My answer is typically the same: Put quality, relevant content out there as often as you can. Search engines are looking for the best answers to people’s search queries. So it is only logical that you should put time and effort into good, relevant content.
Absolutely not. SEO takes time and a lot of elbow grease. Using a good content management system like WordPress is certainly helpful, and I find that my content is indexed faster. But Rome wasn’t built in a day, and search engine rankings aren’t going to get where you need them to be in an instant.
This varies from site to site. The question I always ask myself is: Will somebody that comes to my website be interested in the words I write? Is it relevant to my audience? Think of it like this, say your website is about cars. A relevant article might be about fixing cars or selling cars or perhaps a review of a new model. Of course, this depends on what your involvement is with the topic.
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Now this is a tough one. I think that you should post as often as possible, provided you have good material. Now it is tougher than you think, while you’re going about your daily business a lot of people just don’t have the time to be posting frequently. If you can post once a week that’s great, but if not try for a minimum of once a month. Of course if you are a larger company and have people on staff with the specific duty of content development, then of course you should increase the amount of posts. Look at it this way, if you are a manufacturer of widgets and every week you post articles about widgets. At the end of the year you have added over 100+ links into Google’s index including posts, categories and tags. Your competitor, we will call him Joe’s Widgets, hasn’t posted in a couple of years and has only eight pages of content within the index. I ask you this, who should do better in searches? Duh, right? Although it seems like common sense, people are always trying to take shortcuts, and it just will not work.
Yes, most definitely there are techniques which make your posts more search engine friendly. If you are using WordPress, I recommend using a good SEO plug-in. Most will give you help with the post and will help you improve. You will always want to be careful, not to be keyword stuffing as that is a good way to hurt your site’s rankings. That is where a good plug-in can assist. It will tell you when you’ve used your desired key phrase too often and will be considered keyword stuffing. It will also tell you other things that search engines are looking for, such as inbound and outbound links, headings and other items.
If you put out the best content you can, your search engine rankings WILL improve. If you just try to beat the search engines with tricks and Black Hat SEO, you will not go anywhere, and eventually your site will probably be kicked out of the Index or have your site be severely penalized. Also, consider this: if someone comes to your website because of your SEO work and the content is lousy, you may have gotten them there, but they’re not sticking around, and they’re certainly not going to give you business. However, if they like what you’ve written and find it relevant, your chances to secure them as a customer/client are much improved. And isn’t that the goal of search engine optimization? You want to get them to your site, of course, but posts written solely to improve rankings are never a good idea as they are typically unreadable.
If you need help with your SEO, please feel free to contact us.
In today’s ever-evolving digital landscape, the mantra “SEO: Think Quality, Not Rankings” serves as a crucial reminder that the ultimate goal of search engine optimization is not merely to climb the SERPs but to provide genuine value to your audience. This approach emphasizes the importance of creating high-quality, relevant content that addresses the needs and questions of your target market, rather than resorting to outdated tactics aimed solely at manipulating search rankings. By focusing on delivering a superior user experience, from the richness of the content to the usability of the website, businesses can foster a more meaningful connection with their audience. This strategy not only aligns with the sophisticated algorithms of modern search engines but also builds the foundation for sustainable growth and a loyal customer base in the digital age.
If you have a website, I am sure you are no doubt inundated with emails from SEO companies promising to make you number one and very quickly. However, in their emails they fail to even mention what you do for a living and/or what your website and businesses is even about. Still, they make you these promises and I am sure after sending tens of thousands of emails they hook a few fish on the line. Many times they will use what’s called black hat SEO methods which may even give you a quick bump, before Google removes you from the index all together. Now, you have spent thousands of dollars and your website is in even worse shape than it was before. As the saying goes, there is no such thing as a free lunch. Google’s algorithm is one of the most closely guarded secrets on the planet. It is worth billions of dollars, and there is not a single company that can reverse engineer Google. No way, no how. True SEO is following Google’s guidelines, and using some elbow grease. You have to commit to trying to improve your website, both by doing the SEO basics, as well as sticking to producing consistant, quality content that is well written and beneficial to anyone that visits your website.
It is right there on the Google’s own website. And we have this text on our SEO page:
“Give visitors the information they’re looking for: Provide high-quality content on your pages, especially your homepage. This is the single most important thing to do. If your pages contain useful information, their content will attract many visitors and entice webmasters to link to your site. In creating a helpful, information-rich site, write pages that clearly and accurately describe your topic. Think about the words users would type to find your pages and include those words on your site.”
There it is, they laid it out for you. There are no shortcuts, and like anything else in life, you need to work hard for success.
To me, I want my website to be of such a high quality that when potential customers/clients read the content, they have a believe in my skills and subject matter expertise pertaining to the web. So write your content, not from search engine standpoint, but from a human readable standpoint. Because there’s no sense getting people to your website, when they will just read a bunch of gobbledygook and leave to go to one of your competitors. That’s the thing the black hat SEO companies never tell you. They’re all about quick rankings. And, unfortunately what they promise, they can never deliver .
Here’s one of my favorite examples: an offshore SEO company emailed me and called me for months, begging for an appointment. Well finally, I had enough and said yes. I spoke to this guy and he promised to make me number 1 for anything and everything. I asked what the cost would be. He said it would be roughly $1500. I said, I’ll tell you what, I will give you $3000. He was flustered, and said what do you mean? I said that you are an SEO company. Yet I don’t find your company in the first 200 rankings in Google for “SEO”. So I will tell you what, if you can get your company on the first page (Not even number one) I will then pay you double your rate to work on my website and recommend you to many clients. He thanked me and said he would be back in touch soon. It has been three years, and he has never called me back, and their site still is not within the first 200 listings. Why? Because if it was that simple, anyone could do it. I assure you, it is not that simple.
Here are some tips for improving rankings:
This of course is not a complete list. The moral of this story is to remember Rome wasn’t built in a day and you really need to put in a lot of time and hard work in order to improve your rankings. While no one can guarantee you number 1 for any given keyword, I can promise you that you can make steady improvements over time. But you have to use Elbow Grease.
If you are in a hurry to be ranked, and don’t have time to wait then I would recommend using Google Ad Words in order to be found quicker. Now this of course can be cost prohibitive depending on what keywords and phrases you need to be found for. What I like to do is do my best SEO work and then filling the gaps by using Google ad words. A well constructed ad words campaign can be profitable, but you have to be very careful as expenses can really get away from you and before you know what you’ve spent thousands of dollars with very little return. But that is the subject for another day, contact me if you need help managing your ad words campaign, your SEO or anything at all. We are always glad to help.
