5 Steps To A Successful SEO Campaign

Is your SEO campaign delivering the results that you expect? Or are your campaigns underperforming? There are several things that you can do to make sure that search engine optimization works for your website.

There can be several reasons why your SEO campaign isn't a success yet:

Step 1: set the right goals

If your website doesn't have many high rankings yet then you cannot expect that Google will display your site on the first result page for keywords such as "mp3" or other very competitive one-word keywords. 

You have to start with more targeted keyphrases first. Optimize your pages for many different keywords with lower competition. The more high rankings your website has for keywords with lower competition, the more likely it is that your website will also get high rankings for more competitive keywords that belong to the same topic. 

It's like running a marathon. You have to run smaller distances first before you can run the full 26 miles and 385 yards.

Step 2: be serious about your success

Search engine optimization isn't set-and-forget. It takes some time to make things happen. Search engine optimization is an investment into your company and it should be treated like that. 

If all you do to 'promote' your website is to submit it to search engines then you won't be successful. You have to invest time and effort into the optimization of your site. Tools can help you to save a lot of this time and effort but you still have to work with your site.

Step 3: focus on the right elements and get the basics right

Some webmasters are obsessed with the length of the title tag. Others submit their website every few days to search engines. Other webmasters insist that a particular part of their website links must use the rel=nofollow attribute. 

You don't have to chase the latest search engine optimization trend. These trend topics usually make the difference between position 8 and position 9. If your website isn't listed on the first result page at all, you have to get the basics right. 

The most important factors that will get your website on Google's first result page are optimized web pages with good content and good backlinks.

Step 4: choose the right keywords

Keywords are very important. If you choose the wrong keywords, you will waste a lot of time and money. 

The best keywords for your website are not the keywords with the biggest search volume. The best keywords also aren't the keywords that will boost your ego and it's also not the "obvious" keywords that will work best for SEO. 

The best keywords for SEO are the keywords that deliver targeted visitors who will buy. It does not matter if a keyword has thousands of searches. If none of the visitors who find your site through that keyword will buy, then this keyword won't do you any good.

Step 5: get the right kind of backlinks

It's not necessary to have thousands of backlinks if you want to get high rankings on Google. Your website just needs the right backlinks. Automatic links from link building schemes don't work. Actually, that kind of links can even get you in trouble with Google. 

You must get the right kind of backlinks to succeed. Use professional link management tools  to get the best possible links to your site.

Search engine optimization can contribute greatly to the success of your website. It's important that you do the right things in the right order and that you focus on the right elements.

Seo Wealth Building: You Have To Do The Right Things

Search engine optimization is very similar to wealth building. If you do the wrong things and listen to the wrong people, you might lose everything and you might be left with nothing. This is a lesson that many people learned after Google's Penguin update.

1. It's important to know that time is a factor

If you are young and invest your first dollars then you won't become a millionaire overnight. It takes some time to build your wealth and if you invest regularly, you will earn more than people who invest only once. If you invest too little, you won't get the same results as people who are serious about building wealth.

Search engine optimization works exactly like that. If your website is young, then it will have only a few rankings. You have to optimize the pages and the backlinks of your website and you have to do it regularly. The more time you invest in optimizing your site, the sooner you will get results.

2. Do first things first

When you start investing, you cannot participate in the big deals that require a lot of money. It's the same with SEO. If your website doesn't have many rankings yet, then it doesn't make sense to target very competitive keywords such as "mp3" or even "credit cards".

The big players in your niche have the high rankings for these keywords and they have several advantages (more backlinks, more visitors, more trusted by Google, etc.).

Start with much targeted keyword phrases that consist of 3-4 words. It is much easier to get high rankings for these keyphrases and you will also get higher conversion rates with very targeted keyphrases.

The more rankings your website has, the easier it will be to get high rankings for more competitive keywords. Then you can start to compete with the big guys for the more general keywords.

3. You have to be careful (the wrong things are very risky!)

There are many people who promise to make you rich overnight. Others promise incredible profits. The more aggressively you invest, the more likely it is that you will lose everything.

It's the same with SEO. If you use aggressive (and often shady) SEO methods then you put your website at risk. Aggressive tactics often deliver great results for a short period. Unfortunately, all of them also lead to massive problems with Google in the long run.

After Google's recent Penguin update, many websites have been banned from Google because they used spammy SEO tactics that promised quick results.

If you see offers like "thousands of backlinks with no work" or "fully automated SEO solution" then you should be very careful. In both finance and SEO, there are many snake-oil salesmen. Don't fall for them.

Getting your website on Google's first result page isn't rocket science. It requires some work but it is possible if you do the right things in the right order. Use search engine optimization methods that are approved by search engines to make sure that your website gets lasting results.

Google releases two new ranking algorithm updates

It seems that Google releases a new ranking algorithm update every week. Last week, Google’s Matt Cutts announced that there is another algorithm update that targets web spam. What does this mean for your rankings and how must you react?

Google doesn't like web spam

“In the next few days, we’re launching an important algorithm change targeted at webspam. The change will decrease rankings for sites that we believe are violating Google’s existing quality guidelines. We’ve always targeted webspam in our rankings, and this algorithm represents another improvement in our efforts to reduce webspam and promote high quality content.While we can’t divulge specific signals because we don’t want to give people a way to game our search results and worsen the experience for users, our advice for webmasters is to focus on creating high quality sites that create a good user experience and employ white hat SEO methods instead of engaging in aggressive webspam tactics.”

Things that Google considers spam

Google’s announcement shows two examples. The first example is a page that is stuffed with hundreds of keywords in a comma separated list.

Google doesn’t want that type of pages in the search results. The second example is a page that has normal text. However, the text contains keyword optimized links that are totally unrelated to the surrounding text.

Other things that Google considers spam are linking schemes, misleading redirects or purposeful duplicate content.

Google says that the right kind of SEO is fine

Many people confuse search engine optimization with spamming. Spamming and SEO are two totally different things. Google’s latest announcement also contains a statement about “white hat” SEO:

"Effective search engine optimization can make a site more crawlable and make individual pages more accessible and easier to find. [...]

 'White hat' search engine optimizer often improve the usability of a site, help create great content, or make sites faster, which is good for both users and search engines."

How to react to Google's latest ranking algorithm

Google released two algorithm updates: a Panda update on April, 19th and the update explained above on April, 24th. If your web page rankings dropped on April, 19th, then you have to improve the quality of your web pages.

If your page rankings dropped on April, 24th, then you have to remove all spam elements from your web pages. If you think that your website was flagged by mistake, you can inform Google through this form.

Only use white-hat SEO methods if you want to be on the safe side

Use shady SEO methods and Google might penalize your website. If you want to be on the safe side, only use white-hat SEO methods.

How To Judge The Quality Of A Backlinks

You want lasting results when you build links to your website. It does not make sense to invest your time in search engine optimization methods that are just a flash-in-the-pan.

Note: PageRank is not so important 

How do you judge the quality of a website? What is a good website and from which web pages should you get links?

1. The PageRank of a website is not that important

Many webmasters only want to get backlinks from pages with a particular PageRank. While you can use this method, it is usually a waste of time and it makes link building more difficult than it really is. 

If a website has an overall high quality then it does not matter if the page with the link to your website has a low Google PageRank:

• If a high quality website adds a new page, the new page will have an initial PageRank of zero. Nevertheless, the page can still be very good.

• A page that has a PageRank of zero today can have a high PageRank tomorrow.

If only pages with a high PageRank had a chance, it wouldn't be possible to get new pages in Google’s result page. Experience shows that new pages appear in Google’s results every day.

In addition, the PageRank that Google publicly displays is not the actual PageRank that Google uses in its algorithm and the PageRank value can be manipulated.

2. Common sense leads to lasting results

You do not need special metrics to judge the quality of a web page. When you find a web page that could link to your site, ask yourself the following questions:

• Does the linking page look good to the average web surfer?
• Does the page have interesting content?
• Is the content somewhat related to my website?
• Does it make sense if the web page links to your site?

If you can answer all questions with “yes” then you should try to get a backlink from that page. It doesn’t matter if that page has a low PageRank.

3. Give Google what they want and your website will succeed

Google tries to imitate common sense with its algorithm. If you use common sense to build your links and follow the tips above, you make sure that the backlinks to your website will count in all future updates of Google’s algorithm.