Do you want to optimize your website for search engines? Search engine optimization (SEO) isn’t rocket science, but there are a lot of little things you need to know about it before you start trying to increase your search engine traffic.
Harsh Reality #1: Links are everything
There are two major aspects of SEO. The first is on-page optimization and the second is the number of sites linking to you. On-page optimization is something that every one can easily manipulate, but links on the other hand aren’t.
Search engines look at:
- The number of sites linking to yours – typically the more sites linking to your website, the better.
- The anchor text of these links – if you are trying to get ranked for “dog food” it’s more advantageous if the link that points to your website says “dog food” instead of your website name.
- How relevant are your links – if your website is about dog food then you want either dog or pet related sites to link to you.
The three things I mentioned above make up an ideal link and because it’s hard to get ideal links, search engines place more emphasis on them than anything else.
Harsh Reality #2: The basics really do matter
Who cares about meta tags, right? Well, search engines do. This is the reason why Google Webmaster Central tells you how many duplicate titles and descriptions you have on your website.
When I first started working with TechCrunch 3 or 4 years ago, I was able to double their search engine traffic within 30 days. And can you guess how I did this?
Drum roll please…
All I did was make the post title the title tag and the first sentence of each blog post the meta description.
Now don’t get me wrong, I did a lot more than that overall, but those 2 simple changes doubled their search engine traffic.
Harsh Reality #3: What works for one site doesn’t always work for others
Just like how I doubled TechCrunch’s search engine traffic as well as a few dozen more blogs using the tactic I mentioned above, I also decreased WordPress.com’s search engine traffic by half through the same tactic.
The funny part about this is that they were all running on the WordPress platform, so I thought that making that same change on WordPress.com blogs would drastically increase their traffic.
But it didn’t. So what it means is that what works on one website doesn’t necessarily work on all websites. If you want to maximize your search engine traffic you have to test things out because what worked for someone else’s website may not work for yours.
Harsh Reality #4: Writing content for search engines is bad
Why do you talk about writing content for search engines? Just think about that for a second… Do you see anything wrong with it?
That’s right, search engines don’t read your content, people do. If you write your content for search engines, don’t expect them to convert into customers. On the other hand, by writing content for people, at least you have a chance of converting them into paying customers.
Now, when you are writing your content, you shouldn’t push search engines out of the picture. You should still consider them because there is a way you can write content for both people and search engines.
Here’s how:
- Titles – the title of your content should be attractive. This will convince people to read it.
- Keywords – if your content is on dog food you’ll naturally mention dog food and other related keywords when it makes sense. So don’t keyword stuff.
- Links – if you know of a good site that you should be linking to in your content, then link to it. Don’t just keep all of your link juice for yourself… if no one linked out search engines like Google wouldn’t work as well.
- Content – the more detailed and unique your content is, the better. Search engines don’t need another me-too article to place in their index, they need more unique information that people love.
If you follow the steps I mentioned above, you’ll be able to write content for humans and search engines. Those steps will help you create good content, which in turn will cause other websites to link to it. And as I mentioned in the Harsh Reality #1, links are the most important factor in search engine rankings.
Harsh Reality #5: Exact match domain names rank the best
If you are trying to get ranked for a specific keyword, the best domain name to own isn’t one that is brandable. It’s the one that’s keyword rich.
For example if you want to rank for homes the best domain name to own is homes.com, homes.net or homes.org. Pretty much any exact match domain will work.
If you can’t get a hold of an exact match domain name you could purchase cheaphomes.com, but that won’t help you rank for homes as much as homes.com. Instead it will work well if you were trying to rank for cheap homes.
Google has been placing a lot of emphasis on exact match domain name. For example if you Google the keyword “homes”, you’ll notice that homes.com ranks number 1 and 2 and realtor.com ranks number 3. And if you do a link check on both of the domains to see how many links each of them have: homes.com has over 1000 and realtor.com has over 3000.
In essence, realtor.com has 3 times the amount of links, but homes.com still ranks number 1. Hopefully that shows you the power of exact match domain names. And I do understand that these domain names aren’t the best for branding your business, but if your business is heavily reliant on search engine traffic you should consider purchasing the exact match domain.
Harsh Reality #6: It’s better to be safe than sorry
If you know me, then you know that I have done a lot of shady stuff to get rankings on Google. I have ranked for some of the most competitive terms out there and I mainly achieved this by using tactics that search engines look down on.
In the short run I made a killing, but eventually I got caught. So if you are thinking about buying text links or any other magic bullets that will help you get high rankings, think twice.
Do the math, search engines may be already driving you a decent amount of visitors and more importantly revenue. Yes it would be nice if you could buy text links and double that revenue, but on the other hand you could get caught and banned from engines like Google.
So the question you have to ask yourself is are you willing to risk your revenue?
Harsh Reality #7: Sometime things just take time
This is probably the worst reality of them all, which is why I saved it for last. If you want to get ranked for some second or third tier keyword, it’s possible to do so pretty quickly. But if you want to get ranked for something competitive like “poker” or “credit cards”, don’t expect that to happen right away.
Plus when you make changes to your website, don’t expect to see big traffic increases right away. Sometimes it can take a few weeks for search engines to index your new changes. Due to this, it could take weeks if not months before you see traffic increases.
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Regarding #5 – most people don’t realize how much of a ranking factor domain name plays.
PPC/keyword DNs will be the next big thing… just watch.
Yep agreed, if you managed to nab an exact match for a hyper-competitive niche you save yourself thousands in link building and content development costs.
It definitely helps drastically and yes it can save you a lot of money and TIME on link building. However it is not enough to say that the other work doesn’t need to be done.
People are starting to see that but its hard to not be enticed by single word domains.
Exact matches for hyper competitive niches are hard to find these days.
I recently stumbled upon an exact match domain reg’d in 95 by a small business owner. It’s got a really basic webpage for his biz (that appears to be hugely out of date). Massively profitable niche, huge search volume for this keyword phrase, etc. I don’t think he knows what he’s sitting on.
I’m in the process of trying to acquire it from it either by flat out buying it (ideally, cause it’s almost priceless) or through some sort of JV situation where I build the site / marketing but he retains ownership. Shot in the dark, but def a big opportunity if it hits.
Number 7 is the worst…
It takes forever to get ranked for anything worth while
Could you go into more detail on acquiring links?
That’s the hardest task and would love to hear your thoughts on the best ways to do it (even shady stuff)?
Thanks,
Silver
send me an email neil@ neilpatel.com . Yes it does take time and it is difficult but so is anything that makes you money.
Great post Neil. I was also surprised by how powerful the domain match technique works. I’ve gotten #1 rankings on brand new sites from this one trick alone.
Btw, the advice you gave me about user badges on UniversityTutor.com is working pretty well. Not a whole lot of users have used them, but the ones who have gave me great likes (some .edu’s since they are college students, etc).
Link for anyone else who is interested: http://www.startbreakingfree.com/1220/how-to-get-more-links-to-your-website-with-user-badges/
It’s a bit hard to tell the total number of links since I have so many subdomains and Google Webmaster Tools doesn’t let me group them all under one website, but oh well.
lol…well good for you, I’m glad your starting to see the results.
Point five is the thing I am thinking about the last weeks, and I thougt to myself…”what would Neil say…?”.
In my opinion branding is in the long run better than keyword domaining, because…
+domain is cheaper
+you can get all tlds
+branding included
+looks more exclusive
+search is about branding (bmw vs. car.com)…in the long run
-branding needs time
-who the fu** cares about brands, “I just want to travel”(.com) etc.
-branding can cost more than an expensive domain
—————————-
The real problem is that it is hard to get all tlds: You can own car.com, but not car.net and so on. So you have to invest money, BEFORE you know if this project will be successful. Ok, it depends on the keyword, but you know what I mean.
Yeah I understand what you mean… it comes down to what you have as a product and what you expect to make happen with it.
Spot on Neil. The basics & fundamentals really do matter. I see too many people trying to focus on “secret tactics” to try & game google.
Links, Links, Links are the name of the game. + it doesn’t hurt if they’re from quality websites
Harsh Reality #8: SEO isn’t going anywhere anytime soon… it’s just evolving.
Thanks Neil!
Exactly, thanks for sharing that Alejandro… it’s important to realize that yes it is just evolving. To ignore it now is to waste away your time because the people who put in time now will reap the benefits sooner than later.
i haven’t visited your site in awhile since i setup google reader, but great summary of seo and nice updated site design. just one point i would add is that older domains typically will get ranked higher than newly created ones and a good place to get older domains is Go Daddy Auctions. I have found a few deals there.
Thanks for that add on… domains that have senority do tend to do better than those that don’t so it’s obviously a good time to start with whatever you’re doing now.
Great SEO lesson!! I wish I could find posts like this on the Internet.
Well you found it! Hopeful it works for you.
Neil, you are the men, enjoying reading your entries everytime , at this pace, I feel like an expert already, thanks for the great insider, I could manage to rank for a new site I created with some of these technics on yahoo in a couple of days on the top 3, I guess I need to have some backlinks now, well that’s probably the harder part, when you don’t have a content rich website, but a service site. kudo for this post and keep sharing.
It’s work… and it will take time effort and energy but realize that 90% of the people won’t do it consistently enough for it to work.
No 7: ya it takes time.. patience is essential and when we make any changes it takes more time…
I have also made some changes related to host to my blog and of course its taking time to come up. lets see…
Patience is a virtue … one of the most annoying yet true phrases out there.
I like the title tag to meta description tactic… I just implemented it to mine.
Thanks. neil
Good for you… make sure you let me know about your results.
I’ve purchased a few exact match domain names and within hours of putting up the site I was ranked #7 on page 1. It took a while longer to climb to number 1, but eventually we got there. However, after neglecting the site I’ve dropped back down to #3.
I guess my point is I definitely agree with Harsh Reality #5 Exact match domain names rank the best. However, depending on the domain name it might cost you a pretty penny.
Wow, that was a pretty quick result. I wouldn’t expect results like those to happen too quickly but if you choose the right niche, you’ll get a very good start.
thats true but your site looks fishy when you are trying to get keywords in the domain.. ex [southern-califormia-homes.com ]..people are more likely to trust socalhomes.com
ehh
Yes it does… which is why I wouldn’t recommend too many dashes as it could come across as spammy.
Definitely some good tips in there somewhere. Creating backlinks and even asking for them always seems a good idea but I haven’t looked into meta tags, yet…
But thanks to this post it’s something that I’ll surely be using to get a bit more SE traffic going. But it’s hard to generate if your “niche” is hard to describe. I mean, what would you make of a tagline like “Thoughts from a Zen mind in the Western World”. It’s not exactly as crisp as “Personal development” and “Lifestyle design” but to name a few.
Thanks for the heads-up on the meta tags. And of course it will take some time to get things rolling.
Time is on your side considering that most bloggers stop within the first 30-60 days.
I took the unsafe route and got punished big time for awhile. My PR has been 0 for awhile now and last year around this time, my site was taken out of Google (my main traffic source) for all major keywords, ones that I was previously ranking #1 or 2 for. While I have most of my traffic and keyword rankings back, it’s taken a lot more work to get ranked for new keywords. So yes, I’d suggest it’s worth it long-term wise to play it safe.
Ouch, what was your traffic like before?
“The only way to change reality is to face reality.” —John Reese
Good fundamental stuff, man. I agree that these are harsh because we want to know something others don’t. But if these always work, better deal with them.
Yes and the basics for what counts since they are what create the structure for your business.
I`m not agree with you on Number 5, are soo many sites ranking well for keywords that are not in their names.
It’s not the case for some of the major companies out there but you’ll notice a lot of niche industries taken away.
number eight neil, google sandbox. It took months even years to get to google top of SERP. Google create sandbox for new domain. I have website ‘iphone bla bla dot com’ in google webmaster said that I was 2nd rank for keyword Iphone camera. But when I check with Google serach rank box, it didn’t show up in even 400
SANDBOX .. that’s terrible
It varies … especially with which ever niche you’re trying to capture. The iphone niche is obviously extremely difficult and strong.
“All I did was make the post title the title tag and the first sentence of each blog post the meta description.’
Wow! What did you do to the keywords then?
Mad them relevant to the post. Remember, sometimes the KISS method brings you powerful results.
This is the kind of SEO post that is good to review once in a while. It’s a reminder of getting back to basics and staying focused on what matters most (more important perhaps than how many RTs a post had).
And I love KW rich domains.
Yeah, sometimes they can get a bit overwhelming but if you do them right… you’re one step closer to an abundance of traffic.
Simple but effective. No. #7 is something that everyone who implements the above 6 must understand. You can’t prove ur worthiness or credibility to search engines the next day after your launch or in a week. Patience is the key to success.
It will take a lot longer than a week or a month too see results that will actually impact you and your site.
Thanks Neil, great post as always! I really like your point for #6. I think a lot of people like the idea of getting quick backlinks to boost rankings quickly, but if it has the potential of creating harm, that’s a serious problem!
Can you go into some depth about some of the best white hat techniques to acquire links? I know some of what you did was through doing free work for clients and asking that they link to you – any other examples?
The best white hat tactic I know of is to hit up all of the people that link to your competitors and kindly ask them for a link. This is a lot of work, but in the long run you should get results.
Other than that I love leveraging social media sites like Digg.
There really isn’t much more to it when it comes to white hat techniques.
Hi Neil,
Choosing a domain name, can it have dashes in it. Let’s say if ’solarlight.com’ is taken, would ’solar-light.com’ still do the job?
Thanks!!!
yes, that would still work as effectively.
Great post! Domain name helps but I believe with the increasing competition it is not easy to find the most relevant domain name. Though with other seo techniques optimization can be done.
For a long time, I was not sure how websites get optimized for search engines, what all factors does google take into account.
It is not that it is still very clear but yea I believe it is more about trying and learning from it. It is like if you do some shady stuff and continue doing it for some time, then google does not leave you. But who defines that shady stuff, nobody knows, it is different for each site and sometimes it happens and othertimes you are just lucky.
Get a leg up by taking action now… don’t just think that the keyword rich domain is going to be the instant fix, focus on the practical ways to build your site too.
There are advantages to having an unqiue domain name as well, as it differentiates you for you customers, etc.. the downside is that people wont look for it on their own without having seen it somewhere.
Neil, this has to be one of your best posts yet, totally awesome, keep it up!
Thanks Rian. It’s what drastically helps your organic market.
Some very good tips for everyone. Though agreed to your point “Links are everything”, there are instances of some fairly big sites who initially did/does link exchange (before they start getting natural links), these bulls are not penalized.
Somehow things have changed a lot in today’s scenario though where you have this big social crowd supporting you by spreading the buzz, initiating constructive discussions, etc. which itself is natural and cannot be achieved through the above points.
Its a time where you can go from nothing to everything with one powerful blog posts. An important thought to keep in mind.
can you expand on ctreating links with key words in the anchor text? Do you mean: when you leavea comment/link on another blog, use the keywords you want to be optimized for?
Yes the keyword being “widgets” anchor text that to whatever your site is.
Harsh reality #8: Not even the gurus can guarantee top 10 Google search placement, even if they account for all the harsh realities of SEO. Which is why SEO is an art, not a science. But the effort does usually pay off, which is why SEO isn’t dead..yet.
Exactly… well said Tesi… no it’s not dead and nor will it die anytime soon. If anything, it’ll evolve.
Some realities were easy to understand but the one about time, ah is kinda painful.
It is painful to hear that it takes time
I agree.
Great Post. I’m recently reminded of increasing traffic by increasing readership with falls under SEM a little more I suppose. I mean I didn’t find you via the search engines to day yet I’m on your blog, right, from the RSS. Converting to readers is something you do well, because that is your intentions.
It hasn’t been mine. I’ve been concentrating on fresh new content focused on my niche. I feel like I write the same post over and over, (cause I do basically)
I’m looking at the compounding effect of increased RSS and readership. I need to be better at this.
Do you think monetizing with ads would decrease your credibility to the point that people wouldn’t subscribe to RSS and make this a blog they read.
I would still read because your relevent to my interest and you not a wind bag. Regardless of you monetization strategy I’d still read.
I guess the real point is my content. While I keep it useful to the niche, its not as useful to the person as is yours.
Guess I’m strategizing in your comments….
That’s what I want others to do on my site.
hmmm.
Thanks Neil.
Only monetize with ads if you already have a powerful userbase… if you don’t then it’ll just start to turn peple off. Focus on unique content, don’t just patch up old stuff all the time.
ARGH! I was hoping you’d keep #5 to yourself, as it’s been a great loophole that I’ve been exploiting for the past 18 months..
I’ve tried other combinations (.net/.org, with dashes, etc), but unfortunately the standard .com with no punctuation seems to work best.
lol… well I’m glad it’s been working for you. it’s not really a secret, and don’t worry, most people who do it will quit within the first 30-60 days anyway.
Wow, #7 is an eye opener every single time I read it; anytime. I have absolutely no control over time. In the mean time what should I do?
Keep focusing and work on providing quality content… day in and day out. It’s called repetitious boredom. You’ll need to get use to it.
Remarkably good list; tell it as it really is.
One complaint: domain names.
It’s a mistake to say it’s “domain name” as a factor. The reason why keyword rich domains rank well is because most of the times, it’s the ANCHOR TEXT.
Homes.com gets anchor text of “homes.com” or “Homes, Inc.” (if that was the name, for example).
But, you can’t have a domain like “quick-cash-short-sale-homes.com” and assume you’ll rank for “short sale homes” or something like that.
Domain names alone don’t cut it.
It’s not just domain names that do the trick, the other strategies are just as or if not more important. It requires work day in and day out to have powerful organic seo.
#7 is a hard point for some customers to understand. Once you tell them you’ve optimized their site, they expect to be at the top within a few days. Unfortunately, SEO is not 100% concrete and some customers just don’t get it.
Yes… and anyway that says that they guarantee #1 on google is just full of crap.
hello , i’m just starting in this world of blogs
I’ve been into SEO recently and gathering helpful information for this.
and after reading your post it has become a little easier to me , thanks
Glad you found it useful. Let me know about your success.
Great point on reality #4. It’s something so simple, but can sometimes be so challenging.
I would also like to add, a harsh reality, seo isn’t free, when you factor in all the work that you need to do on a continuous and consistent basis to get to the top.
Nicole M
Captivate Web Design
http://www.CaptivateDesigns.com
It takes a lot of time and energy and as we know…time is money! Thanks for that input.
I am amazed at the number of websites I see that are trying to rank for a keyword and don’t have it in the url. title. description or keywords.
People forget the basics… and they wonder why they’re traffic isn’t up to par. Patience is also important to consider.
Harsh Reality No. 5 – it depends. All things being equal, the exact match domain name has a leg up on competitors. But I see non-exact match domain names at the top of several of my niches because they have a lot of high quality backlinks. Also, some people have bought the exact match URLs and parked them for resale (one dude was asking $3400 for the keywordphrase dot com I wanted).
sometimes its worth it and other times it not… it just depends on how you’re doing with whatever it is your selling.
I totally agree with Neil’s about links and link-getting. One can outrank even the largest of competitors with their niche with fewer backlinks, so long as they are of a higher quality. Getting higher quality links from other high quality websites is always a great way to go. Yes, it’s a lot harder to get these types of links, but the other benefits make it SO worth the effort if you do a good job. Imagine not having to always freak out when Google makes a major algo change. It’s a great feeling to know your rankings can sustain even the largest of changes.
Exactly… as long as you do everything legitimately and the right way… and then you add time to the mix… you’ll be headed off into the right direction.
Just joined the SEM department of a company and tasked with merging SEO and social media optimization strategies to grow rankings for clients and vendor (my employer). I was tempted to try some iffy tactics (you can buy 10,000 backlinks on eBay for $400, no thanks!) but have stuck with traditional methods and seeing results after only 2 months through these same methods. Been slacking on my meta descriptions though, so thanks for stressing the importance.
Don’t bother with those types of back links as they’re all just trash! Good for you on making that decision. Get on top of the meta descrips quickly as you’ll tell yourself you’re glad you did or you wish you would of 6 months from now.
Neil, I just found your site, and I gotta say, I am absolutely loving it! I’ve been reading about your failures and your no-fear attitude. It’s been great. We’ll be directing some of our own clients your way in the future I’m sure.
As an SEO guy myself, I’m in total agreement with this post. Keep up the great work!
Glad you found it useful. Just be sure to avoid making the same mistakes that I made.
Neil – Thanks for the article and the great tips. What are your thoughts regarding content on ecommerce sites? I know the general opinion is that having relevant content on all pages including categories pages etc will help rankings but I am worried it will ruin the aesthetic value of the site.
Content is a good thing to have. How about reviews for each product? That is content and it provides value to the user.
Nothing good comes easy…. things do take time… the process is where true happiness exists! Best, Brian-
Well said… it can takes several months to years to actually see substantial results. It all comes down to how much time you put it in.
I’m new to SEO and have a newbie question. If I buy 4 or 5 domains that have keywords that I want to be associated with and then redirect those domains to my actual site, is that a good thing for SEO? Or is that frowned upon?
Thanks for a great article!
It is a good thing, but that won’t really help increase your rankings. It just increases your type in traffic.
Thanks for the anchor text tip, I will work on applying that one immediately.
Good, just let me know how it works out for you.
good point
+domain is cheaper
+you can get all tlds
+branding included
+looks more exclusive
Exactly, glad your starting to see the benefits in doing so.
Hi I’m in actuality pleased you publish this post. Second step is more important in out of all steps
Glad you found it useful Chris. How do you apply the second step with your site?
Sorry Neil but #5 is bullshit – think about that – is it better to have 1000 qualite links of 3000 shit links? I vote for quality as google does.
I think we are on the same page. The point I was trying to bring across is that quality is better than quantity.
Doing yours basics right hold very important in SEO.
It’s about building the foundation so you actually have leverage to move forward.
Harsh Reality #7: Sometime things just take time
“Sometimes it can take a few weeks for search engines to index your new changes. Due to this, it could take weeks if not months before you see traffic increases.”
Thanks Neil! I think this is the most important point.
We’re so used to everything with the internet being instant..unfortunately SEO does take time and people need to realize that. Your results WILL be worth it, but in the mean time we all just have to remember to be patient!
Thanks again, great article!
Yes, it’s a long term goal that requires your investment in time… and lots of it. Spend an hour a day or less and within several months you’ll only be that much ahead of the curve.
Hi Neil! I like your take on SEO. I’ve read lots of SEO articles and it’s nice to hear from someone who has quantifiable experience to back up what you’re saying.
Thanks!
Thanks Nick… I speak from experience… that’s the only leverage I have
Most of the things I agree with here. But most of all, I agree with your advice about content. At work, they usually hire a copywriter to write the content, and I hate it. You can tell when something isn’t natural. Sure, they’re earning money because of it, but it’s just not right.
Yes because you can tell by the tone of the writing…sometimes it works, most of the time it doesn’t.
Nice Post. I appreciate your efforts. I think the harshest reality about SEO is that you can not be certain about the results that clients are seeking from you. Some of my clients ask me that if what time it will take by me to get ranked their website on top 3 for a particular keyword. How would one calculate that time, do you have any idea?
You can’t necessarily calculate the exact time, but you can give them an estimated time frame of results you can expect them to look out for.
Neil,
Excellent article and I pretty much agree with everything you have said. I am surprised though that you don’t mention the vitally important role that pagerank plays in the quality of links, and also the need to avoid nofollow links for SEO purposes (although of course they are fine as a general link that can drive traffic to your site).
Those are important Richard, but the stuff I layed out under the 7 harsh realities is what you need to know to get you results.
A nice post Neil. First of all regarding the the 7th reason, it surely is the most ugly part of SEO but is there any way out to make things faster? Maybe few tricks that may catalyze it?
Well yes and no… you can get fast results but they won’t last. You need a foundation that helps you move forward through ups and downs… something stabilized.
I want to buy some keyword rich domains, but all of the dot coms are taken. Will .me, .us, .net .info work as well for the SEO
Thanks for the column, this was very helpful.
Barbara
They are not as powerful as the .com’s
I saw this article cited in another website and the link lead me to your site. Your article is awesome. Sometimes it’s the simplest things that can make a difference with regard to on page optimization.
K.I.S.S Keep it simple stupid … one of the best kept strategies to make it big in whatever you do.
Great words of advice for marketers and web pros! I wondered if I could get your take on a question I just posed to my Twitter followers:
“At what point does #SEO hinder people searching for official, unbiased resources (not just companies who *get* SEO)?”
I coordinate SEO efforts for a client, so I know it’s value for driving traffic, but I’ve noticed that in my web research, it takes longer to find the actual organizations and official sources on topics (unless I know the exact name of the group). My Google searches in particular are full of mom & pop opinions rather than well-documented research (not to say that mom & pop don’t know what they’re talking about). I wonder: if SEO is working so well for every new web site start up, is search engine intelligence catching up fast enough to continue working efficiently for the end user?
I think it will as hinder it a bit, but search engines are fighting that everyday. It’s just part of the SEO world.
SEO isn’t working well for all startups and search engines are already pretty smart. They are working for the end user.
You always wonder why some of the ugly sites get ranked high by the search engines. It’s because the look really doesn’t mean much it is more about keeping it simple. Great article so easy common sense stuff but so hard to follow. I added a link to this article from my blog.
It’s about keeping it simple and providing the best content possible for the visitor to read.
If you’re not going to use any suspicious techniques, then SEO is a painful time-consuming job. Of course, if you’re targeting some low-competition keywords then everything is much easier but with high-traffic keywords there is a serious work to be done over a substantial period of time if you want to achieve any kind of success.
Yeah… the time consuming part is a bit overwhelming and annoying… but it’s the foundation one needs to build a solid business.
It doesn’t matter if it’s time consuming if the results are well worth it. Great results come only with great effort. Many people are expecting to put a small effort and to see big results. Yeah right!
Yeah… people think that it works that way and end up finding out the wrong way. Patience is necessary in SEO.
Neil,
First of all, love your blog – you have meaningful things to say, and I am always learning from your insight:
To Harsh Reality #5, I know there have been some comments regarding this, but do “unconventional” domain extensions like .info, .me, .ws, .tv, .mobi and other such extensions that the average web surfer and general public may not know of (yet) really carry as much weight in Google’s search algorithm as a .com or .net? Assuming all equal, like the exact match keywords within the domain itself, does a site http://www.cars.info carry the same chance of being ranked as highly as http://www.cars.com? I’d love to hear your opinion. Thanks and keep up the great posts!
SEO is indeed not easy job as one may imagine. it takes lots of effort and time, and on top of that the work may me annoying and discouraging.
It does take a lot of time and unfortunately most people don’t like waiting for the long time results and become frustrated during the process.
It takes a long time but the result are worth it!! Just be patient and you will the benefits of SEO.
Patience is the key to success with SEO. Results won’t happen overnight.
Neil, this is one of the best posts I read on SEO in awhile. And I read about almost daily if not weekly.Love this list and agree with all you said. #5 or or “domains with the exact keywords” is the best tip you gave away for free your readers should be paying for this type of content. I will be adding a link back to this post on my blog later. Thanks for the simplistic, yet very “right on” list.
Thanks for that compliment bud, I appreciate it.
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Those are all great ways to get good quality links. Would you consider that the shady way?
The best way is link baiting but you really need to take time to get a good article people actually want to link too. So it comes back to writing it for the user not the search engine.
Exactly… all great techniques to help get the job done and make things happen.
Yes, Neil, you are spot on. I have found many of my experiences match what you are saying here. In a way, it is perfect. SEO is a time game and one needs to work to it consistently and steadily.
Of course, all said and done, you still needd to have the right kind of analysis, passion and gutfeel to even start investing your time aka money towards what you want to rank for. But the more competitive keyword you work on, typically the better is the return in the longer run. The shorter term is proportionately harder of course with the same competitive keyword.
Exactly, the harder or more competitive the keyword, the more patience you need to have in order for yours to rank.
The article discussed the right methods on and off page optimization and on how to avoid using a black hat technique because your website will penalized or banned by Search Engine. Don’t waste your money for buying links instead look for a link exchange partner that relates or niche to your website. The most important is build a quality backlink that relates or niche to your website.
Yes, spending your money here and there won’t do anything for you…. it’s not an overnight thing…it takes time and lots of it…especially for the more highly competitive niches.
Try to build your site’s reputation with quality links not with paid links because the day when Search Engines will penalize you will come…Be smart not greedy!
The paid links usually don’t work and won’t make a difference to your site’s success.
Neil – Thank you. This conversation is extremely relevant to an internal discussion we’re having where I work. We have paid for links (an ongoing pay-for-performance situation) but in our case it has had a positive and significant impact on rankings. It’s been nearly a year and everyone is enthusiastic about the results. I, on the other hand, am concerned that there remains a proverbial ‘piper’ to pay. What are your thoughts?
If you buy good paid links which are hard to find, thing work out. And you’ll start ranking well… but most people don’t buy good links, they buy spammy ones.
Either way, I am a big believer that if you keep on buying links sooner or later you are going to get caught. The most successful Internet sites don’t buy links, they build good products so that people want to naturally link.
Yeah I agree, buying links is like a black hat in SEO, or actually a black hat. Being more natural is what Google like. Try to study techniques that are white hat like link wheel building. Just be sure you don’t copy articles that you post for the link wheel.
White hat techniques may take a while longer, but it’s better to do thing legitimately then take the risk of being banned.
This is really true. It really needs time and effort to build quality backlinks.
The back links do take quite a bit of time, definitely not an overnight thing.
I have been doubling my traffic everyday since I read this post. I realized gamezilla.us did not have description and keyword tags. I made the app generate it automatically and voila the long tail began kicking in the traffic. Excellent advice!
It’s great to hear that is working out for you. I also listened to some advices from Neil and it helped me a lot.
Glad you guys are getting results!
SEO is good and all but what do you think of the rise of social networks recently? Will they ever replace search engines?
I think that it is really a combination of both that determines how far you’ll succeed.
SEO is unfair. Its as simple as that. Ranking for terms like mine are hard but im just hoping over time i can hit the top 10
One term im hiting up is 5000 searches and im number 5 so im hoping i can rank higher sooner so i can make some big bucks.
It’s not that its unfair, it’s just that it’s difficult. I’ll tell you what though, if you work it the right way, you can make a ton of money doing so. Hense the level of difficulty.
I am guilty of number three. My first site was a basic site and it was easy to get to page one of Google. So I went and made a second and third site both using different open source applications. Now I am having a lot of trial and error to find out what works. Wish i just stuck with the first site.
Glad to hear what you say about the domain name though. Read quite a few saying it does not matter and I believe it does.
That tends to happen to most people, just keep going at it strong and you’ll make it in no time.
I like what you’ve said in placing link within keywords. I have also a tip in doing that. Do keyword research so that you can have variations when you place your keyword and it will help you to look more natural and not a spam in the eyes of google.
Yes, doing the extra research will drastically help you in pin point the words that work.
Exactly.
Your nice Neil. 
Your one of the best blogger about SEO that I found in the net. Thanks for the post.
Till then,
Regie
Thank’s I really appreciate that Regie. Glad your finding this information useful.
Great advice. I wish I had know about the importance of keyword rich domains in the beginning.
An important reminder that you can’t throw out the basics. While no one can argue the importance of links and other off-site SEO efforts, the on-site SEO basics lay the foundation for all future strategies you may intend to employ moving forward.
Search engines factor titles, content, internal link structures, site architecture, etc. into algorithms for a reason…done properly, they all help to improve visitor experience. Can you rank well ignoring those on-site basics? Sure, if you want to do lots of extra work manually building links to a crappy website. Will it help in the long run? Nope.
Bottom line? Create a great site. Build a site that is friendly to both search engines and users. It will convert higher. It will work and play well with others. Rather than having to rely on manual link building efforts, people will be more likely to link to it of their own accord. A well-built site will reward you with stronger rankings and a long term presence in the SERPs.
Building a house using the most expensive materials won’t mean much if you’re building it on quicksand. Start with a strong foundation or suffer the consequences later.
Nicely condensed top tips.
#8, 9, 10 – It’s about the links.
Hey, now its a Top 10!
Yes, I realize its the first point mentioned. But well worth stating again. All too many believe on-page optimization is all it takes.
Yes, it’s unfortunately become the norm in what people think work. Even though it’s difficult to do things right, not to mention a time constrain, it’s ultimately worth it at the end.
#4 plus Pareto Principle are the online equivalent of natural selection
Good SEO post! Thx.
Thanks Mark! Yeah they are simply natural selection lol
Do you ever just hire a company neil? Much easier to have people do directory submissions then me doing it.
No because the quality of those directory’s aren’t so good.
This depends on the people you hire. If they are professionals I am sure that they will have many good directories prepared
Not necessarily
Links have always been everything, but the way to gain them is changing – link building must now be exponential in order to get far with competitive phrases, and this means having demonstrable value in your onsite content and going the extra mile to get links naturally.
You should read this: http://www.quicksprout.com/2010/03/17/7-ways-to-legitimately-build-backlinks
This is a great post. I was trying to explain to my friend that although my job seems easy it isn’t. And when one thing fails it all could so you better have a backup. I actually had google bump me from searching for the day. Granted I was doing it a lot and not finding what I wanted but it made me look like a bot i guess.
Wow, sometimes when you’re good, too good, people are surprised. It happens, but then you just got to prepare for the worst yet expect the best.
I couldn’t agree with you more. You also have to realize that people are not as informed as they they think they are and sometimes it’s best not to waste your time.
You have to assume that people don’t know and then explain it accordingly.
The trick with that is explaining it in laymen terms so they actually understand what you are saying.
It is difficult but you have to learn lingo before ever dipping yourself in anything new.
Links, Links, Links…..you can never have enough links…..it can get very obsessive compulsive, but links are what drives the algorithm, and if you want to rank for your keywords you need links to push you past your competitors.
That’s the name of the game…. it’s work, but no one said it was going to be easy right?
Seo is a hard game thats why i think you should hire people when doing seo. Dont pretend to be good at somthing your clearly bad at.
Learn to delegate what you’re not good at. The art of delegation is what will help your company grow.
Its hard to come across domain names you want but arent already in use, so I guess a lot of people go for the brandable domain names.
Maybe its possible to make up for it using tips 1 & 2, meta tags etc.
Yes, sometimes you just have to be a little creative with what you choose.
After reading this post, I suddenly wanted to create a new blog – something that would follow all the tips and advices from blogs like this.
Nice article. As for SEO goes, it always takes time to get indexed. And ranking takes time as well. However, If articles are written well and regularly, SEO ranking is quick.
It’s a process really. a tedious one at that. At the end of the day though, it can work out perfectly.
Regarding #7 – Sometime things just take time
I can relate to this perfectly, you spend some time launching the site. Then start checking it straight away to see if the search engines can see it.
That wait, its a long one, then I was checking it every 24 hours and find that I can see it. The another 24 hours to check its ranking, then another 24 hours to see if its climbed in rank.
I’m now coming to the conclusion that I could just keep adding content or building another page and let the ranking take care of itself, then wait for 2 pages.
I was like a kid at Christmas could the amount of sleeps until Santa arrives.
Great post as usual Niel
Yeah that happens and it’s very normal… you’ll need to eventually gain control over your emotions but it’ll come to you over time.
Thanks for this information! Your advice about putting the first sentence in the description meta tag is nice to know. I have optimal title, so the title tag is taken care of.
I’m using the SEO all-in-one WordPress plugin and it really streamlines the process of doing this.
Good for you and remember, it’s a process. It takes a long time before it’ll work.
Also, I agree with you about it taking time to generate traffic. I was on the problogger.net website today and I was looking at his first post on the site and it was posted I think in September of 2004. It did not receive it’s first comment until January of 2005.
So like you said, it takes time to make generate the traffic that you want to have. As your blog grows in content; eventually, Google and the other search engines will give it more rank.
You definitely know your stuff and I just bookmarked your site. I will be checking out this site regularly.
Wow, that’s a a great example, glad you found that.
So like you said, it takes time to make generate the traffic that you want to have. As your blog grows in content; eventually, Google and the other search engines will give it more rank