There are literally thousands of SEO blogs, a handful of SEO books, and almost a lifetime of SEO tidbits that might make your site preform better in the Search Engines. In this post, I’d like to distill everything you’ll ever hear about Search Engine Optimization. I’m going to pare it down to an easy-to-understand picture so you can easily cut through the fog of Search Engine Optimization. Whether you are looking to hire a stellar SEO, want to do some SEO yourself, or just want to get an idea of how Search Engines interpret their results, this should help in your endeavor.
Search Engines are getting better everyday and giving better results. Slowly, Google and the gang are getting better at knowing if your site is authoritative, unique, and worthwhile to their searchers. We don’t know how they determine it, or quantify it, and we likely never will. But they know, and they are getting better at filtering the good and bad with each and every algorithm tweak.
Everything in SEO falls into two camps: On-Page SEO factors, and Off-Page SEO factors.
-On Page SEO Factors Include: Links around your own site, title tags, meta tags,your written content, etc. and optimizing all of this to give a clear picture to the Search Engines about your subject matter.
-Off Page SEO Factors Include: All the links to your site and their anchor text, all the buzz about your site, people remembering your site or message, viral linking, linkbait, and everything else that the creative marketers think up to get links and headspace.
With the direction that Search Engines are headed, there has arisen a tried and true method of approaching your site’s SEO. It is simple…
1. Think of a good idea for a site that people care about and want to spend their time using or reading or watching or thinking about…
2. Build the site with valid code and making sure that all of your On-Page Factors are in good shape…
3. Forget about On-Page factors and tricks…
4. Make content that is linkable and think of your site as a brand that you want to expand.
5. Make sure you forgot about tricks…
This is the only future-proof way to approach marketing your site. And, as Google and the Gang learn to interpret sites more clearly, On-Page factors will become less and less important, and off-page optimization will become everything.
If I can offer some take-away knowledge that you can use today to position your site (brand) to be ahead of the SEO curve, it would be:
1. Have a technical guy (like me!) go over the On-Page Search Engine Optimization factors on your site to make sure you don’t have any huge blunders. The sad fact is that many sites DO have some big problems that are keeping them in the Search Engine Gutters… but remember that this is 10% of your focus, so make sure your resources and budget reflect this.
2. Market your site! Forget about anchor text, tweaks, and everything else and just try to get your message out. If people like it, then they’ll link to it, your service or product will become more popular, and your Search Engine Rankings will skyrocket because Google and the Gang will know it. You can hire a marketer with an emphasis on New Media to help get you into social networks, on blogs, and other online communities. This is where 90% of your emphasis should be, so make sure your budget and resources reflect it
