Standard SEO Strategy
We’re all looking for the perfect search engine optimization strategy to get our website into the top search engines on page one. That simple organic search bump can be the determining factor for thousands of businesses trying to stand out and take their business to the next level. The following are some of the basic search engine optimization techniques that you should follow to get your sites listed.
On-Page Optimization:
No SEO strategy is as old and well tested as on-page optimization. It also happens to be one of the least useful listed here. Long ago , these methods would make all the difference. Today, it makes up maybe 10% to 20% of your total search engine strength and page ranking. However, if you don’t use these methods, it can hurt your site significantly.
On page optimization includes keyword optimization, alt tags on your images, deep navigation, seo friendly links, title tags, and SEO friendly code. Your on-page optimization also plays a role in your “quality score” which affects how much you’ll pay for pay per click management.
Article Marketing:
Article marketing is another search engine optimization technique that has been around for some time and is highly successful. Basically, you write articles with a single keyword focus and a link back to your website. You then submit those articles to article directories that post them for free in exchange for the link to your site.
Once an article is posted, it provides a back link to your site that the search engines pick up. Article marketing is not a one time process, however. You will need to continuously post new articles over time to maintain the SEO value of those links.
Trusted Site Back Links:
The most valuable backlinks are those from sites that Google considers “trusted”. These include the major authority websites, but for the most part, we’re talking about .EDU and .GOV websites. If you can get real links from these sites, you can expect your rankings to increase almost instantly . Note that blog comments are still useful, but will most likely contain the nofollow attribute. Also be aware that .EDU and .GOV blogs are very aware of comments spammers. If this is the route you take, you’ll need to carefully craft your comments so they sound legitimate.
Link Baiting:
Link baiting is an SEO strategy where you create high quality content that will attract attention on its own. For example, if you had a dog training site, you could produce an article on the Top 101 dog behaviour problems. The article would be massive and take hours to write, but it would also be a powerful authority resource in the niche, drawing attention from many other websites.
Social Media Marketing:
Social media includes sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Many marketers use these sites to spam their friends with offers, but they can and should be used for you to provide value to your friends. You should use these sites to promote your authority on a topic, not to sell a specific product or service. These sites need daily attention if you expect to stay in the minds of your follower, but be careful that you’re not spending hours on them under the delusions that you’re actually doing “work”. Just a few updates a day will suffice.
Viral Marketing:
Viral marketing, like social media and link baiting, is focused on drawing people to your site. As an SEO strategy, viral marketing is the least measurable, but can be the most effective . Examples of viral marketing include video productions for YouTube, sending out free reports, and giving away free software. Anything that will cause someone to naturally refer a friend to your site can be considered viral marketing. They key is to make it so compelling that their friends also refer their friends.
No one tactic is going to make the difference between a no-name site and the number one page in your industry. However, if you’re not using the strategies above, you’re missing a fantastic opportunity to get free traffic for your site. Search engine optimization strategy starts with a long term, detailed plan on how to get your site to the top. The techniques above should be considered a baseline for your SEO strategy. You need to use them all, but they’re only the beginning. Use several different strategies, test constantly, and adjust as necessary – only then will you find the free traffic you’ve been looking for.
Bonus:
An advanced topic you should get into as soon as you’ve mastered these, is conversion rate optimization. It’s great to generally increase the number of visitors to your site, but how effective is your site at selling to these visitors? Your conversion rate is the ratio of visitors to buyers. (ie. 1000 visitors and 10 sales = conversion rate of 1%) Step one is to install Google Analytics on all of your pages . Google Analytics is a free website tracking program that will tell you how many visitors you had, and where they went on your site. (among many other things)
Next, you’ll want to use Google Website Optimizer to test the various elements on your site. Something as simple as a background color, or header text can make a huge difference in conversion rate. Learn those things and you’ll be a step ahead of most marketers out there.
