Search Engine Optimization Isn’t Rocket Science

A lot of people want you to think SEO is difficult and complex. It’s not. It is, however, a lot of work.

SEO is based on popularity & authority

Even a small child can understand those concepts. We learn about popularity in kindergarten, yes? And we knew what authority was even before we started school.

See, it’s not Google’s job to worry about your traffic. A lot of people have trouble with that concept. They take poor rankings personally. Silly, right?

Google’s job is to take care of their own visitors. Just like any website owner. What’s the best way for Google to take care of their visitors? By striving to give the best possible sites no matter what the visitor Googled.

Which means sites that have high popularity or authority. Maybe that’s you. Maybe not.

It’s not about the quality of your products. It’s about whether your site appears to be popular and authoritative in your industry. And that’s where the “work” part comes in. Because you (or someone you hire) has to do the work to make your site popular or authoritative.

There are 3 Steps to Good SEO

Just 3. Choosing Keywords, seo copywriting and link building. It works like this…

SEO Step 1: Keyword Research

Choosing the right keywords can make all the difference. For example? Pretend you sell fashion accessories and you have a snazzy new ipad case. You might like to know that:

• the phrase “ipad case” is searched 49,500 times/month
• the phrase “ipad cover” is searched 27,100 times/month
• the phrase “ipad sleeve” is searched 8,100 times/month

But it’s not just how popular the keywords are. You also want to know how strong the competition is.

Kind of like this; if you had to run your first marathon ever, do you want to race amateurs or professionals? Same thing with keywords. The people you’re competing against determine how likely you are to rank.

You want to find a balance between keyword popularity & strength of competition.

SEO Step 2: SEO Copywriting

Once you know the keywords that are best to pursue, you need to use them on your page in the right places. Because now you’re talking to robots. Use your keywords too many places and you get sent to the corner for keyword stuffing. Use them in the wrong places, and robots don’t give them the value that they should. The instructions are simple, but the work still needs to be done.

SEO Step 3: Link Building

Building links is the biggest disaster zone in SEO. A lot of people come up with the craziest ways to build links. They buy & trade them like they’re collector baseball cards. They stuff links into blog comments and create social media profiles on sites they never intend to use.

Google isn’t that dumb. Those things don’t make your site popular or give you authority in your industry. Any site can earn popularity and authority & become the site that seems like it’s glued to the top of Google. But it’s a lot of work. No mistake about it.

A Crazy Little SEO Tip

A lot of people get on page 1 for a couple of keywords and expect the traffic to flow. Nope. Doesn’t work that way.

Because, see, there’s a “buying cycle” people go through when searching online. Most people start with generic words and then get more specific. They end up searching 5-12 different phrases before they are ready to buy.

So the key isn’t appearing in top spot for a phrase or two, it’s appearing in the first 20 results for any many searches as humanly possible. Because when they see your name over and over, it sticks.

Seo Keeps Changing? Panda, Penguin & Changes at Google

Google changes their algorithm about 500 times/year. Sometimes, the changes have cute names, like the recent Penguin & Panda updates. All those changes make people think “SEO keeps changing.” Not so.

Google has always said they want the most popular, most authoritative sites on page 1. And there will always be people who look for cheats & holes in the algorithm. When Google finds unpopular sites with low authority on page 1, they look to see how it got there. Then they change the algorithm to close the hole and stop the cheat from working. 500 times/year.

So if you’re chasing cheats and loopholes… yup, you’ll have to redo your SEO work every time Google makes a change.

But if you’re working on becoming a popular and authoritative site in your industry and not chasing loopholes, you don’t need to worry about those changes.

Need help with SEO? Contact me for a free quote.