What is the most important step of SEO?

72 replies
  • SEO
  • |
I am interested to hear what other SEO professionals think the most important step of SEO is. I am casting my vote for Keyword research. What do you guys think?
#important #seo #step
  • Profile picture of the author manishagrawal
    Focusing on Content Marketing and Infographic. because today this is the main part of digital marketing.

    Share your Content in Social media network and Build Social Signal.
    Create Three Tire Back-link for your Website.
    Create Profile in Web 2.0 and post unique content
    Create informative Infographic and Publish in Blog and Social network.
    Update your Video in Youtube and optimize the Post

    These are the main SEO Technic today.
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    • Profile picture of the author tonic112
      Originally Posted by manishagrawal View Post

      Create Three Tire Back-link for your Website.
      what is this 3 tire (tier?) thing?
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  • Profile picture of the author Gopi Perumal
    Quality content, Valuable Backlinks, Sharing in Social Media, Video Marketing, Reviews, Make changes in website, Fresh Content for customers these are playing vital in seo today..
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  • Profile picture of the author Dharmi
    According to me all the steps in SEO are crucial and important but now a days people love reading useful content. Hence I would concentrate in researching and creating a great content that goes viral.
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  • Profile picture of the author webdevpro
    All the steps are important but they are done in an order like Keyword Research, Write Contents, Optimize Contents, Promotion etc. And if you skip even a single step it will not work the way you want it. So everything is important.
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  • Profile picture of the author DGSEO
    I'm definitely going to agree with most of the people in this thread--the most essential part to a good SEO strategy is creating fantastic content your customers will actually find useful. Useful content gets higher rankings and if your content reaches the first page of Google but everyone leaves after reading a few paragraphs you won't actually get new customers.

    Remember that while pageviews are great for making you feel good, they don't actually earn you any money. If you want to make money you need people to stick around, and that's only going to happen if you have high quality content.
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  • Profile picture of the author michaelkoehler92
    Here are the things which are important in my experience.
    Niche Research, Keyword Research, Content Creation, OnPage Seo, Brand Awareness

    If the above are done properly you will easily rank for long tails without any effort and with few links main keyword will jump up.
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  • Profile picture of the author axtonkong
    [DELETED]
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  • Profile picture of the author AriCooper
    1) Age & Authority of the money site domain. It's easier to rank a site that is more trusted by Google vs. a brand newly registered domain. Also, new domains that are registered for several years at a time.

    2) Controlling your backlinks with your own PBN (private blog network) and ensuring there is no foot print in your PBN. So you would want to host your sites on different ips, and register them under different names.

    3) Maintaining a solid anchor text profile (don't use the same keyword for all of the links, make it natural)

    4) Money site on-page SEO (foundation of a house)

    5) Good, engaging content, to keep your bounce rate low. If your visitors are finding your site via x-keyword and not immediately leaving after landing (bounce rate), this tells Google your site is relevant to that keyword. If people click on your site, and then immediately leave... that's going to hurt your SEO.

    6) Remembering what SEO is: Traffic, Branding. So have a solid funnel on the money site to capture leads, sales, or whatever it is you're trying to do.
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    • Profile picture of the author onegoodman
      Patience. SEO is a time consuming process that requires a lot of efforts.
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    • Profile picture of the author DABK
      1. So, according to you, the most important step of SEO is to purchase an Aged & Authority domain? And register it for several years at once?

      C'mon, man!

      2.Can you not create a PBN of good sites? Shouldn't you do some keyword research before you create backlinks? 4. If this is the foundation, then, you're saying that the most important step of SEO is this, not #1?

      5. What if I have an affiliate site or an adwords site? The more of them that go directly to another site, the better for me. Plus, as I said before, how does Google know that someone left a site because they just got a call from their girlfriend, a strong urge to use the bathroom or because they did not like the page they landed on?

      6. SEO is not traffic or branding. It is optimizing web pages so that search engines show them high up in the ranks, which leads to getting traffic and has nothing to do with branding.

      Just saying.

      OP, keyword research it is, for me. Unless I look at SEO as part of marketing, then I say it's product/audience research, and keyword research is second.
      Originally Posted by AriCooper View Post

      1) Age & Authority of the money site domain. It's easier to rank a site that is more trusted by Google vs. a brand newly registered domain. Also, new domains that are registered for several years at a time.


      2) Controlling your backlinks with your own PBN (private blog network) and ensuring there is no foot print in your PBN. So you would want to host your sites on different ips, and register them under different names.

      3) Maintaining a solid anchor text profile (don't use the same keyword for all of the links, make it natural)

      4) Money site on-page SEO (foundation of a house)

      5) Good, engaging content, to keep your bounce rate low. If your visitors are finding your site via x-keyword and not immediately leaving after landing (bounce rate), this tells Google your site is relevant to that keyword. If people click on your site, and then immediately leave... that's going to hurt your SEO.

      6) Remembering what SEO is: Traffic, Branding. So have a solid funnel on the money site to capture leads, sales, or whatever it is you're trying to do.
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      • Profile picture of the author AriCooper
        I didn't say you had to buy a domain. Let's say you're working with a client domain that has been around for over a decade. That's going to be easier to rank over the client who just bought his or her domain this year.

        And yes... SEO is traffic and it is branding. Thats the two main benefits of search engine traffic. If you're number one by Google, your trusted by traffic.

        If you're number one for a lot of your industries keywords, people searching see you everywhere...you're now building a brand.

        I've done seo consulting for quite some time. I know what I am talking about.

        And my numbers weren't in this particular order, they are 6 very important things to understand.

        Good luck in your endeavors.
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        • Profile picture of the author DABK
          My answers in bold below:

          Originally Posted by AriCooper View Post

          I didn't say you had to buy a domain. Let's say you're working with a client domain that has been around for over a decade. That's going to be easier to rank over the client who just bought his or her domain this year. Not necessarily.

          And yes... SEO is traffic and it is branding. Thats the two main benefits of search engine traffic. If you're number one by Google, your trusted by traffic. No, SEO is not traffic and it is not branding: it's a 'tool,' a method to get traffic and branding. Seems like splitting hairs, I know, but if you split these hairs, you end up further.

          If you're number one for a lot of your industries keywords, people searching see you everywhere...you're now building a brand.

          I've done seo consulting for quite some time. I know what I am talking about.

          And my numbers weren't in this particular order, they are 6 very important things to understand. I know. But you did not answer the OP's question: What is the most important step of SEO? (There I go again, splitting hairs, huh?)

          Good luck in your endeavors.
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  • Profile picture of the author luciesmazanska
    Essential Steps for SEO
    Keyword Research
    Good Content (Fresh Content,Quality content)
    Apply best On page Seo on site.
    Build Links (Valuable Backlinks)
    Be Social ( Share your Content in Social media network)
    Signature
    ★★★★★
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    What is the most important step of SEO?
    Starting...
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  • Profile picture of the author AmarInfotech
    I think Quality content is the main part of SEO. Also, You must have pure backlinks to your website.
    You can write a quality blog and apply backlinks to your site. By this, You can rank for those keywords in which you apply link to your website.
    Signature

    AmarInfotech is an iPhone application development company in India which allows mobile app development for the global clients.

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  • Profile picture of the author pinakin
    I think building backlinks are the most important step in SEO.
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  • Profile picture of the author Neeraj Devarajan
    Could even start with On page factors.domain name, Optimize your Domain name, Structured data, Meta Descriptions, title, Sitemaps, Robot Texts, Indexing, Keywords etc,. above all the content should be highly informative or relevant.
    All Off page SEO factors like Backlinks, Social Medias etc are also important but unless the Website performance is not adequate no matter how much SEO you do, its not gonna be of use.
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  • Profile picture of the author MidelSunRise
    Yes content play very important role but if your article 1500 words or upto 1500 that would be great because in 1500 words you can easily explain everything and users can ready with interest. But only content not enough , Content structure also play very important role keep in mind your keywords well fit in your content , you can get idea keyword planner but you can also download cvs file in google webmaster and check queries and that is very easy to get idea about your relevant keywords .
    so check queries your website in webmaster after write a well structure article many chances you can get natural backlink for your sites
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  • Profile picture of the author decenthasoo
    Simple :

    On - Page SEO , More Contents on the website more than 1000 words.
    Off - page SEO, Remember don't try to over optimized website. Use natural anchor text ratio.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ross Adams
    You can earn money of affiliate marketing. To start this method you will need a blog or website, little HTML and CSS knowledge.
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  • Profile picture of the author domain finder
    I believe that an effective SEO campaign does not exactly equate to a single most important step but rather on how effective you laid out your SEO plan and carry it out accordingly. We have to be mindful that there are things that goes hand in hand.
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  • Profile picture of the author Brian Driscoll
    I take a different approach than most when looking at the most important aspects of SEO. First, I think we have to understand some of the subdivisions of SEO:

    1. Your Content

    This is anything from your home page, about page, blogs, videos, articles, etc. If you don't create relevant content that matters for your customers, you aren't going to rank well. All the jerry-rigging and SEO tricks in the world won't create a highly-ranked sites.

    SEO experts rather have a website converting at 50% at the 5th ranking than a website converting at 1% at #1.

    In the end, that low converting site will get booted, because factors like dwelling on page, pageviews, and more are indicative of user satisfaction, and Google wants nothing more than to satisfy its users.

    2. Technical Bits

    How do you link your pages together. Do you use website silos? Do you find broken links and replace them? Are the 301s and 302s placed correctly. IS your website fast?

    So even if you have great content, the technical bits can hammer down your ranking.

    3. Community

    SEO is a lot about how other sites, locally, or niche-based, interact with your website. Are they giving you back links? Are you getting social shares from them?

    Also email marketing can be considered an SEO contributor because your subs can give an initial boost to your content when you publish it.

    So anyways, community can be considered secondary, but very important.

    This is what I would consider being the most important:

    Your content is key. If people don't find your website useful, then you are going to have to change some things to get it relevant. Without relevance, you have no chance. But once you get it, the other stuff becomes grunt work and if it gets too confusing, hire a technical guy.
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  • Profile picture of the author Danny Cutts
    I binned off doing all set on my blogs and it was pretty much the best thing I have done.

    I just focus on great content now and share it on face ache and twitter....

    The best advice I would give about seo is give the searcher what they are looking for....
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  • For me the most important part would probably be the content and appropriate on page SEO, because no matter how much you time you spend on the aspects outside your page but the site itself does not give value or service, then you will have a problem getting the views you are aiming for or conversion of the leads you already have.
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  • Profile picture of the author chrislopez
    Hello,

    Basically today's SEO is based on 3 pillars i,e,

    1. Keywords
    2. Content
    3. Link Building

    without these it is very difficult to rank a website in search engines.
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  • Profile picture of the author libel lusasso
    I will not dare say this is the most important aspect of SEO, but it surely helps a lot. Social media. Once you are in it and you do it right, you will be able to capture audience.
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  • Profile picture of the author Danny Review
    I think best important is your content website and share your content in Social media network and Build Social Signal
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  • Profile picture of the author shimu6767
    Banned
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author Danny Cutts
      Originally Posted by shimu6767 View Post

      SEO is the platfrom here always make a different things need to carry.
      come on give us brits a clue in what that meant
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      • Profile picture of the author yukon
        Banned
        Originally Posted by Danny Cutts View Post

        come on give us brits a clue in what that meant
        Hold it up to a mirror and it says REDRUM.
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        • Profile picture of the author DABK
          And if you hold a mirror to that mirror? And another mirror to...

          Originally Posted by yukon View Post

          Hold it up to a mirror and it says REDRUM.
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  • Profile picture of the author Suma Parvin
    I think Unique content writing and posting is one of the major factor of seo.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rennell Garrett
    Keyword research and domain according to that keyword is most important. Everyone says content is king so that is also important but considering pages with varying content on first page of google, content is somewhat overhyped I guess?
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  • Profile picture of the author Drake Nicholson
    For me , all the steps are important . But If I have to choose one I will choose to have a good content . Because people now adays like to read . So if you have a good content many people will like it,
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  • Profile picture of the author TouchDownAsia
    Keywords research is very important part of SEO and Keywords plays vital role in any webpage and website.Blogging with unique contents and with keywords are very effective for SEO .
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  • Profile picture of the author johnnywinto
    Quite simply staying on topic.

    The writing of content rich web pages which is topic orientated. Because even before you get into the intricacies of SEO, if Google cannot decide what your web page is attempting to promote then you are going nowhere.

    Be on topic, be engaging, be expansive and above all, write naturally. Update your content regularly. Also, ensure your website is mobile compliant.

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  • Profile picture of the author prakashmalhotra
    ON Page is the most crucial part of SEO without which a website can't be ranked in Google easily. Unless & until, the ON Page of your website is rectified as per the algorithms of Google, OFF Page won't work a bit as well & it will be a waste of time for you to make tens & thousands of backlinks for raising its rank continuously.
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  • Profile picture of the author sreejanniyogi
    Keyword research + Content Quality are the most important IMO
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  • Profile picture of the author pontom
    1. Understanding your audience
    2. Content quality
    3. Smart PR
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  • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
    Yep, it is keyword research. Without knowing what people are searching for, how many are searching, how difficult the competition is, you are just shooting in the dark.
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    StoreCoach.com - FREE TRAINING - Learn How to Build Your Own eCommerce Website
    My PROVEN ecommerce process, as seen on: Fox Business News, the NY Times & Flippa
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  • Profile picture of the author netbull
    SEO is all about learning and updating everyday. Which means you should be aware what is happening near you in website marketing and all of about promoting business online. So make an effort to update yourself with some other blogs, forums and sites working with SEO and learn them.My best wishes that you should become a search engine optimization expert.
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  • I would say market research. Once you know your market well, then all other factors come easily- like keyword research, product research, content writing, and other marketing campaigns.
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  • Profile picture of the author bjo7o4
    The important steps in SEO are -

    1.Best keyword research : It helps to find targeted visitors

    2.Content quality : It helps to gain the trust of the visitors & make them interested to back your site.

    3.Competitors analysis : It helps to estimate the position among other related sites.
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  • Profile picture of the author netgoogle
    what about the games content ?

    can I write more than 300 word or just get the keyword in content

    thank
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  • Profile picture of the author umakant13
    @ yukon great punch brother the most important step is to give a kick start to your strategy
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    • Profile picture of the author DABK
      Someone help me understand:

      The question the OP posted requires one item. (Most important step means 1 step, 1 item.)

      Lots of people post answers that have 2 or more items. This is what I need help understanding: Are those people not reading what the OP posted? They read all the OP wrote but they do not understand what it means? Or they read and understood but have some hidden agenda that requires them to give lame answers?
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      • Profile picture of the author mich800
        Originally Posted by DABK View Post

        Someone help me understand:

        The question the OP posted requires one item. (Most important step means 1 step, 1 item.)

        Lots of people post answers that have 2 or more items. This is what I need help understanding: Are those people not reading what the OP posted? They read all the OP wrote but they do not understand what it means? Or they read and understood but have some hidden agenda that requires them to give lame answers?
        I have not been here in awhile. But it seems like I feel this way everytime I visit the SEO Forum.

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  • Profile picture of the author dipika13
    On page activity: Meta Tags and Keyword Density
    Off page activity: Blogging, Classified submission, and Article submission
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  • quality backllinks such as forum posting,blog commenting,web 2.0 is the important for seo.yeah you are also right without good keyword result won't better. thanks.
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  • Profile picture of the author jessicamartin12
    Hi,
    Today, SEO plays a great role in the success of the business. For the best SEO results, it is important to follow step by step process

    Keyword research
    On-site optimization
    Create quality content
    Off page optimization
    Share content on social media sites

    Thanks!!
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  • Profile picture of the author Zarine Khan
    Get Increase your web traffic important SEO steps:

    - Use Unique and Quality-base Content.(Around 500 to 700 words)
    - For your site related targeted keyword use.
    - On-Page Optimization for your site promotional policy.
    - Properly apply link building activity for your site.(Generate more backlink for do-follow and high domain authority site submission).

    Thanks.
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  • Profile picture of the author Muhammad Arsalan
    The most important step for SEO is Keyword Research first and then Content. I agree creative content does matter but it would be great if you adjust keywords in content to make it search engine friendly. Visitors will definitely read the complete content but it depends on the way you write.
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  • Profile picture of the author cybernext
    Well... it is a package of processes but if you ask me for any single process I will go for optimized and interesting contents.
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  • Profile picture of the author bangthetable
    Most Important step in SEO is
    *Having website with great user experience and search engine & mobile friendly website.
    *Website should have the content on home page with minimum 400 words optimized by targeted keywords, images, ALT tag and major ON Page factors.
    *Create Google Analytics and Search Console for your website to track the website status and traffic status.
    *Add sitemap XML fild and Robots.txt file on your website.
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  • Profile picture of the author Vivaselu
    First it's Keyword Research, next good content -> accessibility, Build Link
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  • Profile picture of the author manojobject
    SEO is the time-consuming task.

    But simply you need to optimize the factors that are below

    On Page factors
    (Title tag, Description, Keywords, Speed of site, Image, Heading, Site Structure , Navigation, URL Structure, Internal Linking, Outbound Links etc.)

    Off PageE factors
    (Social Bookmarking, Social activities, Social shares and likes, Forum Commenting, Articles Submission, Blog Posting, Blog Comment etc.)
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  • Profile picture of the author rajguru1234
    Hi,
    hamlet truong
    As always, content matters the most. Develop unique content that solves some real world problems. Even for common topics, you can add value by providing unique content.
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  • Profile picture of the author Olivian
    All parts are important for rank your websites in Search Engine.

    *Keyword research
    *On-page optimization
    *Off-page optimization
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  • Profile picture of the author HealthExpert
    Each and every step is important while doing SEO, you can start by order like Keyword Research, Write Contents, Optimize Contents, Promotion etc.
    There are many ways to improve your rankinmg.
    You can refer, MOZ, Kissmetrics, SEO techniques blogs for your these questions.
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  • Profile picture of the author prakashmalhotra
    ON Page optimization of a website is the crucial factor of SEO which holds major importance when you are about to start SEO for a website. Other than that keyword research & OFF Page SEO are also important for augmenting the rank of a website in Google search engine.
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  • Profile picture of the author FRK
    Hi Warriors,
    I have a blog relating to studies.It is better ? and guide me how to improve and maximize its SEO. check it:
    Studied Modes
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  • Profile picture of the author smithrose79
    1st choose a good topics ,then keyword research.Because keyword help to gain place in rank 1.Then article written and others on page work and off page .But keyword is much need.For more ...
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  • Profile picture of the author guyfromnb
    I would say, focusing on easy to rank long tail keywords.
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  • Profile picture of the author AndyBlackSEO
    People saying GREAT CONTENT... well, that's a given.

    If I had to emphasize one element I'd say the 'title'. Getting your title wrong compared to getting your title right can make a MASSIVE difference with rankings.
    Signature
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    ... Instant backlinks that can get you results within 24-72hrs.
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  • Profile picture of the author josoftech
    Yes Keyword research is a important factor but you can't ignore other Onpage activities and content promotion (marketing).

    Originally Posted by hamlet truong View Post

    I am interested to hear what other SEO professionals think the most important step of SEO is. I am casting my vote for Keyword research. What do you guys think?
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  • The basics are you first pick a keyword or subject through keyword research.
    Next you go to WikiPedia and search on the keyword/subject
    Next pick out all the underlined words or phrases in the WikiPedia article.

    Once you have a list of terms from WikiPedia, you can then go about writing the article and apply those terms throughout.
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  • Profile picture of the author Don Mann
    When working with SEO, remember cost and keywords ( make the key word longer ) to get a cheaper cost. Also, you can change geographical areas too.If, your looking to do a general area,instead of a broad area.This will help with cost too.
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  • The basics are you first pick a keyword or subject through keyword research.
    Next you go to WikiPedia and search on the keyword/subject
    Next pick out all the underlined words or phrases in the WikiPedia article.

    Once you have a list of terms from WikiPedia, you can then go about writing the article and apply those terms throughout.
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  • Profile picture of the author akashvajpayee
    1. More relevant content at Titel, H1 and H2
    2. Avoid duplicate content
    3. Use link masking to include links google shouldnt follow.
    4. Make sure you have a site map
    5. Careful with canonical meta tags
    6. Meta tag images. Same text as on the page, otherwise google punishes you
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