SEO for Newbies (part 2)

Summarizing the last post, it’s important to optimize your content and create a proper structure that lets the search engines find you easily and index you.  Without search engines, we’re lost in the web like someone in the middle of the ocean without a boat.  The chances of anyone finding you without knowing where to look are slim to none.  That’s all important, and you can read the previous post here, but there are plenty of other equally important factors that have everything to do with your search engine optimization.  The big one is content.

Content – It would be absurd to make a website that was entirely visual.  While the effects might be stunning, and eye-candy to be enjoyed for days on end, the reality is that search engines do not index images the way they index written content.  A search engine cannot read what is inside an image, video or flash display.  Even with appropriate tags for these, you still fall short.  Text is the real meat of the industry, and search engines love to roll over fresh, text-rich content repeatedly like a dog rolling around on something smelly in the grass.  Pardon the comparison.

The greater the relevancy of your text on each individual page, the greater the interest you will stir from your users and search engines.  While it is important to create SEO rich content on your pages, especially where keywords are involved, you should avoid trying to squeeze too many subjects onto a small number of pages (or even one page).  Breaking topics down into multiple pages will bring more visits from search engine spiders.  Each individual page is indexed, and as such will return a greater number of responses to anyone looking for a listing related to your topic(s)

An important thing to consider when writing your content (or having it written for you) is personalization and local search.  Local search is rapidly growing in popularity, and something I will be covering in future SEO posts.

When it comes to relevant content and search engines, they love the fresh stuff.  Like a crisp $100 bill, search engines can’t keep their grubby little spider legs to themselves.  The unfortunate problem is that posting new, fresh content on a regular basis to your website is time-consuming, and you can only rewrite something a few times before quality begins to suffer.

Posting a blog on the other hand is a fantastic way to attract attention.  You have fresh content as often as you care to have it posted, you are attracting in-bound links, and you are creating an unlimited number of search engine listings for each blog post you create.  These are the cornerstones of search engine optimization, the last of course being you and your ability to update it.  Without interaction from you, your website is a modern day Rainman.

“Yup.  Definitely dull. Definitely. Definitely”

Title Tags – Remember the analogy I made in the previous post about the “Hello my name is” tags?  Here is where it applies.  Each page has meta content and grouped with that is the title of the page.  Your title is exactly what a potential visitor will read when they find you in a search engine.  It’s the first line that pops in bold blue underlined lettering in Google when you search for something.  If your title tag is lacking, irrelevant or (God forbid) nonexistent then you are destroying your search engine listing and the opportunity for relevant traffic to find you, even if you somehow manage to achieve a good rank.

Imagine searching for information on something to make for dinner.  You do a google search on “tacos”.  Your search turns up millions of responses.  One response says “TACOS!” in the title, another says something about growing your own Chia pet, and a third listing says “Voted 2010 Best Taco Recipes”.  More than likely, the “voted 2010 best” would get picked, and that’s a pretty crude example.  Creating a title that is wholly relevant to your topic and that specific page is the primary concept behind search engine optimization.

Duplication – Here is a monster pitfall that many people fall into, even experienced content producers, by making simple errors or bad decisions.  All of your content should be unique.  Avoid any form of copy paste from your own pages, or other pages on the net – even if it is your own content.  I assume we’re all intelligent enough to know not to copy someone’s protected content.

While search engines don’t deliberately penalize you by placing you at the back of the search results, they will examine duplicate content and will generally identify which came first, the chicken or the egg.  Egg gets tossed into a supplemental index.  The result is essentially the same, and your rank will suffer.

Script your content carefully, and if you use any form of content production company for your site, ensure that the finished copy they provide is unique, and not cookie-cutter.  There are far too many copy-writing firms that fire off this basic content and reuse it for multiple listings.  It would not be uncommon to find two medical professionals who have the exact same content on their websites, saying the same thing to potential customers, verbatim.

Content is king.  Visitors to your site are there initially for info.  Very few people invest without reading, whether they are investing their time or money.  Your original, unique, content will build a rapport with them that will be the foundation of your supplier/customer relationship.  Your unique, SEO rich content is what will bring them there. Even if all they do is return regularly and click on your adsense banners, that is your customer, and your content will keep them returning.

Through the next set in the series I’ll cover competition, finance and tracking your investment.

Same SEO time, same SEO channel

Related posts:

1. SEO for Newbies

Comments

Comments are closed.