Do you feel like you’re spinning your wheels and accomplishing little or nothing in terms of tangible results with your web development and web design efforts?
The old adage of keeping it simple is the key. All roads lead to Rome…Rome being your website.
The ultimate goal is to earn a higher ranking in the search engines through both onsite and offsite SEO (search engine optimization).
And that’s where it gets confusing, thanks to the myriad “solutions” available online and the unfortunate promises they make in their sales pitches.
Always remember: The purpose of your website is two main things: get people to call you or get people into your business/on an appointment with you. It’s really that simple.
So where does all of this SEO crap fit into the picture? Your onsite SEO ensures that all of your titling and content contains the proper key words and phrasing in the proper amount. Too much can kill your ranking. The right words have to be balanced with the right presentation so people will like what they see when they find you and, thus, stay longer.
Your offsite SEO is mostly links back to your website. Yep, you want a whole bunch of fingers pointing to your website because that tells Google that you’re both relevant and popular. Links can come from a variety of sources, and making comments on other relevant blogs is a good place to start.
Each comment you make is a link back to your site. Now, that being said, make sure your comments are relevant and add to the conversation. ”This was a nice post” or “You have really made a good point here” (or any of the other lame generic comments you’ve undoubtedly seen) are both thoughtless and worthless. Compliments only count when they’re followed by thoughtful comments that add to the conversation.
Guest blogging is another great way to generate links. Think of some of your favorite blogs and contact the owners. Simply ask if they accept guest blog articles. Some do and some don’t, so find the ones that do and get writing:) It not only gets you more links to your site, it exposes you to an entirely new audience as well.
Of course, it doesn’t hurt to have a presence in social media forums for both linking and interaction with your target audience.
And if you remember nothing else from reading this, remember that all roads lead to Rome…Rome being your website. You want a lot of fingers pointing at you so you’ll be noticed.
Just make sure you have the right web development and web design team to create the kind of site people will truly like when they discover it.
The evolution of SEO in the effectiveness of your web development and web design efforts changes weekly if not daily. For every legitimate method of being found online, there are a zillion people to abuse it to the point where Google reduces its value in their algorithms.
Incidentally, what makes “zillion” such a great number is that it’s an arbitrary number to which anyone can assign any value. Gotta love it:)
Anyway, one of the big culprits we deal with today is “key word stuffing.” That’s basically cramming (stuffing) as many key words into the copy on your pages as possible and cramming as many key words into links, etc. that you possibly can. This is the kind of behavior that makes your site look and read spammy, yet why do so many people still use these tactics?
Simple: Desperation and/or impatience. The key to using key words in your SEO is moderation, not stuffing. There should be no more than a 3% saturation of any key word phrase on any page of your website. Links to your site are also now more effective if they contain your name or your brand name rather than key words in the links. This is due to the abuse of key word “link wheels,” which are basically a series of sites set up which link to each other and then link back to one central site.
Be consistent with your blogging efforts, content management and site updates and exercise reasonable moderation in using keywords in your SEO efforts. It’s excess that leads to the constant changes, such as the Panda Google updates, which are specifically designed to eliminate the effectiveness of spammy behavior in both on and offsite SEO. If you go overboard with any method, you are basically contributing to that method being rendered ineffective in the long run.
The analogy I like to draw is the cornerback Lester Hayes of the Oakland Raiders in the 70′s and early 80′s. Back then, players used a sticky resin called “Stick ‘Um” on their hands to help with their grip on the ball. Used in reasonable moderation, this substance was legal. Hayes, however, pushed it to the limit in the 1980 NFL season. He smeared it on his hands, jersey, pants, shoes, helmet…anywhere the ball would potentially touch (see the picture to the left). In 1980 he was one interception short of the all-time season record with 13, while an additional 4 were called back because of penalties. Teammates even joked that the reason he got all those interceptions was StickUm …because if the ball even touched his hand he’d hang on.
By the 1981 season, Stick Um was outlawed (and still is) in what is known as the Lester Hayes Rule. Can you imagine what the league would look like if this was still allowed? Ridiculous.
That is what continues to happen with the evolution of online marketing and search engines. People take legitimate, legal methods and go overboard to the point where search engines have to step in and do their job: Create and maintain a level playing field for all.
Search engines continue to evolve and those changes occur almost daily. For example, those meta tags that were once pretty valuable on your site are now not indexed the way they once were. Why? Because the search engines became wise to the fact that people are key-word-stuffing their metatags…so they have devalued those tags in indexing. Is this permanent? Probably not. These things go in cycles and in time, metatags will cycle around to more valuable indexing again.
In the meantime, like our parents told us (but we didn’t wanna listen)…practice moderation. At least with your SEO:)
A big part of SEO in web development and web design is keyword-rich content. Indeed, content is king on your website as it is the very thing that gives people a reason to come back to your website.
It’s also the very thing that gives many business owners fits because it’s more challenging than it seems at first. Consistency is where most of your contemporaries on the Internet fall short. It’s not easy to come up with consistently engaging content and then there’s the issue of making sure your chosen key words are utilized properly in your content.
Then lather, rinse, repeat ad infinitum.
Here are a couple of tips for your website content, keeping visitor readability in mind:
- Highlight (boldface) key words. You probably notice that there are words in our content that are consistently highlighted (i.e. web development and web design) and it’s because it helps when search engines are indexing our site in that given search. A little extra key word ‘juice’, if you will.
- Make content readable, don’t overuse keywords. You know the websites. You’ve seen them before. The ones with incoherent sentences and unreadable content because of overuse of key words. What good does it do for people to find you if that’s what they find? Proof-read your content or, even better, get someone you trust to proof-read it for you to make sure it is smooth, readable and makes sense.
Remember, readability and ease of navigation walk hand in hand in your web development and web design 
The following is the first in a short series of the best Search Engine Optimization techniques for your web presence. These post will be divided into best SEO practices as well as techniques to increase your ranking and avoid getting banned or blacklisted! There are so many SEO techniques currently on the web, almost too many, so we are going to “trim the fat” and give you the skinny on what really matters! *Note: we are not affiliated with SEO301.com nor does any of this information come from them or have anything to do with them.
Search Engine Optimization Best Practices
1. Keywords - It’s quite obvious and the most essential piece of the equation. Ultimately you want to establish a solid set of keywords (3-4) or a keyword phrase. You want to make these keywords or phrase good and sensible so don’t go picking random names or making words up. These keywords need to be relevant to your content as well as relatively short within your content. Try to pick a keyword or phrase that is popular (so people recognize it) but not so popular that your competition is overwhelming. Typically, the shorter the keyword or phrase, the harder it is to rank for it. You may try to establish a longer keyword or phrase however this is not recommended.
Use your SEO keywords or phrase in your domain name. This tip helps as much as a good title tag and is pretty simple to do once you’ve established a solid keyword or phrase. This technique may prove slightly difficult if your keyword or phrase is too short or too popular. You can also include the keywords within the URL of your site by setting up pretty permalinks or effective files names for your pages. (Example: www.keywordphrase.com/more-keywords-phrase) Individual page titles are also an area where you can take advantage of properly using your keywords or phrase.
2. Content - The content of your page needs to be unique, not just clever or well written although that usually helps! Provide an interesting or differing perspective from the typical competition. People are more interested in new ideas and re-thought practices because they have heard or seen so much of the same junk already. In other words be original, don’t be redundant, and bring something to the table.
As noted above, be sure to utilize your keywords or phrase within your page title(s) as well as the headings (h1) of your page. Best practices state that there should be only one “h1″ per page with all other headings receiving either an h2 or h3 if needed. When your site is indexed the spiders specifically seek out “title” and “h1″ tags so be sure to use them! Another useful technique is linking within the pages of your site to other areas of your site. You want your site to be intuitive and easy to follow. Adding links to pages within your site that you may be referencing from your blog or post will aid in the overall usability and navigation of your website.
Adding new content as often as possible is one of the biggest and best things you can do other then what’s already been said. Content is KING! Usually the larger sites with well-written and properly-sourced code and techniques are the ones that will show up first. Sites with consistently updated content will get top priority with spiders because they are always updating and adding useful information. Along with adding new content; the age of the site is just as important. It is possible that you can create a new site and get it ranking within a few months, however this is not typical. Not only do spiders like Google and Yahoo want to see original content but they also want to see it happening over a span of time. Think of adding content to your site as a marathon, not just a sprint around the internet.
3. In Bound Links - In Bound Links are links TO your site FROM other sites. It is always better to have more In Bound Links than Out Bound Links or links that go from YOUR site to ANOTHER site. Proper In Bound Links require a person to use proper keywords in the anchor text (link text) and proper coding in order for the IBL to be relevant. The simplest way to set up a proper In Bound Link is as follows: <a href=”YourURL”>Your Keywords or Phrase</a> –Not only will this link to your site but the anchor text attached to the link will count toward your overall searchability. *Note on Anchor Text: Be sure to use anchor text that flows naturally in speech. It isn’t always the best practice to ONLY use your keywords or phrase as the anchor text. Mix it up!
Receiving In Bound Links from sites with better reputations is always a plus. Typically “.edu” and “.gov” IBLs are the best but are sometimes hard to come by if your particular keyword or phrase doesn’t exist within the realms of education or government. Receiving In Bound Links from sites with similar content to yours is also of great importance. By similar we don’t mean “same”… we mean similar as is related to your industry. Getting In Bound Links from another industry leader may greatly increase your visibility and help your overall reputation. Links from these sites will always trump links from random, unrelated sites.
And finally, to wrap up the Best SEO Practices, here is one that always seems to confuse people. Reciprocal linking, also known as “link sharing” or “link exchange”. Previously this practice was useless… sharing links basically canceled out the relevance of each link. Now however reciprocal links actually DO have SOME value. These links won’t be as valuable as other IBLs but they will hold some value. The reciprocal links must still be relevant and from reliable sources as well in order to count. Reciprocal links outlined in your “Blogroll” are more valuable as they are almost personal recommendations for the individual or business you’re linking to.
Hopefully these simple but powerful tips will lead you in the right direction for properly optimizing your website and content. Stay tuned for the next “SEO 301 Proper Search Techniques” where we’ll be covering the secondary techniques that will help increase the overall power of your web presence!
