SEO is part of a marketing strategy that works to generate web traffic and subsequently leads from search engines without paying for clicks or visits. As SEO has grown and matured, it often encompasses the entirety of a website-based digital marketing program, from architecture, content mapping and planning, keyword research, brand and profile development, reputation management, and innovating new ideas to capitalize on human search behaviors. SEO can include the deployment and utilization of satellite sites, Wiki/Information sites, and web forums, targeting competitors using comparison information, different media from images to video, testing content, and improving iteratively while constantly updating their keyword database and ranking profile to grow traffic, opportunities, and revenue.
SEO Foundation – PageRank
PageRank was the big algorithm and patent named after Larry Page (PageRank) that helped Google usurp all of its competitors. A complicated software engine based on a simple premise: the best web pages will earn the best links from other websites and on that basis, Google was born and took over the world and would go on to dominate that space for 25+ years, building one of the world’s richest and most profitable companies.
SEO Strategies
An SEO Strategy typically centers around Keyword research and developing a keyword universe. This keyword universe should be agreed by the company’s leadership, marketing team and product stakeholders and drive the SEO and Content strategies, and inform the company PPC Strategy as part of a holistic SEM program.
Working wth SEO: Tools
SEO Managers and SEO Experts use SE Ranking Report tools and Organic Traffic clicks as their leading indicators to report on performance and a wide array of tools and data sources to do keyword research. A top SEO has over 200+ tactics to deploy in different scenarios to help their clients gain an unrivaled edge over the competition.
SEO Myths – or, How SEO doesn’t work
A lot of myths persist in SEO – from misunderstanding duplicate content to superstitious beliefs that rest on the idea that people within Google are manually testing, promoting or punishing websites. The simple, obvious and clear fact is that Google is just trying to sort and categorize the globe based on what people search for (vs academic ranking like the failed and oversimplistic Library Categloging system, which only works for a tiny amount of information).
A General lack of understanding and with too many people not putting in enough research and reading of material provided by Google, too many people adopt strange and illogical theories to fill in the gaps in their understanding or reasoning. By not thinking a problem through but just focusing on how their own content performs, its easy to create solutions to problems that people think Google creates but wants to remain coy about.
SEO – a Simple, repeatable strategy to work
Google is a software system that will treat, manage, and catalog content the same way. Where it can get more information or being more precise about publishing can give content better performance results but this isn’t the same as a preference or giving preferential treatment. All pages and websites are treated equally, whether running Google Ads or not. Unless you violate a Google Term of Service, there’s very little to worry about except for what your competition is doing – and trying to do that better. Any SEO strategy should therefore be transparent, simple to understand at a high level, measurable and repeatable. If anything gets left to chance (kind of superstitiously) – then it’s not a strategy for a software system.
