You can find a huge amount of hype in the SEO industry probably because it is a techno field plus is very competitive so everyone is attempting 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 Search engine optimisation playing field.
Yes SEO can be specialized but only usually after you got it completely wrong from the outset – your site that is. If you did not employ a good SEO advisor to give you the run-down Before you decide to start building then you most definitely finished up with a site punctured with a million Search engine optimisation holes. These websites normally takes some fixing for sure. The majority of web creative designers don’t know anything about Search engine optimization and what they do know they rarely put into action due to the fact they are certainly not requested to by you! Not selecting a good Search engine optimisation consultant is like creating a three storey home without having an architect and engineer and expecting the contractor to get it right – no way.
I run into a good Search engine optimization site once in every 100 sites. This is a very poor track record for web-developers. Every other single web-site is a ship filled with holes sinking in the lower zones of page 196 of Google!
So aside 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 uses inbound links a lot at the moment to judge a internet sites popularity. However, it’s now a breeze to create back links of good quality in significant amounts to unbalance the ranking game. Google knows it’s got to find a way to balance this out. When it does, most people’s position will come crashing towards the floor overnight.
On the other hand, Google always wants Top quality content material – the very best it can display. If you have this, then because content is the only reason why we have search engines in the first place, your internet site will usually do well no matter what twists and turns Google puts its search engine algorithms through.
By no means ever forget that content rules in the Search engine optimisation jungle. Ignore at your peril.
We struggled to get content on clients internet sites for so long until we built it into our Search engine optimization 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 websites weekly and gain ranking results from it seeing it is Search engine optimization optimised as well.
Your content delivery engines needs to be well tuned
Don’t believe that anyone can merely add content to a webpage and miss out on the platform you’re adding it to. Google wants to make sure that the content material is not just the best for the keyword requested, but it also gives the best user experience. So make sure you cross your T’s and dot your SEO eyes when it comes to making certain your internet site delivers the best experience such as doing these :
Make certain your server is quick – Google a short while ago added this one – upgrade today if it takes too long to download your internet pages
Be sure ALL images have ALT tags WITH purposeful content material
Make sure every page has a UNIQUE page title relevant to the content of the page
Fix Canonical issues (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 at least 300 words of meaningful text on any page – the more the better for Google
Make sure that if you are utilizing a Content management system that the URL’s are fixed so only phrases 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 website (maybe you have a flash site), then at the very least add a weblog attached to your internet site – this helps a lot
When you next renew your current domain, renew for at least 3 years – after all longevity exhibits maturity and raises trust
Inbound links and more backlinks
And of course 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 SEO resources available and helped you along the SEO road a bit further.
Find more information on SEO or Web Design.. Unique version for reprint here: Search Engine Optimization Hype Log.
