While every search engine optimizer has their different theories and methodologies when it comes to optimizing a website, a number of implementations are nearly universally hailed as necessary when it comes to SEO. Of course, as is par for the course when it comes to this industry, there are always going to be naysayers when it comes to nearly anything, but the following tips have as close to a positive consensus that SEO providers can come to:
1 – Consistency is King
Regularly posting unique articles or blog posts is incredibly beneficial to the SEO efforts of a website. Not only will search engine spiders see that a site is actively maintained, but consistently updated sites receive more visits from spiders as a whole.
Even if a website is designed to be a static informational domain, routinely updating code and editing and “fixing” the site’s content will have a similar effect.
2 – Content Matters
As search engines strive to bring users the best possible content for their search terms, websites that offer highly relevant content without a flood of keywords are tagged as valuable to viewers. The easiest way to use this notion to one’s advantage is to simply write the site’s copy in conversational language and let search engines make the relevant connections from there.
3 – High Authority Incoming Links
One of the more difficult elements of SEO to control, receiving inbound links from popular sites will yield a massive boost in internet rankings. This is especially true when a high authority niche site is contextually relevant to the site being linked to. That being the case, SEOs should be wary to not blindly attempt to receive links from high-authority pages as some are known to be spammy in nature and can actually hinder or hurt SEO development for a new site.
Take care when coming across promises like this one:
4 – Link to Relevant Sites
To some, it seems counterintuitive to lead site viewers to other domains, especially when the only other relevant sites out there are direct or indirect competition -direct re sales, indirect re viewers. Nevertheless, search engine algorithms have been designed to see these outbound links as proof that a site is referencing factual and reliable material.
5 – Optimize Load Times
People hate when a website takes too long to load and, in those cases, the back button on a browser will usually get clicked before the site is even fully displayed. This piece of human nature is pretty obvious, and search engine providers realize that as well. In response to that universal impatience, Google, Yahoo!, Bing and other search providers penalize slow-loading pages swiftly and harshly. Most site-building tools will help keep bloated code to a minimum and ensure faster loading.
6 – URL Control
URLs should be semantically setup so important keywords appear in the address. The keyword or phrase can appear in folders or the filename (i.e. .html, .php, .jpg, etc) but should not come across as spammy. Two examples of good URL control for a site looking to rank for the phrase “best basketball shoes”:
http://www.example.com/basketball-shoes/best-of-2014.htm
http://www.example.com/blog/best-basketball-shoes-this-season.php
Conversely, “spammy” URL control would look like this:
http://www.example.com/best-basketball-shoes/find-best-basketball-shoes.html
Good URL control also has the added benefit of being more memorable to users, which may lead to direct return visits to a specific page.
7 – Important Tag Elements
No matter what, website owners should take care to have certain tags on their sites as these small additions can have a large impact on both search- and click-ability. The most important of these (after HTML, HEAD, TITLE, BODY and so on) are the META tags for keywords and descriptions as well as the ALT=”” within IMG tags. The description offered in META tags is what appears on search engines underneath the page’s title. The ALT text on IMG tags helps rank on the heavily-used image lookup for the big search engines.
