Achieving the best results with your search engine optimization strategy is not hard, but it does require a carefully organized plan built upon logic, organization and research. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…there is no free lunch at the SEO counter.
Our task
I’ve recently been assisting a client with a content-driven strategy to position their re-designed, and re-launched website that includes a blog for optimal search results. Just a few months ago they were not ranked well for their key terms. We undertook a campaign to identify the keywords and tags that were frequently searched and which would help them grow the results they desired.
What we did
After analyzing keyword research for their industry segment, and their competitors, we came up with a group of carefully selected SEO friendly terms. Our strategy provides for categories driven by keywords. We jettisoned categories that did not make sense and created categories that were broader and aligned with our research. We re-categorized posts to be most logically organized under these broad content categories. We used tags also informed by keywords with our eyes on allowing the tags to add specificity. In addition, we have implemented cross-site links to help readers find relevant content when reading within a page.
I’ve also asked my client to be sure all their images have Alt tags that are complete and descriptive, and also aligned with our tags.
SEO Results
When you plan and implement in an orderly manner, there is no magic. It just works. Now my client is ranking well on the first page of Bing and Google and we expect that as time goes on these rankings will increase. How much time did this take? The planning took a couple of weeks, and the individual post editing, categorization and tagging took several more weeks and is an ongoing process.
Why does it work?
Recent revisions to Google’s search algorithms have demoted link farms, content scrapers and content-stealers. Google prefers fresh, site-relative content with cross site links. In addition Bing has enhanced their algorithms to be informed by your social media activity. Therefore my client who is active in social media, and creating exceptionally high-quality content, is achieving the results she desired.
Photo credit: flickr user C. K. Hartman
