SEO. What worked 10 years ago and what works today.
More people are becoming educated and aware of what Search Engine Optimization can actually do for the visibility of your business. Some people are playing catch up with the old school tac tics but cutting edge digital marketers are aware of the ever-changing rules of the game. Here are some of the most important ones in a nutshell;
keyword density/stuffing vs. rich content creation
10 years ago if you mentioned a keyword 7 times within the same page it boosted your search results. Do that today and you raise a red flag. Today you need to create highly contentious and linkable content to get popular with users and the links push you in the search results, even if your keyword is mentioned just a few times.
PageRank optimization – authority links
Google’s PageRank once used to be a solid way of showing your peers that you arrived. Today not much so. Recommendations by respectable websites now weigh in more and the simple fact that you are linked there often is worth more that the PageRank that gets passed.
metatag optimization – tagging/folksonomy
Back in the day we spent weeks and months to perfect these tags as they helped with the search results. This aspect is nowadays almost meaningless. The meta keywords tag can be dropped altogether. If you want to add keywords to your page, try tags or even better folksonomy (tagging by many people collectively) to enrich your content in the visible content area.
SEO copywriting for spiders – SEO copywriting for users
Are you interested in “SEO Services SEO Company India Search Engine Optimization (SEO) India”? Probably not, that’s why you are reading my blog.
article marketing – business blogging
Article marketing was big when it was important to get many links from different websites and IPs. Duplicate content issues, low quality and other disadvantages made it less of an viable option. At the same time business blogging has really taken shape. It works far better for generating links than article marketing. Of course it’s a lot more reputable. In other words, write about what you know and what you do.
search engine submission – xml sitemaps, pinging
It’s amazing how some services still offer search engine submission (to hundreds of search engines sometimes). While in most countries Google is basically a monopoly, rarely more than 5 search engines matter at all. Three of them enable you to use XML sitemaps to “submit”. While this is a viable way of submitting to search engines, it’s still better to ping Google at it’s BlogSearch with a blog post instead to get instantly indexed. In short, use as many tools as you can provided by Google.
reciprocal linking – linking out
Remember how everyone exchanged links to boost rankings? As long as the link swapping works artificially on the premise of barter it is now outdated. It takes much more time and effort to attempt to find suitable link partners than just linking out to the blogs in your niche you favor. While not everybody will link back some will if your content is a king and not just a peasant. Some people even will link you even more than you linked them in many instances. These links will be perfectly natural too so they will count more than artificial exchanged links.
paid links/text link ads – sponsoring, charity
The days of buying links is dead. Sponsoring and charity done right will be great for both the artists, activist or non-profits receiving the funds and the company supporting them financially.
forum signature – homepage link on active social media profiles
Many people still use forums, especially forums that allow signatures that “pass PageRank”(think linked in discussions). Sometimes the signature is longer than the forum post itself and Google has taken this “SEO tactic” into account years ago. On the other hand there are lots of social media sites who let you add a link to your homepage in the profile. When you are contributing consistently to these your profile page gains more and more authority, also for Google.
footer links – content links
Just a few years ago people used to stuff their page footers with useless links to their link exchange partners. Bad news if you still do that: Google discounts those in most cases. What you need are content links. So make people write about you in their blogs by providing exceptional resources, up to the minute news or a unique analysis and opinion not repeating what everybody else said.
too many directory links – generating buzz
While directory submission to a few directories (like a 12) still makes sense to get a site indexed in Google via the directory links it does not make sense to submit to hundreds of directories as these are often low value. Create a buzz around your site by viral videos or even good old press releases to get for link power.
guaranteed positions – ROI and conversions
Some SEO firms still proclaim to offer “guaranteed top positions” in Google, while in itself a misleading claim it does not make sense anymore to rely on rankings as these differ from place to place and computer to computer. Focus on ROI and conversions instead. If you like to guarantee a ROI of 200% or a 10% conversion rate it does make much more sense on the business level.
link building – getting links
The concept of link building has an underlying assumption of links that are artificially “build”. Otherwise it would be called “getting links” or something else, but building implies an active involvement of the SEO and actual manual inserting links somewhere. In contrast link baiting and other more common methods nowadays rely on other means than sheer “building” to get links in a natural, organic way. Built links will always be subject to the search engine’s quality team’s scrutiny. Completely organic links can’t be filtered out obviously.
forums – communities
Do you consider adding a forum to your site? Well, think twice. Forums are problem oriented (people go to forums to solve a problem) and people using them are often aggressive. Social communities on the other hand add a far more positive enhancement to a site. Adding content is based on popularity and thus good content is submitted. It seems that with growing popularity you also face these problems with communities but it’s not a wide spread inherent problem like with forums.
outstanding frontpage design – landing pages, usable check out forms
Once upon a time your homepage ruled your web site and you spent your entire time trying to look perfect. Today clean and focused landing pages as well as working and usable check out forms for visitors to complete a purchase.
This is tip of the iceberg but a good place to start…
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