Even at this stage of the internets development I feel that far too many webmasters are searching for a mystical magic formula that they blindly believe will instantly catapult their site to the top of the SERP’s for all of the big profit search terms in their industry.
All too often this breed of webmaster will spend countless hours “fiddling” with their sites pages and waiting for the next cache updates only to be disappointed that their efforts have yielded zero improvements on SERP positioning or traffic volumes.
However, I can confirm that there is a secret to good SEO but it’s not what you’re thinking.
Before I reveal this secret let me first provide you with an example of a similar experience in my varied and bizarre career. I studied law, Yes LAW! In fact I started a law degree having never laid eyes on a law book let alone taken any foundation courses (some uni’s will let anyone in!). The problem therefore was that for the first two years of my degree I was able to understand individual elements of Law but didn’t see the bigger picture. I couldn’t put the pieces together.
However, I vividly remember the day that my tutor re-asserted one particular piece of information that effectively acted as the last piece in my legal jigsaw puzzle, connecting all the other pieces together and completing my understanding.
You may be thinking that this example is completely unrelated to this posts title. My point, however is that the exact same thing happened to me along my journey into search engine marketing. Search started as a hobby of mine, I was fascinated by the internet and was very much one of the internet generation. 90% of everything I purchased was purchased online; it was obvious to me that a good understanding of the mechanics of the internet and search portals could potentially yield considerable profits. I started playing around with my own sites, a tweak here, and a mod there. Systematically trying every tactic in the book, the good and the bad, enhancing my knowledge and understanding whilst gradually increasing the performance of the sites I was working on.
It was only after years of trial and error that I concluded that there was no magic formula. I realized the true conclusion to all the work and effort I’d put into these sites. I’d finally completed the internet jigsaw puzzle.
I believe that the secret to web success isn’t a magical link formula or keyword density or title tag length etc but an understanding of the core methods used by search engines to evaluate sites. What are they looking for? Why do they reward some sites with high traffic volumes?
At this stage I’ll add that we’re talking about Google here. Love it or hate it right now Google’s what SEO’s are really concerned with. This may change but for now it’s all about the big “G”. Google has evolved into a search engine that is designed to reward sites that contribute something of interest to the internet. That single statement forms the basis of my “secret”. If your site is simply recycling information, tools, features and news that can already be found on a myriad of sites then your sites long term prognosis isn’t great.
The secret is to develop your site in such a fashion that it appeals to the “linkerazzi”, think creatively. What’s unique about your business and your site? Are you doing anything newsworthy that’s likely to attract links and subsequently visitors? What makes your site stand out? Why would anyone link to your site?
Accepting that you can’t “beat” the search engines and that you’re going to have to play by their rules provides the basis for the simplest most effective method of achieving the results you need. You will be required to enter into an agreement with the search engines. If you start to give them what they want they will begin to give you what you want.
Provide them with original, interesting content and over time they will start to reward you with the benefits of high rankings that are stable and traffic generating.
My apologies if this isn’t exactly what you were hoping to read, perhaps you were looking for a quick fix. Unfortunately with modern search engines and their algorithms there is no such thing. Take a structured approach to your site and its content, make it appealing to both humans and search engines and the rest takes care of itself.
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