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An Introduction to Better Search Performance

Written by Studio1337 on January 2, 2012.

SEO (search engine optimization), when performed correctly, can be one of the most cost-effective, successful marketing channels for your business. To be successful, SEO strategy should adhere to search engine guidelines.

Unlike paid media channels, SEO success is not instantaneous. You cannot put budget behind a campaign and immediately impact sales and revenue. Because SEO is about driving organic search traffic, be prepared for longer timelines to see results. Patience and a long-term strategic approach are necessary to gain all the benefits of this channel.

Aligning the expectations of your executive team and internal stakeholders with the search engine guidelines is an important part of building an SEO strategy. Too often, quick results are expected and decisions that are against SEO best practices are undertaken to produce them.

Some of these quick tactics include:

  • Paid or reciprocal link building (say NO to link networks, including blogging networks)
  • Hidden site content
  • Focusing on search engines and not end users

While it may sound counterintuitive, one of the guidelines that search engines are most rigid about is that well-optimized SEO sites should be built with the end user, not the search engine in mind. If you build a site that serves your target audience well, the engines will reward you.

Be sure to focus on the following:

  • Site technical platform and structure – build a site that the engines can access.
  • Develop quality content – provide valuable information to your targets and organize it in a manner that makes it easy to navigate.
  • Make content portable – content is more than words; also create pictures, infographics and videos that users can share and/or link to easily.
  • Update content regularly – the engines reward sites that are updated more often; consider including a blog on your site to manage these content updates.

Lastly, remember that SEO is not ‘set it and forget it.’ You must continue to practice it regularly and stay abreast of search engine algorithm changes to receive quality rankings from search engines. This often requires having a dedicated internal resource and an external partner to guide you to success.