SEO – TRUTH, MYTH, and LIES – PART 10

Wrapping Up

Well, here we are – the last our 10 part series on SEO – Truth, Myth, and Lies. We are going to take the best elements of the last 10 sections and create an action plan for your SEO efforts in 2013.

The Truth – the DO LIST

Make sure your site has something UNIQUE to offer
Update your website regularly with fresh original content
Write content for your AUDIENCE
Create Backlinks NATURALLY
Make sure your website passes validation tests: W3C Validator
Have a PROFESSIONAL WEB DEVELOPER create your website
Separate Content from Markup
Use Keywords in Backlinks – VERY SPARINGLY
Use RESPONSIVE web design
Use Social Media to engage your audience and promote your brand

The Myths – Things that could cause SEO issues

Using Keywords in all of your backlinks
Using EMD – Exact Match Domains
Overuse of WordPress Categories
Not using semantic Markup in blog posts
Using Free – or low cost WordPress or other CMS templates
Using Create Your Own Website software such as Weebly, Website Tonight, or other similar services
Using Keywords in all of your headings
Creating content for the search engines
Participating in Link Building Services
Not using latest standards such as HTML5, and Responsive web design
Slow – Outdated websites

The Lie or LIES

Content is King – it is not – it is simply ONE PART of successful SEO
I can create my website myself – This usually leads to sites having to be re-built later on
My SEO guy only does SEO – Make sure your SEO guy has extensive technical knowledge
Exact Match Domains work – Google’s Matt Cutts has stated these actually will cause loss of page rank
I can create my website in WordPress – WordPress is a CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM – not a website creation system.
I can post my own blogs – yes you can – but you need to make sure you use proper HTML markup or you are missing out on rankings
My site looks good – I dont care about semantics, markup – etc. The search engines do care about these things, and this will cost HUGE SEO points

By now you should have a clear picture of some do’s and dont’s of SEO. SEO and marketing boil down to a few simple principles. Make sure you have something of quality to offer – either content, news, products, services etc. If you don’t have something unique, no amount of SEO is going to change that. Write your content for your audience, don’t take shortcuts, follow best practices, and make sure you are using the latest technologies.

One of the most important things when seeking out an SEO company to handel your marketing needs, is to make sure your SEO person undertands proper coding techniques, and knows how to create websites writing their own code – not just using free WordPress templates and doing some basic backend configuration. If they do not undertand how to create websites by writing code you are 100% without a doubt loosing out on over 50% of your potential SEO rankings.

Check out the SEO website Launch from our friends at placement labs!

As always – with any sort of marketing, service, etc – You Get What You Pay For.