Getting Indexed
Now that you’ve done the basics, you are ready for the next step. You check your search terms and find that your initial work has landed you on page 42 in the results. No one is going to find you on page 42. If you aren’t in the top three or at least on the first page you’re hooped.
Here’s a couple ways to move up:
- Post new content regularly: Google loves sites that are always offering new content. If you constantly update with new content, it gives Google a reason to keep coming back and checking. Slowly but surely, you’ll start wiggling off page 42.
- Aggregate content with RSS: Now that you’re producing new content weekly, set-up a Feedburner account and turn on “Pingshot” that will alert hundreds of news sites of your new content. Join Twitter and make a Facebook fanpage and push your RSS through those social sites. Get the word out that you are offering sweet, sweet content for free. This will get you inbound links.
- Inbound Links: This is the big one. When you are linked to by others, they are telling Google that you are a hot property. They are saying that your site is worth reading. Having lots of quality inbound links is the difference between page 1 and 42 in search results. Tip: Sending out a press release (where you link your keywords) still seems to work as a great way to get started on inbound links.
Inbound links are also the hardest thing to get. It takes time and you have to build trust with a community to get them. This is usually where SEOs come in and they are the worst.
Dealing With SEOs
As I mentioned in my previous article, I’ve dealt with too many SEOs and they are all the same. They make big promises, but are extremely vague about how they will achieve this. They are some of the worst snake oil salesmen on the net. They aren’t all that way, but unfortunately a lot of them are.
Do I Have to Hire an SEO?
How do you know if you need an SEO? If you are selling your products online, your site and your products need to be search engine optimized. If you need people to find you to buy your products, SEO will more than likely pay off. If you’re a publisher of some kind, you don’t need to drop $20,000 on SEO. You can let the basics do their work.
Category: Articles, Editor's Pick
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Hey Rhett,
You’re right to rail against SEO’s that don’t act professionally, or use Black Hat techniques. They give the field a bad name.
While it’s unfortunate that they exist, their bad behavior actually provides an opportunity for those of us who practice White Hat SEO, much of which you described. My clients appreciate my honesty and diligence, which is in contrast to the scam artists.
Many of us that practice White Hat SEO techniques came to the profession from web development when realized that doing the basics can lead to better results in search engines. You understand this; you’ve chosen a good, SEO optimized Wordpress theme framework for your own blog. Thematic.
I’d add that there is more to the basics than the on page and off page SEO you outline. Laying a good technical foundation is important as well, including proper use of robots.txt and sitemap.xml files, redirecting domain.com to http://www.domain.com or vice versa, but not both, making sure the dev team doesn’t go overboard on javascript, flash, etc.
As I send my clients on their way so that they continue building back links and optimizing on keywords, doing so becomes a natural part of their workflow. Like gardening, a little bit each weeks pays off dividends in the long run.
Joel Greenberg
http://www.straightshooterseo.com
An Austin, TX SEO
Thanks Joel. You make excellent points on the tech side. I’m a writer by trade and while I know about the tech stuff (and use stable framework, robots, xml sitemap, etc), I wouldn’t be comfortable enough to actually write about it. Plus, this article would’ve gone on far too long. ;)
I’m wouldn’t consider myself an SEO (not enough patience), but have done it enough to at least get myself and others started. And I have worked with (or sat through presentations from) SEOs that I can sniff out the good and the bad ones you described.
The best way to deal with greasy SEO’s is to find out what entails SEO. This article does a great job providing this information.
Walking into a meeting informed goes a long way in setting the expectation and you will more than likely get the desired results.
Articles like this are excellent for business owners because they point out how thorny the industry really is. It’s exceedingly difficult for most people to judge quality of SEO work and most don’t realize the order of magnitude that it can vary.
Transparency, client references, and case studies are all fairly reliable quality indicators to help separate the wheat from the chaff. Make sure to ask any client reference, “Was there an impact to your business?” and “how did you measure it?” A client who has worked with a good SEO should have empirical proof that the work done had a measurable return.
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