Is SEO Snake Oil?
The myth that SEO is snake oil is one that is prevalent among people who don’t fully understand it. SEO is an industry that is still very new and not generally understood. It can appear to be magic when a site shows up on the front page of Google that wasn’t there last week. Even though we don’t know the search engines’ exact algorithms for ranking pages, there are straight-forward methods for increasing a web site’s chances of ranking well.
The first, and most important, aspect is recognizing the best keywords for your market. This is true even off-line. Using the best words to catch people’s attention in Yellow Pages ads, billboards, etc. is important to get the best response. These keywords can make or break the amount of traffic to your web site. Doing some simple research will reveal which keywords are best for your site.
Next, including those keywords on your site lets Google know that is what your site is about. Google doesn’t understand context, it only reads what is on your site. You can think of this as putting up signs in your store to guide people to certain items – “women’s clothes, automotive supplies, shoes, etc.” Of course, if you overdo it, and repeat your keywords too many times, you will annoy people who will move on to another web site.
Finally, you want to create more ways for people to find your site by building links to it. There are hundreds of ways to accomplish this. Google views sites that have more links to them as more important. When you build links to your site, you are essentially putting up signs to help people find you easier. The easier it is for people, and Google, to find you, the higher you will appear in the search engine rankings.
That’s really what SEO is about. None of this is magic or snake oil. It boils down to recognizing what people are looking for and making sure the search engines know that’s what your site is about.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 at 12:41 pm and is filed under SEO. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.