Thought of the day… I’ve often heard that you shouldnt SEO websites for search engines and that with your best ‘white hat’ on you should be SEOing your projects for people… But when it comes to keyword research, the results are generated by people from the Average searches per month column… so in essence, when it comes to keyword research, YOU ARE doing your SEO for people, which just so happens to be what the search engines want too.
I acknowledge that many longer tail searches may be performed by people who have used short tail to research and, having identified their specific requirements, have returned to the search engines to source the best deal or most competative offer.
I would also just like to expand on this a little bit, if I may.
We all know that inbound links help with ranking, as do mentions in social media.
So it would seem to me that making content that, aside from search term focus, is content that makes people really want to share with others is key – whether through linking, liking, bookmarking, etc.
I know it has become a cliche of Matt Cutts that the only SEO you need to do is “just make great content,” so I don’t want to rehash that. But I would suggest that making content that PEOPLE REALLY WANT TO READ is equally as important as making sure that it fits the the keyword research.
Hi Mark. I have this debate with people all of the time. Its a sad fact that without promotion even the very best website will go un-noticed. I have loads of blogs set up for clients, all with great unique content that is non commercial in nature, linking out to a variety of sources and despite there being 1000′s of pages on there the sites don’t rank #1 for anything.
Yes you can create link bait. however a site full of link bait would simply be too big a task to create and you’re never guaranteed that your bait content will be as good as you think it is.
Ive even seen some really rubbish sites rank highly and get loads of business… the truth is that all it really takes (at the moment) is some good links as these can brute force great results even when the target website is really badly designed and has naff content on it.
“Ive even seen some really rubbish sites rank highly and get loads of business… the truth is that all it really takes (at the moment) is some good links as these can brute force great results even when the target website is really badly designed and has naff content on it.”
I find this rather disheartening… blame it on my naivety. But let me just, for the sake of clarity, paraphrase what it appears that you are saying, so that I am not misunderstanding you:
The quickest way to get a site to rank and be profitable is to use keyword-focused text and get lots of links.
Is that a fair assessment?
Obviously, if that’s the way the system is, then there is little I can do to change the system. I guess I am just saddened by the fact that whatever “expertise” I might have in a particular subject area counts for little in terms of getting a site ranked. Oh well…
I guess I am also dismayed by the fact that I didn’t realize this sooner and probably should have been concentrating on getting inbound links all these years instead of concentrating on creating useful content…
Dont miss understand me. What im trying to say is that even badly designed sites can get high rankings with a clever seo strategy (or spam). great content is not the only option and is only part of a broader strategy (this being said ive seen some really nasty sites rank top)
I think the key is focus. If all you want to do is use your blog as a podium to say whatever is on your mind then of course you won’t rank for any keywords. If however you have an intelligent strategy that includes researching relevant keywords, choosing those that you can monetize, and optimizing your content around those targeted keywords then with effort you can eventually rank near the top. You must focus on keywords that don’t have a bunch of PR4′s or above though…or it will require a massive amount of work.