The Simple Approach To SEO Google Wished You Knew

8 replies
  • SEO
  • |
Just like with marketing, SEO isn’t something you can ‘tack on’ after the fact. It starts with your product and unique selling proposition (USP). Think about it. If you have something the market not only wants, but raves about, you’ll have your marketing and SEO taken care of for you.

How so? It’s because where you rank in Google is still largely determined by the number of backlinks your site has (i.e. off-page SEO). Not just any backlinks however. They must be from the highest quality sites on the net and the only way these sites will talk about your business, is if it’s truly unique and worthy of attention. This all comes back to your product, brand and USP. What makes you different than your competitors?

Sure, you have your on-page SEO best practices as outlined by Google themselves here, but high quality backlinks still play the biggest part in determining your rank in the Google search results.

How do I know this? It helps to understand what made Google different from other search engines to begin with. Counting backlinks was what originally made Google’s search algorithm different from their competitors.

You could say it was their USP. It allowed Google to provide higher quality, more relevant search results. Counting and analyzing backlinks is at the heart of Google’s search algorithm and therefore is not likely to go anywhere anytime soon.

Also, let’s forget about search engines for a second. The traffic you can get directly from popular sites tweeting, sharing and linking back to you could very well be just as valuable if not more valuable than the Google traffic itself.

If you try using spammy, short-term SEO tactics to promote a sub-par product, you’ll soon find any high search rankings with Google to be fleeting. You’re not adding true value to the marketplace, and you’re not adding value to Google’s search results so why would you expect anything less?

Instead, is it not easier to focus your energies on creating real value? I understand in the past, technical SEO was a shortcut to profits. You didn’t have to create true value, you could just feed the search engine spiders what they wanted and all was well in the world. This is no longer the case if you desire a long term business.

It all comes down to understanding Google’s business. Google is in the business of providing the highest quality search results to it’s visitors. If you help them do their job by delivering a quality product or service that truly solves a problem in a unique way for a given market, they’ll reward you with great rankings in the search engines. Ok, it may not be a foregone conclusion, but it’s the best chances you have at winning the search engine game.

Cheers,
Steve Longoria
#approach #backlinks #google #knew #marketing #seo #simple #wished
  • Profile picture of the author Beardo
    In short, you are saying "content is king", right ?
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9993987].message }}
    • Originally Posted by Beardo View Post

      In short, you are saying "content is king", right ?
      Nice TL;DR, there

      A client of mine just had an article they wrote 18 months ago referenced in a newsletter from a big player in their industry yesterday. Their trafficpeaked from an average of 50 unique visits in a day to 1,090. Content if most definitely king in this instance - so long as you don't mind waiting for for the coronation!
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9994084].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Steve L
      Originally Posted by Beardo View Post

      In short, you are saying "content is king", right ?
      In general terms, yes. Just saying "content is king" doesn't always help people though.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9995010].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author alvinchua91
    Content is king for SEO --> That's the biggest rehashed B.S. ever.

    It's just basic politeness and netiquette to only write good content. Stop associating good content with magically ranking. It's not sufficient in tough niches.

    Look:
    1) What lazy ppl think is SEO:
    - Write great content
    - Magic happens and they get ranked #1 on Google!

    2) What successful people online know:
    - Great content is only the starting point. If you don't have great content, why are you even doing business?
    - White hat backlinks from highly relevant authority sites + genuine social media signals = key to SEO.
    - Once again, great content is absolutely necessary for great SEO results, but with it alone, you cannot achieve success especially in a competitive niche.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9996007].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author nettiapina
      Originally Posted by alvinchua91 View Post

      It's just basic politeness and netiquette to only write good content. Stop associating good content with magically ranking. It's not sufficient in tough niches.
      Agreed. You need to promote and hustle to get anywhere. "Only SEO" may work for some, but it's likely that it's going to be a very long road.

      Originally Posted by alvinchua91 View Post

      - White hat backlinks from highly relevant authority sites + genuine social media signals = key to SEO.
      I've got no clue what the word "genuine" is supposed to mean here, but "social media signals" have nothing to do with SEO. Google doesn't know that someone liked your post on Facebook. Twitter is notoriously hard to index.

      If you're talking about nofollow backlinks from social media services I don't see any reason to use silly names for them. Call them nofollow links from social media services.

      Promoting your stuff in social media is usually a good idea, of course. You need to get your links and name out there. But if that's what you're after, don't call it social signals. That'd be just confusing.
      Signature
      Links in signature will not help your SEO. Not on this site, and not on any other forum.
      Who told me this? An ex Google web spam engineer.

      What's your excuse?
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9996747].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author alvinchua91
        Meaning don't buy likes etc for your posting. And Google + is also a social media platform in case you forgotten about it
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9997458].message }}
        • Profile picture of the author nettiapina
          Originally Posted by alvinchua91 View Post

          Meaning don't buy likes etc for your posting. And Google + is also a social media platform in case you forgotten about it
          So you're talking about something along the lines of getting your Google+ post to rank, marketing to your Google+ circles, using the number of followers or likes/+1s as "social proof", using +1s in some other way, and/or getting nofollow backlinks. I'm not sure why you'd want use "social signals" to muddy your message.

          You can talk about these things without resorting to this wishy-washy mumbo-jumbo. And you should, because much of "social signals" is superstitious wishful thinking. At least today, and at least in the way that it's used.
          Signature
          Links in signature will not help your SEO. Not on this site, and not on any other forum.
          Who told me this? An ex Google web spam engineer.

          What's your excuse?
          {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9997555].message }}
  • [DELETED]
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9996904].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Steve L
      Originally Posted by Husnain Meerzadeh View Post

      But on page SEO retains its importance for better ranking in SERPs, Right?
      There are best practices for on-page SEO, I link to them in the article above, but you shouldn't be chasing tricks. Incorporating any "SEO tricks" is a surefire way to get penalized by Google in the medium to long term.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9997434].message }}

Trending Topics