Everyone has their own approach to SEO. Whether you are optimizing your websites for clients or your own internal business, there are several factors which should always be taken into consideration. Many times the basic 4 elements of a successful SEO campaign are done without even realizing it, or (in worst case scenarios) they are ignored or skipped.
However, knowledge is power and it is of benefit for everyone working in the industry to be able to communicate to their client (or their boss) exactly what they are doing and why.
Here are the 4 basic elements of every successful SEO strategy:
- Keyword Research
You have to know your target. You may have the best rifle and be the #1 marksman, but if you are aiming at the wrong target, you will never get the kill you want. Also, if you are aiming at something that is impossible to hit with the weapon you have chosen (because you can not afford to buy the correct rifle and only have a hand gun) you are not going to hit your target either.
The same applies in SEO. Understand the keywords you are targeting. Make sure that achieving a #1 position in the SERP (Search Engine Ranking Pages) will actually drive targeted leads or sales for your business. And make sure that you can compete in the arena with the competition that is existing. If your competition is way ahead of you and has marketing budgets that eclipse yours, you may want to rethink the phrases you are targeting.
- Onsite Optimization
This is what most people think of when they think of SEO. On-site Optimization requires you to have make sure that the code on your website follows best practice. Make sure that you have properly optimized your html code and the content on your website to target the keywords that you have researched. Internal page sculpting and link building are important. All of this is relatively easy, because you can do it yourself. You own your website.
- Link Building
This is the big challenge in today's time. Generating quality In-bound Links (IBLs). An Inbound Link is a link from another website to yours. A very simplified explanation is that an inbound link for someone else's website to yours constitutes a vote from that website for yours. You must have something of value since they are linking to it.These are hard to come by. And high quality IBL's can make all the difference in your SEO campaigns. At the current time, this is where the "magic" of SEO lies. Since research and optimization have been around for a while, are fairly well documented and can be done on your own. The real difference from one qualified SEO professional to another will be the methods used to generate Inbound Links.
- Analytics
The final element of a successful SEO strategy involves understanding what is happening and being able to communicate that effectively and take action on the results. Obviously Google Analytics has become an industry standard reporting tool and a strong knowledge is essential (for any analytics tool which you may use). But there are also many other reporting tools to assist with your efforts. Make sure to use some of the great SEO tool bars and other web services to assist with your reporting and analysis efforts.
Everything we do on a daily basis can be organized into one of these 4 elements.
Even though the chart on this page about understanding Search Engine Optimization is almost 3 years old. Most of it still holds true today.
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