Step Wise SEO

The entire process of a web search is text-based, even when the item being sought isn’t text at all, like a picture or video file.

The search engines care about how much text you have on your site, how it’s formatted, and, of course, what it says.

Keyword Selection Is Key
Careful keyword selection is the heart of the SEO campaign. Site owners who are on top of their SEO game have a list of top-priority keywords that they use on their site, with reasonable repetition, in strategic places.

We never let a site go for six months without checking the keywords to make sure they’re still appropriate.

If a site’s focus or positioning changes, new keywords are in order. If a company adds new products or services, new keywords are in order.

If a new competitor comes on the scene, it’s worth peeking into its site for new keyword ideas.

Even if none of these changes takes place, regular keyword analysis is in order because search behavior and trends may change as well.

Your Site Has Many Keyword Placement Opportunities
The code that makes up your web page’s text falls into two categories-visible and invisible-and they are both important for optimization.

The visible text is made up of the words that you put on your page for the world to see, including obvious things like the paragraphs of carefully crafted content aimed at your target audience but also less-obvious elements like your page title,

the text inside your links, and the navigational text that tells your visitors how to use your site, such as “Click the thumbnails for a full size image.”

Invisible text refers to the words that do not display on the page but are added to your HTML code and gathered and analyzed by the search engine robots.

This includes your meta keywords tag, meta description tag, and your ALT image tags.

Your site’s text needs to be compelling, clear, focused, and directed to your users.

It also needs to be formatted so that the robots can read it. This means HTML text, not graphical text, which the search engines can’t read.

If your site doesn’t have any HTML text, adding some is critical to getting the search engines to give your site the visibility you desire.

The page title is Eternally Important because it gets maximum exposure in the search engine results pages.

If you care about getting clicks to your site, this text should he succinct and compelling, and for your best chance at conversions, it should accurately summarize the page content.

Meta Description Tag
The meta description tag is an example of invisible text. In the code, it looks like this:

<Meta name=”description” content=”Bobux baby shoes are the original soft soled shoes with the elastomatic ankle system that makes them easy to slip on and they stay on.”>

You can’t control when or where your meta description tag will display, but like your page title, it should be compelling, keyword rich, and unique for every page.

Meta Keywords Tag
The meta keywords tag, another invisible text element, is the place where site owners can list their keywords, including variations of keywords such as misspellings, that wouldn’t be appropriate for the visible text elements.

In the code, it looks like this:
<meta name=”keywords” content=” movies, films, movie database, actors, actresses, directors, hollywood, stars, quotes”>

It is rarely seen on the search engines, and that’s a good thing because it’s one of the few elements on your website that you can write specifically for the search engines and not your audience.

This excites a lot of site owners, who think, “Finally! A way to talk to the search engine robots and tell them which terms I want to get my high ranks for!”

But search engines prefer to make their own decisions on rank, and this is precisely why the meta keywords tag does not carry a lot of weight.

How Other Sites Are Linking to Yours
Search engines need human help in their Eternal Quest for perfect ranking algorithm.

They look for links to your website, not only to follow those links and find you, but also to determine more information about you.

Does someone else link to your website using the words Click Here to Find Very Fancy Fox Founds?

That’s giving the search engine a clue that your website just might have something to do with foxhounds.

And the search engine may go even further, looking at other words surrounding the link for more clues.

If the linking page also contains the words fleas, fur, and Finding a Breeder, it’s reinforcing the notion that your website will be a good destination for that foxhound-seeking searcher.

It’s Not Just about Rank
While your ranks are the easiest aspect of SEO to grasp, don’t let them be the only thing you care about.

We don’t mean to be dismissive of people who really, truly live and die by their Google rank.

We know that there are industries that are so cutthroat and specialized that this is the only thing that matters.

But the vast majority of businesses do best when they use a holistic approach to SEO, combining elements of organic and paid search with a healthy dose of good writing and usability.

Remember, good ranks do not guarantee conversions! You could easily gain some high ranks for, say, the term hydroplaning monkey because nobody else is optimizing for it.

Of course, nobody’s searching for it either. Likewise, if you make some iffy choices regarding your top-priority keywords, it’s possible that you’ll track top-10 ranks, month after month, and have no conversions to show for it.

Ranks Change
Let’s say you are lucky enough to be getting good organic ranks for a coveted, competitive term.

Congrats, but don’t take these ranks for granted; any number of factors outside of your control could send your site on a nosedive:

Competitor activity Many times, SEO success is achieved not by brilliant optimization but rather as a result of the laziness of a site’s competitors.

If yours is the only site in your niche giving SEO any effort, you’re going to come out on top.

But you never know when the other guys are going to get their act together and start a successful SEO campaign.