No mystery to SEO - Just Hard Work!
Search engine optimisation, although an apparent mystery to many - is in fact purely about following set rules and backing them up with hard work.
The only mystery shrouding the world of SEO is that the rules have been hung, drawn and quartered and seemingly every SEO has their own version of rules that often contradict those of their peers.
SEO is evolving at a breathtaking rate and consequently the rules of engagement are constantly being revised. To perform well as a professional SEO you need to keep up with those changes. To perform well as an occasional SEO on your own website… the following information will be of great help to you.
So for this article I will stick to just one of the fundamentals of SEO and explain what you should know about one of the most important elements in building a successful website.
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is led by Google. Not only is Google the leading search engine that has set the standards for search engine algorithm technology, the Google ranking system is also by far the paramount method of evaluating the quality of a web site.
Google’s dedication to perfecting their site valuation system means it is today very difficult to cheat the system and get sites to perform well with ‘SEO manipulation’ rather than providing qualitative content. So I advise you concentrate on SEO’ing your site for Google and you can fine tune for other important engines later.
Good Backlinking Works!
Getting other sites to link back to yours is still a very important method of getting your site to rank high in the search engines.
However, there are obstacles and the wrong kind of backlinks can lead to your site being penalized. In the past too many ‘cheats’ were developed to try and fool Google into thinking a site was highly popular. And so Google has also with time refined and improved its algorithm and can quickly root out link farms or irrelevant backlinks.
Probably the best value backlinks are those that come from sites with similar content. Backlinking within your field of productivity will give you a lot of extra exposure. If your site deals with office stationary - then find other sites with similar content and exchange links with them. They don’t have to be your direct competitors - backlink with other regions or countries.
Do choose carefully! Google will give you a lot of exposure if you backlink to good quality sites with relevant content. If you link to bad quality sites you may be penalized.
The best performing backlinks are those that are linking through anchor text. In other words, a site linking back to you that has text on its page (relevant text) and that text is the link to your site. Remember though, what counts more than anything is relevancy. If you deal in widgets - get backlinks from other widget sites.
In the past, webmasters would often accumulate multiple sites and domain names with the intention of having them all point to one specific site. All those other sites would be used to create links back to the main site. Well, that worked wonders for a while. But that ‘while’ is over. Now Google actively looks for sites that are created within the same IP adress and considers a group of sites with links pointing to a principle site to be ‘link bombing’. You may do this with moderation - but overdo it and you’ll pay the price.
