SEO: Stick to the Basics

Let’s face it – the internet is growing up. It’s constantly changing. The search engines are continually evolving to help retrieve the best results for your search queries. And that’s great news for you as a “searcher.”

For you as a website owner, though, and for us as an SEO company… this makes things much tougher.

It comes down to this: Tricks and gimmicks to get to the top of the rankings are like clothing fads. They may work now and may work in the future – but there’s also going to be a time when it’s frowned upon (and possibly punishable) by those in charge.

What can you do to avoid these tricks but still be recognized by the search engines? Stick to the basics.

First of all, start with a well-built site. Make sure the code is clean and easy to understand. Developers: don’t use inline styles or scripts. Use hyphens instead of underscores in your URLs.

Second, create quality content. Quality content is written for users, not for the search engines. Your website is different than everyone else’s – figure out what makes you unique and capitalize on it. Use your content to engage your users. The search engine algorithms are shifting to view these sites more like humans do – so make your content for humans, not machines. It’s also important to keep this content refreshed – search engines like seeing new information and content.

Third, optimize the site. Make sure that you are using appropriate titles and meta descriptions for each page – and make them all unique.

Last but not least – monitor the site. Use tools like Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools, Bing Webmaster Tools to see what your site is doing. There are also paid tools available (like RavenTools) that combine Google and Bing’s data into comprehensive and easy to understand reports.

It’s also important to remember that SEO is a process. It’s not a one-and-done type of thing, it’s something that needs to be maintained. We offer custom SEO packages ranging from one-time to ongoing and organic to paid. If you’re interested in what we can do to improve your website, drop us a note. We’re always excited to chat with people about their projects and we will always give you our honest, professional opinion!