Perhaps the most common question website owners ask any SEO expert is why their webpages aren’t listed when they do a search on Google. The problem could lie in the content on the webpages, but even some sites that have great, relevant content don’t appear high on Google. This understandably causes confusion in some quarters, because content is king, right? Well, yes – content is king, but the king of SEO can’t run the realm on his own. He needs support, and support in the kingdom of SEO comes from links (sometimes also called backlinks).
SEO expert – link building
An effective SEO campaign needs to include a strong link building strategy, because without a network of high quality links pointing to your website, it’s never going to get near the top of the rankings on any search engine – not just Google. A good SEO expert will know where to look for good link sources and will also entice links from other websites through the practice of ‘link baiting’. Link baiting is where you create content that is of strong appeal to your target audience – or even the audience at large – and which causes them to want to link to your website. As an example, if you run a fan site for a big football club and you manage to get an exclusive interview with a new player or manager, then that will constitute link bait. If you place a restriction on distributing the interview content without consent, then you’ll garner more links as users will be less inclined to copy the content, preferring to link directly to your page. Do it regularly and you’ll also earn a reputation as being a good source for quality content, prompting yet more links.
SEO expert – content
We’ve established that good content encourages links, which is great for your site’s general profile and ranking prospects. But good content can also serve as more of a direct pull for search engines through the inclusion of tactical keywords and intelligent long-tail phrases. How? Search engine ‘crawlers’ analyse the content on webpages and then commit the information they’ve retrieved to the search engine’s memory bank (or ‘index’). So, if the content on your webpages is clear, accurate, and most importantly, relevant, then there’s an increased chance that the search engine will list your website higher in its results for your targeted words than it does other sites with lower quality content. A SEO expert will take care of this by optimising the content throughout your site to make sure it appeals to search engines and users alike.
SEO expert – the semantic age
It’s an exciting time in the world of the SEO expert as search engines step into the age of semantics, in a progression that marks a major advance in search technology. Google has very recently introduced a totally new level of semantic intelligence to its search process (or ‘algorithm’), meaning that it now understands the meaning of words and phrases, rather than simply possessing the ability to match words, short phrases and synonyms. This evolution not only leads to a higher quality user experience, it also ups the stakes for SEO experts, online businesses and website owners, because it requires a higher quality of contextual, relevant content in order to maintain high rankings. Getting a handle on how all of this affects Search Engine Optimisation is crucial for any SEO expert. Those practitioners that ignore these developments will be left behind – and so will their clients!
As semantic technology takes hold and evolves, the usefulness of spammy, less readable content that relies too heavily on a narrow range of core keywords will fall away further, with the semantic capability of search engines effectively acting as a quality filter. You can see the evidence of Google’s move into semantics on its results pages right now – just take a look at the alternative search suggestions it’s now making and you’ll notice that it has more of an understanding of related concepts than previously. The online businesses that react most quickly and effectively to this shift in focus will reap the rewards in the form of increased levels of high quality traffic – it’s there for the taking!
The Web Marketing Group – your first choice SEO expert
We can help get your website ranking high on Google and other search engines. We’ve developed a range of sophisticated SEO tools and services – such as LTaS, our long-tail keyword service - that can vastly increase your website profile, significantly improving its prospects of attracting high quality traffic. We currently work with over 500 companies across the UK on their Search Marketing strategies, and we can work with you too.
To get an idea of how we can boost your business online, request your completely FREE comprehensive website analysis and proposal from us. You’ll get over 30 pages of hand-assembled bespoke analysis by our UK based SEO expert team, detailing how and where your website is letting you down and what we can do to fix it. There’s absolutely no obligation to take us up on our proposal, and it’ll give you plenty to think about – get yours here.
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