The fundamentals of search engine optimization

Four stable fundamentals of SEO.

In recent years SEO (Search Engine Optimization) has gone through many turbulent changes. The implementation of social metrics is just one of many. It is pretty obvious that SEO ranking factors don't stay stagnant and it can all be frustrating for the entrepreneur. If you are confused and frantic trying to keep up with the latest metrics, you will be happy to know the underlying fundamentals of SEO haven't changed. The four cornerstone concepts haven't only remained the same since the early days of the internet, they are more important now as search engines have gotten smarter. These are the four stable fundamentals of SEO.

Content is king. Google's goal from the beginning has been to return the best possible content when someone conducts a search. As Google improves and refines how it does this, it will get better and smarter. Because of this trying to play the system is not a sustainable strategy. The extremely talented hackers, like Kevin Poulson, are rare. Most entrepreneurs are not able to play the search engines for any real length of time. For us average people, the best way to get ranked and stay near the top of search engine results is to provide quality content that people genuinely like and share. This creates organic backlinks, which Google loves.

Think long term. Entrepreneurs who aspire to get ranked in weeks rather than years inevitably use Black Hat techniques and inevitably get burned.

"In search engine optimization (SEO) terminology, black hat SEO refers to the use of aggressive SEO strategies, techniques and tactics that focus only on search engines and not a human audience, and usually don't obey search engines guidelines." ~Source

You should be thinking in long term goals. These would mean six months to a year. The methods you use when you think long term are very different from the short term methods. Using long term SEO strategies will result in a solid foundation for your SEO. Short term SEO methods include keyword stuffing, invisible text, adding unrelated keywords to the page content and page swapping (changing the webpage entirely after it has been ranked by search engines). Lont term SEO methods include using keywords, keyword analysis, back linking, link building to improve link popularity, and writing content for human readers

Entrepreneurs can really get confused and sucked into the quicksand of on-page SEO. You will do well to remember the 80/20 rule. It is 20% of your work will give you 80% desired results. Entrepreneurs often get fixated on many of the little things on their website. What meta tags are best? Should you use bold or strong tags? How much effort do you need to put into your alt tags? The list goes on and on. If you are not techy it can seem overwhelming.

However, realistically, there are only a few on-page factors that have a significant impact with the search engines. The 20% consists of your keyword selection, your title tag, your H1 and H2 tags and your internal linking structures. When you understand the best practices for these four things and implement them, you will take care of 80% of your on-page SEO.

You need to have a scheduled link-building plan. Just like you stress with your content marketing program, you must be consistent with your link-building. Make a plan and stick to it religiously. It doesn't have to take a huge amount of your time and can be integrated into other areas of your marketing plan. The goal is to keep your link-building program running at all times so it looks organic. This will lead to results quickly. Create a weekly action plan, use the plan even when you have other things going on. Learn more about creating a link-building plan here.

These are the four fundamentals of SEO. Follow these fundamentals and you stand a strong chance of winning the search engine contest in the long run.

Source: The fundamentals of search engine optimization