These days, you will have zero problems finding information about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) online. Your main problem is finding high-quality search engine optimization tips that are not outdated already.
SEO vs. the Google search engine is, and always will be a moving target. SEO marketing a cat and mouse game. The major search engines, Google, Bing, and Yahoo, continually strive to serve up the most relevant results for their users. It's their job. In other words, they don’t care who offers the best content to their users. They want the best results... the best outcomes for their users.
Today, there are over 1.37 billion pages on the Internet. (Source: Accessed 12/1/2013) Our goal, as marketers, is to rank on the first page of Google, preferably at the top of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). Website optimization is much easier said than done. Keep reading for more Rock Solid Info about SEO.
Rock Solid Info’s Quick Guide to Getting Found by Search Engines
1. Know your Audience. Take the time necessary to learn the words your target market and your avatar use as well as any jargon for the industry/product.
2. Then create epic, cornerstone content using words and phrases used by people who search for your product or service.
3. Try to find narrow niche keywords within your topic. The broad category keywords are very hard and expensive to rank for.
4. Have patience. This process takes time.
5. Build links to your pages to show they are important
6. Rinse and Repeat the process.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is an ongoing process. The goal is to increase the visibility of a website to search engines by using words and phrases relevant to a specific topic. When properly optimized, a website will rank higher in organic (non-paid) search results. This is the basis for search engine marketing. SEO Marketing is the opposite of paid services like Google AdWords. Adwords is a paid service intended to accomplish the same results.
When a site ranks higher in the search engine results page, the more visitors the site will get from the search engine. In fact, if you are not on the first page of Google, Bing, or Yahoo, you will find it difficult to generate a lot of traffic.
And even if you are on the first page, the top three results tend to get the lion’s share of traffic. But do not despair. When you optimize original epic, engaging content for your visitors, you will be rewarded. The good news is you can use SEO to target many kinds of searches.
Many people have had success establishing a web presence by targeting searches for:
- images
- video
- local business
- niche-specific search engines
- podcasts
- as well as social media
SEO considers how search engines work and how people search for what they want. To succeed as an Internet marketing strategy, SEO must also take into consideration best practices, set by the individual search engines, to avoid demotion penalties and/or delisting.
The Google Hummingbird update puts more emphasis on creating original, in-depth content. For most people, this is a good thing. The days of content spam and questionable backlinks are numbered. The search engines are getting much better at detecting and demoting websites who practice black hat techniques. Black hat techniques are not a basis for a long-term successful business.
Website optimization today still involves writing and editing content and HTML code to increase the article’s relevance to the specific keywords. Another part of SEO strives to remove barriers to the search engine's indexing activities. Their robots crawl the Internet following links. Your job is to make it easy for them to find you.
The most important thing is to remember to write for people, not a search engine.
This skill is worth mastering. Another tip about writing is to write short sentences. Short sentences make easy reading. Avoid compound sentences whenever possible. Most of the time you can eliminate the words "that", "and", and "it" to make your writing clearer.
Many tools are available to help optimize a website. The most important ones are patience, your brain, and your own common sense.
On this site, I use 3 primary search engine optimization software tools for search engine optimization. Google Keyword Planner, Market Samurai, and Scribe. The Google tool is free. All you need is a Google Adwords account. Market Samurai and Scribe are both paid tools and well worth the money.
Other popular paid keyword tools are LongtailPro, Wordtracker, and HitTail. A few free ones are WordStream Keyword Tool, Ubersuggest.
Be sure to check the related searches area on the search engine results page. There are good insights there. Also, check for synonyms on the thesaurus.org.
One cool thing is all of the keyword tools have a free trial. So check them out to see which one you like best. If I could only choose one it would be Scribe.
This is one in a series of posts about building a website on WordPress. Check out our other posts on domains, hosting, and FTP. There's also an article about 7 Reasons Why WordPress Doesn't Suck.
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