SEO Best Practices

You have a site. You want, no, need traffic. Traffic = Cash Money. But, you are new to the cyber world of business. So, what do you do? “I optimize for search engines,” you say with a smile. Confidence is great. How are you going to complete your Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

That is a good question to ask. Google, the Search Engine gods, have their mysterious ways of managing this. They also change these ways several times a year. Not that they make it common knowledge for the new entrepreneur. How and what these changes are is probably not relevant to you or your business.

It once was that we could simply stuff our page and tags with all sorts of single words. It might have looked something like; write, writing, business, seo, search, engine, optimization, best … and so on. Not anymore. The Engine Gods got wise to this. They write algorithms to keep people who do this off the top of the search results list. The thing to do nowadays is to use key phrases. Make these phrases descriptive using words or terms that your target audience is likely to seek out. Something like “SEO Optimization Best Practices” and the like. This change will possibly stretch your creative muscle a bit, at first, but it makes sense.

It makes sense because, knowing why someone is searching a topic and what they want, is more accurately captured in a statement than a pile of words that are just shot-gunning for results. After all, you want the right people to find your page.

The content of your page has to be tailored for the audience you really want. How frustrating is it to run a search, for the umptieth time, and see a long list of promising results. But, when you click the top links, you get … nothing. It feels like trying to pick up the last person at the bar at closing time. They pass out in the car on the way out, don’t they? Not the image you want for your business, is it?

So, you or you writer create content that is written for your audience, your seekers. It has to be high quality and relevant. Here’s the rub, as stated above, you cannot just pepper your page with a plethora of “key words.” Those key phrases we talked about will go nicely in the text as well as the key word tags. So long as they are accurate, engaging, and further the service you are providing the customer, these terms will appear in the body of your work.

Placing your links on other sites is a prime method of driving traffic to your page. The links should be clear, should include key terms, and condensed. Long strings of characters and numbers actually puts people off. We are told not to judge a book by its cover, but we all judge a site by its link. Does it look legitimate? If not, there goes a potential paycheck.

When you go to post your link somewhere, say on social media (there’s that F-place) you will include a concise and informative description of what the link will take your reader to. Does the description grab the reader? Will it really link to what the reader is told? Can it be Tweeted easily? Between Facebook and Twitter, that is a significant amount of potential clicks. One study shows that 47% of Americans rely on Facebook for advertising choices. Thank you, Jeff Bullas, for putting that together.

Between FB, Twitter, and reddit you have a significant amount of visibility. Make it look great.

Now, the final aspect is your page itself. Is it easy to navigate? Does your reader have to click link after link after link to find what they want and need? Does it load quickly? Speed and aesthetics can make or break you.

Another aspect to consider is using meta tags. Meta tags are a way for webmasters to tell the search engines what they are all about; that is, what the site is all about. These tags are placed in the HTML text for your page. They operate behind the scenes. Using tags alone will not necessarily bump your status up on search engines, but they are still useful.

When using multiple approaches, such as these, you are increasing your visibility and ratability for both readers, customers, and search engines. Remember that old adage, “There is strength in numbers.” Use multiple approaches and you will increase your traffic flow.