Online presences big and small are placing a declining value on SEO. No longer, online marketers lament, can you post “car insurance” at the bottom of your website a hundred times and expect to rank. Though true, SEO is alive and important as ever. Search engines have deviated from their previous tag-based approach to rankings, but this isn’t necessarily bad news. As algorithms get more complex and sophisticated, engines are simply rewarding those with the most quality web content—if you offer the best content odds are you’ll do well with Google. Below are two tips that are incredibly simple and will get you started.
- Start with a keyword based approach—Although you won’t get anywhere by including a hundred phrases and expecting to rank, you also won’t rank for a given phrase if you don’t include it on your website! Look for a few important phrases and include in well-written content as well as your title tags. (Don’t go for more than a few keywords— it is important to get results and you won’t do well having mediocre placement for a dozen keywords.) If your looking for keyword tools or effectiveness analysis, try Google’s new Keyword Planner.
- Create a content-based blog: Beyond the possible social ramifications, creating a blog for your website is great for SEO. You can create targeted posts, which seek to answer frequently-searched questions. As time goes on and your posts get stronger, your authority will increase and engines like Google will give more credence to not only new posts, but also existing website pages.
This post is by no means comprehensive; if you’d like to work on SEO further, I’d recommend you visit SEOmoz in order to run a diagnostic test on your existing website. Want access to our SEO strategy doc? Reach out.
