The four pillars of SEO
Jun26Written by:
2009/06/26 07:28 PM
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It refers to the method of ensuring that websites are optimized to help increase their traffic, which in effect helps them appear high on search engine results. Basic SEO is actually based on a very simple concept: create content that gets easily noticed online. There are many facets to
1. Accessibility
Can search engines and users access your sites content, all your sites content Is your content in a format the search engines can read and understand. If search engines can’t see it, they cant read it. If search engines can read they can’t index it. If search engines can’t index it, customers won’t find it.
Have good site navigation. Well structured yet simple and elegant. Make sure that the Navigation is simple, intuitive and easy to follow. Don’t make the depth site structure too deep. People want as few clicks as possible to get to the information they are looking for.
2. Content
Content will always be your key ticket to top rankings. Without compelling content you wont be ranked on any of the search engines, and if you are, it will be short lived. In order for content to help in your Pagerank, you need a lot of it and it has to be fresh and updated regularly. Most importantly, each page of content must target a specific keyword term.
You cannot create a successful website without compelling content. Content is King. Compelling website content is not a compelling sales pitch. It is much better to create compelling conversation that wins a relationship than to try to leverage your blog for an opportunity to deliver a compelling sales pitch. Looking for the sales pitch opportunity is much to short-sighted and usually ends up with you shorting yourself by not delivering valuable information that can boost your business in the mind of your audience.
Your content has to be aimed at the human visitor. Write for humans, for their benefit, and the Search Engines will follow. You are not trying to impress the search engines or sell to Google, you are trying to impress users and sell to potential customers.
3. Credibility
This pillar is the result of your audience beginning to make a social connection with you and your content. Your credibility and authority is simply the measure of trust that your audience has in you and your recommendations or product. If you become a trusted source of information and instruction then your audience will be open to your recommendations. That means selling opportunities.
However, Credibility and authority does not happen overnight. It is a process, and often a time consuming process. You have to build up trust within you user base.
Credibility trust and authority lead to customer evangelism and referral traffic as others talk to others about your stuff that they like most. This is very important to keep and mind and is one reason why thinking of only the sale is a short-sighted strategy. Become a community builder and leverage customer evangelism to get greater visibility and exposure for your content. Give away knowledge and information. Help other people succeed. Your customer doesn’t necessarily have to be someone just look for a purchase. It is any one visiting your site.
4. Relevance
If Content is King, then relevance must be its Queen. There is no point in have great content if it is not relevant. relevant to the overall theme of your site, more directly relevant to you web page, and even more specific relevant to you chosen keyword terms. You can’t just dump a bunch of words on a page and hope for the best.
Relevance is important in almost every aspect of an SEO campaign. Page content, which includes HTML and meta tags, needs to be relevant to the keywords you are attempting to target.
Page content also needs to be relevant to the targeted audience. IF what they find on your site is not relevant, they won’t stay, and worse, will not return.
Your content has to be relative to the topic or theme at hand. You keywords have to be relevant to the topic or them. They have to feed of each other.
Relevance also needs your primary goal in your link profile. Links earned by relevant pages are rewarded greatly by the search engines. This means attempting to find websites in the same industry and based on a similar topic to your own that are willing to provide a link to your pages. By offering relevant content to those who are linking in to you, gives you greater Pagerank juice from the search engines.
blog comments powered by 3 comment(s) so far...
Re: The four pillars of SEO
If there is one area of the web that makes my head spin than it is SEO. Nicely said, bit clearer now. I am sure it can be a very good thing to experiment with to see different results with different topics. Does take time to reach the correct tuning. By Rustig on
2009/06/27 10:48 AM
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Re: The four pillars of SEO
Many think SEO is a quick fix. It's not, its a long term thing, but if done correctly will show results. Problem is, what results are you looking for. Sales, Subscribers, new clients, traffic. It doesn't come without hard work. Like you said, testing out different scenarios, time to fine tune. By Robert Bravery on
2009/06/29 12:32 PM
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Re: The four pillars of SEO
Yep, SEO takes time and dedication. Whether it is off page or on page SEO, there's no quick fix to get instant results. If you are after instant results, start a PPC or PFI campaign. By AntonRSA on
2009/10/11 05:06 PM
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