Search Engine Optimization

When talking with small or medium sized businesses clients one of the common questions is "why do I need to need to add new content to our website"? In the early days of business websites it was common to repurpose your printed brochure, add some filler, grab some stock photos and call it a day. However as Google enters its 15th year, search engines and the end users have become much more sophisticated, and business websites have a much higher hurdle to clear to rank for competitive terms.

Google's recent ranking advice is almost accurate. There is a big difference between creating a site that people want to use and share and creating a site that people do use and share.

There are many options to consider when a company chooses which marketing strategy to use when advertizing their website; PPC, Social Media, Banner Ads, and Link Building are all in the mix. Sound strategies use a combination of the aforementioned resources in varying degrees, yet a focused effort on improving natural search traffic is the most important form of optimization for a website.

Today’s link building is a very different process than what it used to be. In a post-penguin world, Search Engine Marketers (SEMs) cannot drop a healthy portion of their marketing budget on snatching up links from websites across the web and expect their websites to climb to the top of the Google Search Results. SEMs must be extremely careful with which sites they intentionally build relationships with. Even though links are at the core of the ranking algorithm, Google is showing a weighted preference for “fresh”, or current, material. There’s no way to get fresher links than social media. If you’ve already attempted gaining social links and your site still isn’t ranking, your site may be falling short on other core values that search providers are scrutinizing.

You've likely heard of keyword density if your company has had a presence on the internet for a few years. Keyword density was a core strategy that many webmasters used to build and market their websites shortly after the internet's inception.   Now, though, keyword density is not a priority on a SEO's checklist and should not be a core component of a website's strategy.