SEO Best Practices

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is necessary for sites which need a high profile in the Search Engine Rankings Pages (SERPS) and to get highly placed you have to adhere to some of the known rules. The problem is that no one really knows what Google's rules actually are. We do know that Google penalizes irrelevance to page topics and we know that backlinks have to be relevant to the site and page. We also know that good, original content is required to get high up in the SERPS. There are probably other factors which we are not aware of, so in some ways we are shooting in the dark.

However if we concentrate on what we do know, we can improve our sites ratings by optimizing it for the search engines. First of all we have to forget about over using keywords and phrases as this actually has a negative effect in the SERPS. Those who know these things say that 2% keyword density is best, although you may get away with 3 % density if the content is good and you really are putting yourself through hoops to paraphrase. Text has to be readable and engaging, as well as original, so if you're writing hasn't improved much since grade school, keep it short and simple. If you have a talent for creative writing, that is an advantage.

Another problem with keywords is that you need to know which are in vogue and which will attract the eye. A short time ago the verb "debunk" was a popular keyword and those in the know suggested this was good to use in the title of articles. However, these optimal keywords change and you need to rethink the ones you have used in your content and titles. One that was popular six months ago might not be drawing visitors to your site now, so you have to find which keywords are currently "in". If you have PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising campaign you can test keywords out with this. It is much quicker that re-jigging the content of a page to fit around the new keywords you want to insert. If there is no change to your click through rate, then you are not using the "right" keywords, so you need to change them. One of the advantages of hiring a good SEO company is that they have their fingers on the pulse and can rework ads and content using the latest buzz words. To do this yourself you will have to trawl through numerous sites and the latest article to find out what seems to be working which is very time-consuming.

Then there are the all-important backlinks to your site. If you have a PPC campaign then you can have your ads placed on highly ranked sites and search result pages in your niche, and search engines approve of such links, if only because they earn revenue from them. Certainly social network sites are good for backlinks as well as Tweets on Twitter, which can bring in more traffic but may not get you a higher place in Google's SERPS. You may spend a lot of time writing comments on sites with some relevance to your own, and find little change to your rankings or traffic, because the sites are not highly ranked themselves. An SEO expert can help here and get you the best backlinks for your site, and you may be surprised at the fee for such a service.

When you try to optimize your site, you may find that it takes too much time, with little return, so perhaps, if this is the case you should consult experts who know how the online marketing field works.

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