Roberto Blake SEO- Search Engine Optimization Tips and Tricks

Search Engine Optimization is a huge cornerstone in web design and web development today, and with good reason. Seach engines have become a big part of our lives. People utilize these for everything to research, event planning, shopping, or even finding perspective employees for their businesses.

SEO is a necessary investment for any online business, and that necessity has lead web designers, developers, programmers, and marketing experts to try to understand and market the ability to produce results for their clients. However in reality there is much that many people, even people with years of experience in internet technology, that don’t understand a few fundamentals of SEO that are taken for granted. I’m not talking about specific tactics like titile tags, and anchor text, I’m talking about the very nature of how an effective SEO strategy is developed in the first place.

For Humans, by Humans,
As hard as this might sound the first thing you need to do is forget that you are dealing with search bots. Why? simply because no matter how hard you try or how much research you do, you won’t be able to figure out all the parameters and qualifiers the bots are using. Instead understand that their goal is to mimic human behavior to create a better experience for human users.

Cut out the middle man and design and market  your web sites for human beings to enjoy and use effectively. Use simple, clear to understand navigation and language so your users can find what they need. Be descriptive without being too repetitive, don’t keyword stuff, just try to make things and clear so that even a child will be able to figure things out with little to no effort.

Content is King
When developing your SEO strategy try to be honest with yourself about your intentions. Are  you really trying to provide useful or interesting information to an audience, or are you just trying to boost your own traffic? Believe me when I tell you the answer to this question will be very apparent to your readers. If you update your site on a regular basis with new content that provides information people want to read and find interesting, entertaining, engaging or useful, you will keep them coming back and attract new readers without difficulty. If you try to be “trendy” or take advantage of what you think or know is popular, your site will get a bad reputation.

Identify your audience, identify their needs and interest, supply content that meets those needs and interest, then identify other venues that your audience frequents and make your presence felt.

The other typical problem that some people face with their content is Narcissism. Sometimes people have the habit of only writing or developing content for themselves and don’t take the audience into consideration. This ranges from something as simple as writing above people’s heads, to shameless self promotion in every other sentence.

Don’t Just Build Links, Build Relationships
Link building is an essential part of any good SEO or internet marketing strategy. However the people who do this properly are few and far in between. Some of the reasons for this are that people only think of the quantity and quality of the links they are building and don’t think about things in the long term.

When link building you should identify sites and communities in which the information for your site is not only related, but relevant of real value, again this relates back to providing a service, rather than just trying to rig the system. Building links in a community where you information will be of value will drive relevant repeat traffic to your site, and will help you achieve your long term goals the right way. A handful of these links are much more valuable to your website than dozens of links from a site with a high page rank. Again look for the human factor first, and the numbers will follow.

Don’t Overthink It
Most people make the mistake of over thinking and over analyzing SEO. In reality if you focus on setting and achieve goals in a logical way, the SEO will come naturally. Obviously you should follow standards and convention but just remember, usability, readability, good navigation, simplicity, and consistency all are things you should be considering and will ensure that humans and search engines  value your website.

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Roberto Blake

Roberto Blake is a Professional Graphics Designer and Photographer, living in Fayetteville NC, has work been working with Photoshop® for over 8 years now, and Flash® for the past 5 years.

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