The Fundamentals of SEO
When it comes to keeping pace with changes in SEO, many businesses and entrepreneurs start to feel like they are chasing their own tail. You don’t only have to think about things like keyword density, meta tags, and image ALT text, but also schema markup, localization, reviews, and citations. Moreover, you must worry about if anything you are doing will attract the venom of Google’s algorithm changes. Add to that, you can do everything technically correct, and still not attract visitors to your website.
Since the very beginning, Google has worked to provide users with truly organic search results that are relevant and reliable. Mapping the world’s online data, Google has worked to create formulas that will ensure the quality of their search results pages. They have become the dominant search engine because no other company has been able to produce results up to or exceeding their standards. As the leading search tool online, every SEO Marketing expert works diligently to understand what is really going on with Google’s algorithms.
Regardless, many approach SEO with the wrong frame of mind. They want substantial gains with the least amount of effort. But, for true SEO success, you must be willing to make a large initial investment and receive only a small initial return. It is the nature of the beast. SEO is a slow, tedious, and painful process. When you first launch your website, Google has absolutely no trust in you. There are millions of websites, all following the best SEO practices, trying to reach the top of search results pages. Consequently, since building trust is the fundamental driver of all changes in SEO, there are three factors you need to focus on above all else.
1. Indexed Age – Google places a lot of value both on the overall age of your website and the age of your individual content pages. Newer websites are always going to have a harder time earning a high rank. That said, your index age is the date that Google first found your domain or content page, not the date you registered your domain or published your content.
2. Link Authority – There are many websites that follow SEO best practices, but the content has never ranked well. When everything is said and done, the ultimate difference between good and bad content is linkability. Google wants to see that your content is generating high-quality inbound links, at a steadily growing rate, from a variety of sources.
3. Quality Content – How many times have you heard content is king? Yet, this is one area that many businesses will skimp on. Your content is ultimately what Google will use to evaluate your relevancy. Your content must be of high-quality and unique. Thin content, duplicate content, or poorly written content will not harm your ranking. However, ultimately, Google wants to see that your content is driving human interaction.
Do you have questions about SEO? If you would like to talk about the fundamentals or SEO, or a related marketing topic, please contact us.