Another interesting thread I found on SEO Chat was about Top 5 SEO Actions that one should take in their SEO campaigns. I thought there was plenty of good advice... Most of the good advice seemed to swarm around good content in an abstract way. While I think good content is a key to good SEO, I didn't think anyone gave a robust answer for their top 5.
I came up with this (unedited):
I believe that great content is a driving force
behind great SEO. Great content does drive great links. I didn't hear
anything mentioned in this thread that great content also drives "long
tail" keyword searches. Those long tail keyword searches convert much
better than those 1 and 2 word searches.
I also believe there is a lot more to great SEO than just waiting on
those links to come to your great content. If you are in the SEO
business, your client will fire you pretty quick if you sit around
waiting on those great links back to your great content.
Any good SEO is proactive. Any good SEO knows that a low quality link is
better than no link at all. What you have to really consider when it
comes to links is cost/benefit. Is that awesome article you just wrote
going to benefit you on some generic article site that will get all the
great links back (benefiting the article site)? Or is that article going
to benefit you better if you get all those nice links back on your own
site? I guess that is why most of the articles on those generic article
sites are junk.
Cost/benefit.
1. Understand how real people search your "content" with keyword
research (tool list goes here)
2. Understand your competition. What kind of content do they have? How
are people searching them? Who is linking to them and why. (tool list
goes here)
3. Create content that revolves around 1 keeping in mind 2. (Don't you
wish you paid more attention in creative writing?)
4. Make sure your onsite optimization is in order for maximum benefit of
long tail keywords. (insert list of SEO basics here)
5. Develop and build on a link strategy keeping in mind 1. (abstract
principle that requires a lot of late nights)
For the bonus round:
6. Stay out of the ghetto. (if they are selling drugs, gambling, have
strip bars, and showing you how to make money, its the ghetto)
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I really should have came up with a more clever way to say number 6. Read more on my SEO and Web Design blog.
