Periodic Table of SEO

posted by Search

Search engine optimization (SEO) has always been a mysterious field full of wonder and awe that a relatively few seem to fully comprehend. Our friends over at Search Engine Land have been kind enough to develop a handy infographic to help us better understand what a search engine will look for when they rank sites.

On Page SEO

Content
For years, content has been the cornerstone of SEO. Your content will either make your site or break your site. Focus on writing content that has good use of keywords and is original. Don’t rehash someone else's work and claim it as your own. Be a leader and people will follow.

Website Code
Is your website well coded? Does it have well thought-out and optimized titles and descriptions? Do you take the time to make sure your keywords are used? Ensuring that keywords are used wisely means making sure they are in more than just the body of the website. It means making sure you use them in how you present your site.

Website Architecture
It’s best to think of a website like a building. If the rooms are hard to find and navigate and it takes forever to get from one side to the other, are you really going to spend a great deal of time there? Take this rule and apply it to your website. Make it easy for users to navigate and for spiders to crawl.

Off Page SEO

Links
While it’s easy to sit here and say “get quality links,” actually getting them is a different story. You have to work on building relationships with people. You have to be willing to share your content. You have to write content that people actually want to link to. Don’t sit back and wait for news to fall into your lap. Don’t hold ideas in for fear of people not liking them. Make news. Share your grand ideas. You never know what content a quality source will pick up and link to.

Reputation
How do you build these relationships? Use the social media tools at your disposal. If you have never heard of Twitter and Facebook, then you have a long way to go. The more active you are in a social network, the more value it will provide you.

Trust
Who is linking to you? Is it from sites that are viewed as authoritative? If this is the case, then you should be seeing some additional value passed along to your site from them. If an authority references your content, then you are an inspiration for their work and by default, slightly more authoritative.

Factors That Hurt Search Engine Rankings

Unhealthy Content
If your work is stale, run of the mill and uninspired, then you will see a decrease in traffic. You have to provide something of value. You have to give people something they are interested in that proves a point, offers some insight or delivers more than a simple “we have a thought too.” You have to educate, inspire and motivate readers through your content. Otherwise, what’s the point?

Bad Link Strategies
While you can see great benefit from inbound links, the opposite is also true. You have to be wise with your linking. Otherwise, you run the risk of being negatively affected. There is no quick fix to ranking. You cannot see long-term gain from a “get rich quick scheme.” Paying for links and bombarding websites and blogs with comments reflects poorly on you and will hurt your rankings.

Remember that good online marketing is not about marketing at people. Good online marketing is about communicating with people. It is about engaging people and being involved with them. No one needs another sales pitch; however, everyone can always use another trusted voice in the industry. Be that voice and see some growth.

About the author of this post:
Joshua Mathe leads thunder::tech’s Search team and has worked in the SEO and pay-per-click industry for more than five years. He is lifelong Clevelander with a love of all things #CLE.

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