When the online marketer goes to bed at night, it’s the ticking of mouse clicks that he counts to fall asleep. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the name of the game in online marketing, and what a brutal game it is.
What works to draw users in one day fails the next, keeping marketers on their toes. There are a few practical, simple rules that online marketers can use, though, in order to elevate their ranking with the much feared, more revered search engines, and to sail the cyber seas successfully.
Repetition (Not Redundancy) of Keywords
There is a huge difference between repetition and redundancy. Repetition involves measured use of the same words. Redundancy is when these words are too often repeated to the point where the quality of writing is compromised. As a general rule, keywords should be repeated two or three times in the content of pages that are relatively short in text length, and four to six times on pages of longer content. It is also imperative to drop those keyword bombs within the first paragraph of text, or within the initial 50 words, because often early placement is recognized to indicate relevance.
Employ Variant Page Content
The key to drawing readers and customers in will always be good content. You can use every trick in the book to direct users to your page, but if they are bored with what they find there, there will be no clicks to count. Quality content is particularly important when trying to crack the often ambiguous Google search result gold status. Since Google generally aims for intuitiveness, your content and keywords must sync with Google’s.
Dig for Quality Content
In order to find content of quality caliber, you sometimes have to excavate it. Content that has already established a record of generating social shares and backlinks can direct that flow into your river. This is of particular importance on a site like Facebook, which has content coming out of its figurative ears. For instance, LifeLock is a perfect example of a well-established and well-managed Facebook page that pulls readers to its page with quality content.
Use ALT Tags
Remember those HTML indicators used to particularize what alternate text will be shown on the screen in the event that some content cannot be rendered? ALT tags. Use them. Under the right conditions, ALT tags can possess string tie-ins with Google SEO rankings; therefore, if you are including elements like images on the Web page, get into the habit of using specific ALT tags for that page with descriptive keywords.
Post at Off-peak Hours
Based on the simple premise that if you are posting when there are few others doing the same, then there is less competition for attention. Search engine optimization isn’t always going to be about hitting the click results of the Internet’s equivalent of a Super Bowl ad; sometimes it pays to be the big fish in a small cyber pond.
The waves of online marketing continuously ebb and flow, and to stay afloat, marketers must be ever-vigilant in employing what works, forgetting what doesn’t and engineering new methods with SEOs. Follow a few simple rules, though, and you’ll navigate the ever-changing marketing waters of the Internet like a cyber sea captain.
