The most misunderstood fact about search engine optimization, is that what worked for your site last week, may not work for your site this week. This isn't the automotive industry, where every time you get a radiator leak, or a fan belt breaks, it's always fixed the same way. In the automotive industry, there are no new theories that pop up almost daily on how to fix your radiator. When you take your car in to have it fixed, you know they aren't going to be using some new, experimental theory on radiator repairs to fix your car. It's factual, static, it remains the same.
Search engine optimization does not. Any SEO company out there is simply using theories. No one, not one of us, really knows what it is the search engines are looking for because there are no answers. It's not cut and dry like your car's battery. If it works, your car will start, if it doesn't it won't. It's always trial and error with SEO.
So if all SEO companies are using theories, how do I know which one to choose?
The best optimization companies watch the results. We study search results like hawks. When you spend 70 hours a week staring at search engine results, noting changes, examining ideas, you start to see a pattern. Based on these patterns that emerge, you come up with a theory.
For instance, let's say we're looking at the search results for any given keyword or keyword phrase, and we notice that all the top ranked results have short, descriptive titles. That pattern leaves us with the theory that the search engine we're using likes sites with short, descriptive titles.
Where most SEO companies err, is that they do this once or twice to develop their techniques, and they never follow up. With the search engines constantly building their algorithms to eliminate SEO tactics, it could be a matter of hours before the short, descriptive title theory is obsolete. In order to succeed at search engine optimization, you must study the results for the rest of your career. So many companies still offer simple search engine submission, or reciprocal linking services - these are obsolete, sometimes harmful SEO tactics.
The biggest change I've noticed at Google recently has been their emphasis on good, dynamic content and the constant addition of it. It seems their quest to make only the best, most well-rounded and informative web sites rank at the top is succeeding. There are still kinks to iron out, but this is the direction Google is taking and unless you start to adapt your site to it now, you'll be left behind in no time, even if you have a top page ranking now.
How do I know this? Do a site search on Google for Abalone.ca (click here to see). If you take a look through these results, you'll notice a pattern. All the informative pages come up first. The main pages, news pages, article pages, and blog pages all come up higher than the old directory pages, link exchange pages, and the pages that no longer exist but are still in the Google index. You can apply this to any domain name. The pages with good content always rank higher.
A year ago, the name of the game was link popularity. A lot of web sites still rely on link popularity as their sole marketing strategy. This is a mistake, as reciprocal linking, specifically, holds no value anymore. Google looks for a natural linking pattern, when your site has extremely valuable information and resources and draws links without having to request them. Again, the proof is in the pudding. When you search Google for affordable search engine optimization, our site comes up second to www.a1-optimization.com. Why? the only difference I see, is content.
Abalone.ca has 252 incoming links on Google
a1-optimization.com has 224
If the key to optimization was still incoming links, we would rank higher. Now, do a site search for each site. Google has indexed 11,400 pages on a1-optimization.com, whereas, it has only indexed 219 on Abalone.ca.
This is a very clear pattern, and it's a pattern that only gives way to one theory: Google wants content and with content comes natural linking. Google is beginning to make search engine optimization about the creation of informative, valuable pages. Google is forcing us to have no other option but to keep the visitor in mind. There are no more cheats. It's like a bestselling non-fiction book. Make it informative, make it a page-turner, keep the reader in mind and you'll sell more copies. If you keep your web site visitor in mind and offer them as much as you possibly can, if you make your site an authority on your subject matter, you will be rewarded in the SERPs.
Whether you do your SEO inhouse, or you outsource it, it is important to make sure that the person in charge is watching the search results. Make sure they're staying on top of the ever-changing search engine trends and patterns, and finally have them assure you that they are willing to adapt to a new age of search engine optimization. Although slightly nerdier, SEO is like the fashion industry, failure to stay on top of the trends, is a failure, period.
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