Search Engine Optimization … king of the world wide web. How did it get so high and mighty? To get right to the point, great content has always been important and essentially that is what SEO comes down to. Now that begs the question, “What is great content?” Before we make that journey together I will explain the nitty gritty on SEO. To that end: when a website is properly optimized for search engines, it will attain a high ranking for the keywords that have been targeted. More often that not people are searching for products and services are using Google. As of March 2013, Google enjoys 86.3% of the search engine traffic in the United States as well as 88.8% of the global traffic according to a karmasnack report that cites Compete, Nielsen-Net, Alexa, seoMoz, StatsCounter – GlobalStats as well as their own data. So, when I mention ranking in search engines I mean Google. Google makes the rules. So, it’s in our good interest to adhere to them. In reality, Google’s goal is to serve the best possible result to the searcher. As website owners, our goal should be the same.

What are the Rules of SEO?

Google has a 43 page document called Search Quality Rating Guidelines that they’ve finally released to the public. In the past it was being leaked. Now it is freely available for you to read any time. You certainly will have a good grasp of what Google is looking for after reading it. If for some reason you are not in the mood for a 43 pager, I’ll fill you in.

1. Provide useful information.
2. Get real backlinks from relevant websites.
3. Don’t try to trick anybody.

Let’s continue our journey of knowledge about these three areas of SEO. Learning is FUN! Now back to our regularly scheduled programming…

The Magic of Content

Provide useful information. Content is where the magic happens. Start with developing thorough information that will help the person who visits your website. There is no one way to create great articles, posts, blogs, etc. Here are some ideas to consider:

• Educational – break out all the data and references and turn the post into exhaustive research
• Humorous – have a lighthearted approach to information to keep readers engaged
• Videos – use someone else’s or better yet create your own
• Lists – “Top 25 articles about SEO” or something … everyone loves these
• Reviews – give a useful review on a product or service

Let your personality come out in your writing. If you can’t write, hire someone who can. There are plenty of candidates. I can think of one right now. Starts with a “R” and ends with an “owde.”

Behind the Scenes with Backlinks

Get real backlinks from relevant websites. Backlinks are incoming or inbound links from other websites to your website. Another way to think about it, is a vote. If you have a sports blog and you get a “vote” or link from ESPN to your site, the search engine will like that. Google updates the search algorithm occasionally to better serve it’s users. The art of building backlinks has evolved along with the changes in the search algorithm. In the past some webmasters fell into the trap of quantity over quality. This lead to unscrupulous spam linking practices that Google is not interested in. An authoritative website, such as ESPN, will carry much more backlink weight than Sammy’s Slammin’ Sports Blog. Don’t get me wrong. Lots of links are good … if they are quality ones. The more relevant they are the better for your website ranking.

Trick No Treat

Don’t try to trick anybody. There’s been a whole lotta trickin’ goin’ on when it comes to the seedy underworld of SEO. These practices are what we would call Black Hat. Being involved in black hat SEO will run this risk of getting Google-slapped. No, Sergey Brin will not come to your house and slap you across the face. Your website will be removed from the search engine results. We already talked a little bit about no-nos for backlinks. Don’t buy 100,000 .ru links from someone for 5 bucks. Here are a few more black hat ways to avoid. What not to do:

• Hidden text or links – they’re not really hidden
• Keyword stuffing – the process of unnaturally using a keyword over and over again in content
• Sneaky redirects – making a link look like it’s going one place when it is really going somewhere else
• Cloaking – showing a different page to the user than the one the search engine sees

There is no way you should be trying some of these. Google likes to ask it’s team that manually checks websites for content, “Would you send your grandmother to this website?” We should all unashamedly be able to send our Grannys to our sites. And we should avoid any garish colors or flashing, blinking elements to avoid giving Grams a seizure. White hat is the way to go. White hats are for good guys doing it the right way.

That About Wraps It Up

What did we learn here today? Hopefully I imparted some helpful wisdom. SEO is a big deal. It should be done correctly and always with the end user in mind. And that, my friends, means creating some killer content. If you’re going to do it, might as well do it right.

See what I did there? Content (kuhn-tent) and content (kon-tent) are spelled the same way, but they sound different. It looks like I just repeated myself. In reality I made an awesome headline which is good content and now I’m content. You figure that last usage out on your own.

Have you ever heard someone say I’m content but not satisfied? Our friendly dictionary defines the word content this way though: satisfied with what one is or has; not wanting more or anything else. For some reason, content has come to mean “good with what one is or has but wanting more.” At least that is the way we use it in many instances. And it works for this post. Because you are what you thought you were. (Thank you Dennis Green.) No matter what stage you are at in your content creation, there’s no reason to fret over what you are not. The only thing to do is to continue moving forward and creating content. Be content, but don’t stay in the same place.

Here at Hackworth we are actively trying to improve our content by educating, informing and occasionally entertaining our audience/customers. Have we reached the apex of our content dreams? Not in the least. We can only do what’s possible in the time allotted to everyone in a day. By the way, we are not open 24 hours. So, for us it’s more like 9 hours. If you work 24 hours a day creating content a.) good for you and b.) nice knowing you, you’ll be dead soon.

The fact is that content is needed to separate yourself from everyone else. Each person and/or company has their own flavor and that will create original content that reaches people. You just have to write it, work on it and refine it.

Now for some unoriginal content … B to B’s 2011 Lead Generation Guide has an article that speaks to the content need, Lead-generation Demands Grow by Christoper Hosford. In the article VP of Marketing at Neolane Inc. Kristen Hambleton had this to say,

The tipping point between executing timely, smart, targeted campaigns and what could be considers spam is influenced in large part by one thing: content. Creating good content is dependent upon collaborative processes and best practices across departments for incorporating targeted messaging, information and offers that resonate with key audiences.

Everyone in your company has different experiences, skill sets and stories to tell. Use as much of it as possible to add to the company’s ongoing storyline. Meanwhile you are creating teamwork and cohesiveness by getting others involved. Bonus points!

We all have room for improvement in every part of business and life. The key is not to be bent out of shape about not being all that you thought you would be. Be content. And then blog about it