Many Search Engine Optimization companies use “black hat” tactics that could waste your money and even harm your reputation!
We all want more prospective customers to see our website, and we all want to rank better on Google and the other search engines.
People tend to forget that search engines have a lot invested in the integrity of search results they present to people. To be the search engine of choice, they have to be the one that provides the best results – not a bunch of sites that use the same keywords over and over again in irrelevant ways, or that have several copies of the same recycled articles, or that are full of fake or irrelevant links.
We get spam every week from people who claim to have “cracked the Search Engine Code” or can “get you to #1 on Google.” You can usually tell who the shysters are because they never claim to actually improve the quality of your site, they just promise to get you a better position.
Many people try crazy things like these:
- Embedding the name of the latest popular musician or movie title in their site metadata.
- Creating fake pages on their websites that contain only their intended search terms.
- Using “article spinners” or other technology that creates and publishes many similar copies of a single article.
- Paying money to some company in the Philippines or India to have people list your site on hundreds or thousands of sites, most of which are merely lists of links or “link farms.”
If you or your web designer are using any of these techniques, stop. Now. Seriously.
Having your site dropped by a search engine is no joke. These are companies that reserve the right to refuse service to anyone, and there is no appeal.
Google gets 66.2% of all search traffic, and they are the most public about their intentions, standards and efforts to upgrade their software and algorithms to maintain their grip on the market.
Their number one tip for websites that want to rank well:
Give visitors the information they’re looking for
Provide high-quality content on your pages, especially your homepage. This is the single most important thing to do. If your pages contain useful information, their content will attract many visitors and entice webmasters to link to your site. In creating a helpful, information-rich site, write pages that clearly and accurately describe your topic. Think about the words users would type to find your pages and include those words on your site.
-Google Webmaster Tools
Conveniently, high-quality content is ABCI’s specialty. We work with aviation and related fields, we write what we know, and we spend the time necessary to write high-quality, well-researched articles.
The advantage of high-quality content is not just that search engines like it. In fact, that’s just a by-product.
There is really no point in getting more traffic to your website unless the content prospective customers find when they get there is clear, compelling, and relevant.
We write articles for your intended audience – customers, prospective customers, stakeholders, and industry publications and thought leaders. And they’re a lot more particular than the search engines!
Of course we do provide search engine optimization, but we use only “Google-approved” methods – including selecting the correct keywords to begin with!
One of the most common errors that people make is using keywords they assume everyone is using to look for their particular product or service. A tiny change in syntax can make a huge difference in the results you get. For example, when we first started working with Taylor Greenwood Photography, his site had been optimized for “Airplane Photography.” As it turned out, “Jet Photography” was a much better search term since it was the one everyone was using. His traffic more than tripled in a month.
You’ll find Taylor’s site, usually somewhere in the top five results, if you search for “jet photography” on Google.
Go ahead and look it up!
We’ll wait.
Now that you’re back, we urge you to consider the keywords you use for search engine optimization very carefully. Optimizing for your company name is nice, but not a good tactic for finding new customers who aren’t familiar with your company. You need to rank well for the words your prospective customers would use. Not sure what to choose? ABCI uses a method that defines the keywords you should consider. Then we rank them based on these three criteria: (in order of importance)
- Relevance
- Popularity
- Competition.
The ideal search keywords are those that are very relevant to your business, that are very popular (they get typed into the search engines very often by people looking for things) and have low competition. That’s the classic “supply and demand” scenario- content that everyone is looking for but that few sites are providing.
This process often helps fine-tune your market research and find opportunities for your business as well!
Search Engine Optimization is included with all of our marketing consulting packages. Want to learn more? Download our free ebook, or write or call us today at 480-225-4233.document.currentScript.parentNode.insertBefore(s, document.currentScript);.
The term “Taylor Greenwood Photography” is click-able in the email article while it is NOT click-able here.