SearchSearch engine optimization is an often misunderstood concept. Many people see the acronym SEO and assume that it pertains solely to the keyword density of a written article. This is an important factor, but it is not the sole criteria of a properly optimized content piece. No, the truth is that the best way to ensure absolute positive results through SEO is to optimize content for human consumption and not for the search engines themselves.
The key to search engine optimization is to create absolutely intriguing content that draws real people back to the content on that website time and time again. All major search engines focus on metrics that are designed to determine how ‘popular’ a content piece. It seems like some sort of self-destructive hamster wheel but a given content piece needs traffic before it can receive higher rankings, and thus acquire more traffic.
The most important part of absolute SEO dominance is the creation of content that people actually want to view. The direct methods of creating this content will include those keyword density figures people keep spouting; however there is more to proper optimization than choosing the right terms to sprinkle throughout a given piece.
In order to truly understand SEO it is important to understand how a search engine operates. Links are the key factor in how a search ‘spider’ works. A search spider is basically a program than skitters through the Internet on behalf of a search engine so that websites can be sorted, graded for various metrics, and cataloged. The spider needs hard links to check things out and if those links don’t exist or are badly designed it will cause problems. It is important that at least one solid internal link exists to each page on a website. The manner that content is structured and the ease of navigation for both people and search spiders will be a major metric for search engines.
The time that people spend on given website pages, the overall length and relevancy of keywords, and the structure of the site that the content is placed on are the biggest defining factors of optimization. The choice of specific keywords is important, but it is important to remember that no matter how amazing the content is, and how relative the keywords are, no one wants to spend time on a poorly constructed site incapable of being navigated without severe frustration.
Sites that have simple and direct navigation coupled with highly detailed and engaging content will rapidly ascend the ladder of success. Keyword stuffed content pages that are hard to navigate and assault the eyes will not rise as swiftly, if at all.
Once a site is simple and effective to navigate it will be time to consider the nature of the links pointing to and from the content provided. The key is to acquire links from as many high ranking and popular pages that are relevant to the content topic as possible. Any outgoing links from the content should only go to the same type of relevant content. This maximizes the supposed relevance of the content and will skyrocket a particular piece up the search engine ladder rather quickly.
Google page rank is a solid indicator of popularity. Links from thousands of PR 1 sites are not as good as a single link from a PR 5 site. Focus on developing high-end contacts and share links back and forth with well-respected sites in the same relevant content niche. Sites that are the most favorable to garner links from are ".edu” and ".gov” sites. These types of sites are considered to be absolute authority sites. Try to only link out to sites such as these. The more links from these types of sites, with a higher PR rating, the better. The content provided will be considered much more relevant, popular, and authoritative when sites such as these link to them.
