Introduction to SEO

Now it's time to talk about one of the biggest pillars of Internet marketing, SEO.

SEO stands for "search engine marketing," which basically means making sure that your website appears in search results. Of course, not all search results will show up at the top, so this is where keywords and targeting come into play.

Keywords are the words or phrases that people search for to find your site. When people shop online, they almost always start with Google. And when they search on Google, they first search for what they want. In many cases, they will search for something like "buy hats online".

If you can target this exact phrase and make sure that your page is at the top of the search results, you can not only reach the right demographic, but you can target them at the exact moment they are actually going to buy something. The same thing happens to people who are looking for information. "They might search for "how to lose weight after Christmas," or they might search for "fitness articles.

Again, simply making sure that your pages appear at the top of the list when people search for these keywords will bring more people to your site and increase your loyal following. As you can see, SEO has a great advantage in that it is easy to target and reach everyone, not just your own followers or people who belong to the same network.

The only problem is that SEO is more complex than the other marketing methods we have seen so far. That, and it's never guaranteed. This means that you can spend years doing SEO and use the world's largest SEO service and still not see any improvement. Let's take a look at why this is and how to maximize your chances of success.

How SEO works

To get to the top of Google, you need to understand how Google works, how Google determines which sites are valuable, and how you can manipulate these factors to get your site to the top.
Google uses "spiders" and "robots" to do its work. A spider is a small program that searches the web by following links.

Every time it finds a new website, it adds it to its huge index and evaluates the theme and quality of the site by looking at who is linking to the page, the layout of the page, and the theme of the content.

If you know exactly how Google's algorithm works, you can be sure that your site will appear at the top of the search results. However, since we don't know that, all we can do is make educated guesses and hope that it will show up at the top of Google's results.

SEO: Then and Now

When Google first became a mainstream search engine, the algorithm was very straightforward and well understood by marketers. At that time, we knew the following things

1. Google finds sites by following links to sites that are already in its index.
2. Google considers links to be testimonials. The more people that link to your site, the better it must be. 3.
3. Google tries to match your search terms with the content of your pages. 3. Google tries to match your search terms with the content of your pages. If you repeat the same phrase over and over again, you are more likely to rank for that term.

In the past, it was easy to manipulate Google to do your bidding. All you had to do was create a website with lots of content, repeat the same keywords over and over again, and get lots of other sites to link to you. It was literally a game of who could get to the top of Google the fastest.

Unfortunately, this method also led to some very bad habits. Stuffing" keywords into text, repeating the same phrase over and over again, etc. Paying for links. Also, stealing content and "spinning" it (swapping words to make them synonymous), Google's search results became dominated by spam.

So Google introduced smarter rules and algorithms to better regulate it. The updates to this system, known as "Penguin" and "Panda," shook up the Internet marketing community. The new Google is much smarter about finding content and focuses more on quality over quantity.

Here are a few examples of the changes.

1. Google now penalizes websites for "keyword stuffing". Generally, a density of 1-2% is recommended.
2. Google now favors and rewards long-form content.
3. Google penalizes sites that are associated with spam sites.
4. low quality links are worthless.
5. links from established authorities are much more meaningful. One link from Harvard University is worth a million links from spam sites. 6.
6. Google now understands synonyms and related terms and will look to see if you have written about a subject.
7. Google will penalize links from sites that are not related to yours.
8. Google will crack down on paid links.
9. Google will crack down hard on stolen or reworked content.
10. Google can now monitor the time spent on a website or page. If visitors stay for only a moment and leave, Google will determine that your site does not provide real value and you will be penalized.

This sudden change has caused many sites to be removed from Google altogether, dealing a huge blow to many businesses. As you can imagine, this caused quite a stir. What you need to remember, however, is that website owners are not the customers that Google is serving.

What Google does provide is users who use Google to find quality content. Therefore, Google's main goal is to ensure that the content it shares is relevant and interesting to the people searching for it. So how do you do good SEO?

The simple answer is to provide relevant and excellent content. By doing so, you will be in line with Google's goals. Therefore, every time Google makes a change, more people will eventually find your site. On the other hand, sites that "spam" or try to trick Google will be damaged every time Google updates.

The Latest SEO Best Practices

So how do you SEO a site in this day and age? The first thing you need to do is to put as much relevant content on your site as possible, because SEO and content marketing go hand in hand. Ideally, this content should be long-form (at least occasionally) and include links to other sites. Again, quality content for readers is the same as what Google wants to see.

Do some keyword research to find out what people are searching for and what you can target to get the ideal traffic. You can use Google's Keyword Planner () to find out how many people are searching for a particular term. However, make sure that the keywords you are searching for are not too competitive. Otherwise, you will be competing with many other sites, which is an impossible task.

As mentioned earlier, Google does not like to repeat the same key phrases over and over again. Rather, it is important to weave keywords into your content as naturally as possible while including synonyms and related terms. This is natural and does not distract the reader. From here, it's a matter of building links from quality, relevant sites.

You can tell which sites Google already trusts by looking at the sites that appear at the top of Google or in Google News. Google also prefers major brands with high recognition, and it prefers .edu and .org domains. It can be difficult to get links from these sites, but you can think of this as a kind of "degree of separation.

In other words, if you can't get a link from Harvard, then look for sites that have a link from Harvard and see if you can get a link from them! One of the best strategies for building links is what is called "guest posting". Here, I suggest basically contacting large blogs and writing content for free.

This content must be relevant, of high quality, and something they would want to publish. Rather than charging a writing fee, sign an agreement that you will post a link to your website in the text.

Local SEO

To avoid competing with the biggest names in your niche, focus on local SEO. Local SEO refers to SEO that puts local keywords in the forefront. For example, if you live in Santa Monica and own a beauty salon, you would search for "Santa Monica beauty salon" to rank high and build links from other local businesses.

In this way, it is much easier to rank first for certain search terms. Even if you have an international business, it is a good idea to start locally and build momentum locally before expanding your reach.

Finally.

Avoid anything that is spammy or manipulative. Avoid patterned stuff and encourage your visitors to share links online. what Google really wants to see is a site with lots of quality links.
One way to do this is to write link bait.

Link bait is useful, interesting, or shocking content that makes others want to link to it, add it to a discussion, or share it with their friends.

Avoid using only keywords in the anchor text; sometimes it is best to use "click here" or "this article". This will also give a more organic and natural impression, and Google will not think you are paying for links. Don't try to fool Google, keep Google's algorithm in mind and create quality content for your readers.