Remember when SEO was easy. When if you focused enough energy and time on the 5 things below you could rank for just about anything.
- Create a useful page for the user
- Use the keywords in the correct way
- Get high quality external links with focused anchor text
- Make the site accessible to search engine bots
- Make a focused internal link structure
Fast forward 3 years and the SEO landscape has changed dramatically. With there being more than 3 billion search on Google each day in 2011 and mass amounts of average content sweeping the web because of easy content management systems such as WordPress or Tumblr, more factors come into play. Not only do you have to focus on what was important, since that has not changed all that much, you now have to look at a new set of metrics, some that can’t be defined as easily as page rank, link numbers, and keywords.
- Create a useful page for the user
- Use the keywords in the correct way
- Get high quality external links with focused anchor text
- Make the site accessible to search engine bots
- Make a focused internal link structure
- Facebook signals
- Twitter signals
- Google +1
- Usage date
- Brand metrics and data
- Google suggest
- Google instant
- Vertical results showing in the search engines along side, and in place of, other organic results
- Quality Raters
- Topic Modeling
What does it mean to “create a useful page for users”? In short you must become the resource that offers great research based content in your niche. Sites that try to satisfy all users with a diverse set of low quality content (content farms), and lack the focus to become a resource on 1, maybe 2 primary topics, will be pushed aside for more focused research based content that satisfies some of the following.
- In-depth research included in the content
- Informed opinions on the topic at hand, by other experts in the field
- Mutimedia content such as video, audio, graphics, and photos
- Writers, designers, and produces all come together to create great content
- Quality interactions from the community
- Content that gets shared among the online social networks (social media marketing)
If you would like more information about creating great content please read our post titled “What makes a great piece of continent.”
Bill is the Lead Linchpin at the company and focuses on SEO and content strategy. Bill’s ten-year background in digital marketing, SEO, and building online companies has helped him rise to strategic lead for some of the largest online brands and content websites in the world. Bill believes that at the core of a website's success sits the value that website provides it users.
Click here to learn more about LinchpinSEO's Lead Linchpin.
