With competition continually increasing for search engine results on the internet, search engine optimization has become an essential element of nearly every aspect of a company’s marketing plans. Keyword-rich content needs to be included in all content generated for a website, including social media sites. Incorporating multiple SEO marketing tactics will help improve a website’s search engine page ranking and ultimately generate more qualified website traffic.
Getting More Website Traffic with Keyword Optimization
Search engines like Google, Yahoo, Yandex and Bing index and rank websites based on keywords associated with relevant content. Optimization of website content with specific keywords will send a signal to search engines that the website is relevant for the designated set of keywords and help the website get more traffic from better-ranked search results. Website keyword optimization tactics that are vital to ensure more website traffic include:
- Keywords in website title (with emphasis on primary keywords)
- Keywords in website description (including primary and secondary keywords)
- Home page optimization of primary and secondary keywords
- Keywords in website meta tags with relevant primary and secondary keywords on content pages
SEO Marketing Tactics to Improve Search Engine Page Ranking
In addition to optimizing a website with relevant keywords, many other SEO marketing tactics can help improve a website’s search engine page ranking. There are a variety of factors that can influence a website’s relevance on search engines. With Google alone, there are over 200 factors that influence a website’s page ranking.
Some good SEO marketing tactics to improve search engine page ranking include:
- Inbound links from other relevant high ranking websites
- Outbound links to other relevant high ranking websites
- Internal links to pages within the website using keywords
- Interactive website elements (such as videos, blogs, polls, or forums)
- Fresh and frequent content updates on pages throughout a site
- Encouraging longer lengths of visits from users with more pages of relevant content
There are also some marketing tactics to avoid, as they may harm search engine ranking:
- Using flash pages that cannot be crawled by search engines
- Using text in a graphical format that cannot be read by search engines
- Link buying or traffic buying from non-relevant sites
- Keyword dilution by targeting too many unrelated keywords on a page
- Keyword stuffing (repetition) by using too many of the same keywords in the content on a page
Social Media Key to Improved Website SEO and Traffic
As social media sites and social network interaction becomes more mainstream, search engines have begun to place more importance and relevance on social media activity as it relates to websites. Adding social media sharing icons and links to websites helps to encourage visitor interaction and sharing with a website, having a positive effect on the website’s page ranking.
Other marketing tactics such as a YouTube video marketing channel or increasing a social presence through Facebook business advertising campaigns, can dramatically increase social media buzz and improve a website’s standing on search engines. Social media is a key marketing tactic for implementing a social network PR strategy, as well as improving website SEO and page rank.
Tactics to Avoid
One does not have to look very hard to find the plethora of search engine marketing advertisements out there all guaranteeing the best SEO search engine optimization page results (SERP). This of course is a result of good reasons; the better the page ranking of a website, the more traffic that will flow to it, the better the chances are of generating revenue through direct sales or advertising.
But before one runs out to hire ‘the best search engine marketing services or attempts to do it themselves, time must be taken to consider the search engine marketing tactics which will most certainly backfire.
Search Engine Marketing Tactics to Avoid – Hidden Keywords, Text, or Links
Hiding text, keywords, and/or links refers to intentionally hiding these items from the view of the visitor. Some methods used to hide such elements from visitors include:
- The font color is the same as the background color.
- The font color is the same as a background image(s).
- The font color to 'almost' is the same as the background color or background image(s).
- Using CSS or Javascript to create hidden pages.
The purpose of hiding text, keywords, and links is to load the page with as many keywords and phrases as possible that would be unsightly to the visitor but possibly results in better page ranking. Unfortunately, although this may work for a short period, search engines consider this tactic to be deceitful and labeled as “search spam” and can result in the page or site being removed completely from the search engine.
Search Engine Marketing Tactics to Avoid – Cloaking and Doorway Pages
Cloaking specifically refers to the visitor of a website or page seeing something completely different than what the search engine believes to be there. An example of such would be a page that shows nothing other than images (or other media files such as Flash), but contains cloaked pages or hidden text to fool the search engine into 'thinking' there is more valid content present.
At some point or another, many online users will come across a high ranking search result page, which when the link is followed, they find a page that's either complete gibberish or only contains the most generalized and valueless format imaginable (such as a lot of missing details); that is a doorway page. Doorway pages are groups of web pages with no purpose other than to falsely amass content in an attempt to increase page rank. Both cloaking and doorway page tactics are frustrating to visitors and seriously frowned upon by search engines.
SEO Marketing Tactics to Avoid - Keyword Stuffing
For people who have found themselves on such pages, this is probably one of the more annoying tactics as "keyword stuffing" refers to repeating specific keywords over and over again within paragraphs of text designed to look like actual useful information. Users assume the site has value or importance since it was found on the first or second page of the search results, but are then presented with a bunch of nonsense spamdexing.
Improve SERP by Avoiding Shady Search Engine Marketing
Keep in mind that the goal of search engines is to provide the reader with reliable and accurate sources of information. Search engines are not interested in whether or not a business or person generates more business or traffic by using shady search engine marketing tactics (such as using doorway pages or scraped content) because ultimately, these tactics only serve to erode online credibility and frustrate the user. Worst of all, the use of these search engine marketing tactics will at some point lead to the complete opposite of what is desired for the website, removal from the search engine entirely.
Anything worth doing is worth doing right the first time. This adage applies to our day and especially to the search engine marketing tactics we apply to websites and web pages. I wish you to get more website traffic ;)
