Should You Chase The Search Engines?
Search engines are continually changing the way they rank websites. Not only that, you have situations like the introduction of Microsoft’s new search engine, Bing. For the majority of web site owners, the question you have to asking is whether or not it is worth the time and effort to be chasing all of these changes.
Generally speaking, search engines like Google do make changes to their algorithms on a regular basis, almost daily if you believe some experts. The problem is, these changes are often very minor and a week later are changed again. For the average site owner, chasing all the changes can be very time consuming and the end results rarely make the effort value for time spent.
If you concentrate on the basics, you don’t need to even consider the minor tweaks that search engines make. Sure, they may lift your page from third page of the SERPs to page 2 but that may not equate to extra traffic. Stick to those basics – content, on-page SEO, link building (or off-page SEO) and online marketing.
Provide content that is useful and that readers will come back for. If you are in the business of selling, provide content that accurately describes (and sells) your products or services.
On-page SEO involves ensuring you have optimized for the right keywords, provided SEO-friendly titles and URLs, and that little things like ALT tags are provided with accurate and SEO-friendly information.
Build links with sites and pages that are related to your own. Wherever possible, try to get links that use the best anchor text. Don’t forget to use directories and article submission to help build those links.
Finally, some online marketing. Whether you use banner ads, social marketing or simply PPC campaigns – getting your web site’s name and reason for being into the eyes of others will lead to traffic. The more targeted your traffic is the better the chance of either completing a sale or receiving a link.
Chasing search engine tweaks can be fruitful if you and your SEO expert and you have nose tied tightly to the SEO grindstone. You may get a little benefit from chasing these changes, but in the long run, getting the basics right will do more for getting your pages ranked than any minor tweaking.
Recent Entries
- Why A Search Engine Googopoly Is Bad For The Internet
- Blogging For The Sake Of Blogging Is Not Blogging
- How To Create An Effective Social Marketing Tweet
- Internal Linking – Don’t Be Afraid Of The Long Tail
- Adding Your Scotland Based Local Business To AOL
- Don’t Be Too Quick To Dismiss Google Buzz
- Are Guest Posts A Bad Link Building Strategy?
- Can You Overdo SEO?
- Review Sites And SEO For Scotland Local Businesses
- What Effect Will HTML5 Have On Web Design And SEO