Search Engine Optimization has become the new buzz term amongst Internet marketing types. Most people with a website have learned what “SEO” means. However, most don’t know there are different flavors of SEO.
On-Page SEO involves keywords and key-phrases, plus page/title/heading formatting on your website pages. After you’re finished making the logo look just right, you hopefully create content that would motivate someone to visit your website more than once. Once you’ve mastered the On-Page SEO battle, it’s very possible that you still won’t be noticed by the search engines. Compelling content (by itself) will not get you noticed. You also need a well designed Off-Page SEO campaign if you want the customer credibility that goes with a page 1 or 2 search result.
What is Off-Page SEO? Put simply, the more websites that link to your content, the more you must be an authority on a given subject. Those with more authority get placed higher in search results. Anyone can stuff keywords into their pages, but not everyone can be the authority, so search engines changed their ranking algorithms. Someone recommending that you stuff invisible keywords into your pages is about 11 years behind, in an industry that’s really only 10 years old!
The #1 search engine is Google (founded in 1998). Google practically ignores the famed meta keyword and description tags of the past. There are many small factors that will help, but Relevant Content and Quality Links are two of the biggest SEO improvements a website can use to move up the rankings.
We’ll save great content for another discussion. Here’s the Good-Better-Best of links:
- Links from other websites are good. About 80-90% of these should go to your main page and others can link to content within your website.
- Links from other websites in your profession are even better. These sort of links help establish YOU as an authority in your field.
- Links from others in your field who have a good PageRank, who also use your “phrase that pays” in their link to you are best. A well-established website, linking to you AND using your top key-phrase in the actual link text tells the search engines that you know so much about your field that others link to you and use your words to do it. Those of us above the age of 35 remember the commercials… “When E.F. Hutton talks…”
It’s difficult enough to control your own content, much less the content of other websites, so we’ll leave #3 alone for right now. Most websites I see need to work on link category #1. We need to crawl before we walk.
How effective are incoming links, even if they don’t mention the keywords or key-phrases that are on your pages? This category #1 link should not be overlooked and can still do wonders for your search rankings. Want proof? Do a Google search on “click here” . The king of “click here” is the Adobe Acrobat Reader free download. Click the Adobe link that was ranked #1 on Google, then search the actual Adobe page for the phrase “click here”.
You won’t find it. All of that #1 search result was generated by other websites. What’s my point? Even when the other websites don’t configure the links correctly, LINKS are critical. If you want to move up, others need to be linking to you (assuming your content is worth reading).
Go out and find industry directories, forums, listings and other websites where you can either request a link back to your website, or register to contribute to their blog or forum. Once you register, edit your profile and make sure your forum/blog signature includes your website. Then find something USEFUL and timely to contribute and your link will appear at the bottom of the post or comment. If appropriate, place a link IN the comment or post, but don’t oversell. Let’s not anger the humans who read and run these forums while courting the search engine computers who will find your links every time they re-index those websites!
The days of “listing” your website with search engines and stuffing keywords into your pages has past. If you have expertise, publish or perish is the new search engine paradigm! This is why I strongly encourage all my clients to have active Blogs. A Blog is the perfect, search engine tuned, medium to publish your relevant daily, weekly or monthly thoughts and expertise. Once you are consistently publishing quality Blog articles, go out and find creative ways to generate back-links to your website. The combination of DYNAMIC CONTENT and LINKS will eventually get you to the 3rd level of links listed above.
If you created your blog articles correctly, even the lazy people who plagiarize your work will be inadvertently creating links back to your website! Others will start to “quote” you on their websites and they will link to you, either to give you proper credit or to show verification for their own credibility. Either way, it helps you to have quality content with the smart use of your target keywords and key-phrases and built-in back links. The amount of quality links back to your website will then grow exponentially and search engines will regard you as the authority. When that happens, you’ll not only be on Page 1, but you’ll own Page 1. Your customers assign greater authority to websites they see on the first couple pages of a search. You’ll get the email or phone call before your competition does!
Now you know why the search engines place a greater value on LINKS. Go out and create links back to your website. If you need help with your SEO campaign, email me and we’ll create a plan for your website.
