. However, it’s now a breeze to create backlinks of good quality in large volumes to unbalance the ranking game. Google knows it has to find a way to balance this out. When it does, most people’s ranking will probably come crashing towards the ground overnight.
On the other hand, Google always wants Top quality content – the best it can show. If you have this, then because content is the only reason why we have search engines in the first place, your website will invariably flourish no matter what twists and turns Google puts its search engine algorithms through.
Never ever forget that content is king inside the Search engine optimisation jungle. Ignore at your peril.
We battled to get content material on clients websites for so long until we built it into our SEO ranking packages. We now offer a content and back-linking service (SEO.SIMPLE.) that solves this inherent problem. Now our clients get fresh unique content on their sites weekly and gain ranking results from it seeing it is SEO optimised as well.
Your content delivery engines needs to be well tuned
Don’t think that you can merely add content to a web page and miss out on the platform you happen to be adding it to. Google wants to make sure that the content material is not just the best for the key phrase requested, but it also gives the very best user experience. So be sure you cross your T’s and dot your Search engine optimisation eyes when it comes to ensuring your internet site provides the best experience such as performing these :
Make certain your server is quick – Google a short while ago added this one – upgrade right now if it takes too long to download your webpages
Ensure ALL images have ALT tags WITH meaningful content material
Make sure every page has a UNIQUE page title relevant to the content of the page
Fix Canonical problems (were http://www.yoursite.com and http://yoursite.com and http://www.yoursite.com/index.php etc all resolve to the same page but have different addresses. Instead they should all redirect to a single page and that page should be used throughout the site in all links. If you are on a UNIX based server this can be fixed quickly usually through the htaccess file)
Make sure there are no less than 300 words of meaningful textual content on any web page – the more the better for Google
Make sure that if you are using a CMS that the URL’s are fixed so only words show up (and preferably keywords) and not funny programming expressions and numbers
Whenever you create a link use a keyword(s) and not the notorious ‘click here’ as the anchor text
If you cannot add content material to your internet site (maybe you have a flash site), then at the very least add a weblog attached to your site – this helps a lot
When you next renew your domain, renew for at least 3 years – of course longevity exhibits maturity and improves trust
Backlinks and more back-links
And lastly do not stop back-linking. Right now it is the powerhouse for Search engine optimisation but don’t rely on this for the long term.
So I hope this has helped ‘de-hype’ some of the Search engine optimization resources out there and helped you along the SEO road a bit further.
Discover more SEO tips and tricks. And if you need a great SEO Consultant we are based in Singapore (so our rates are great!) but we work globally. Don’t reprint this exact article. Instead, reprint a free unique content version of this same article.
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