How to separate SEO myths from SEO facts in 2011
SEO MYTHBUSTERS
SEO MYTHS
• Just repeat your keywords throughout your meta
data and your website will rank high in Google
organic results
• An expensive website will guarantee top Google
rankings
• You only need to optimize for one keyword phrase
per page...
You probably heard about one of those common
organic-SEO myths or a similar one, but SEO is far
more complex than that !!!
What if you focused on SEO strategies that really work ??
Take the road to success !!!
THE 8 SEO FACTS
Findability
Indexability
Accessibility Usability
Sharability
Linkability Convertibility
Trackability
FINDABILITY
Make sure your target keyword appears in :
• Meta titles and descriptions
• Domain and folder names
• URLs
• Headers
• Content
• Internal and back links
The combination of those elements will help increase your visibility in search engines such as Google, Bing...
INDEXABILITY
Your websites should not present any of these technical issues:
• No HTML/XML sitemap• Duplicate content (canonicalization)• Geographical location of server is not based
where your customers are searching• Black listing status of your hosting / linking
partners• Domain name suffix does not match the location
of your customers
• Excessive JavaScript code
• Non-branded 404 page errors
• 302 redirects
• No search engine robots commands (accidentally
left in from a testing phase)
ACCESSIBILITY
Disability Discrimination Act (2005)
Your website should comply with the following rules:
• Alt tags with brief descriptions of images and content • Lists that appear to be navigation should have a title
preceding it • Use transcripts for Video and Flash and ensure it can be
paused• Don’t load audio automatically and ensure it can be
paused
• Workable navigation when images are turned
off (not all browsers are image capable)
• Cross browser compatibility
• Expandable screen resolutions (no horizontal
scrolling occurring)
• Use CSS for presentation (split into 3 layers -
markup - presentation – functionality)
• Mobile access (what does your site look like
on a mobile)
USABILITY
All users’ needs should have been considered throughout the website design phase• Persona development• User centred design• User experience design• Information architecture• Taxonomy• Layout• Fonts• Multi-media
LINKABILITY
How to make your content link worthy?
• Unique
• Valuable to your ideal visitors
• Expert on a particular subject
• Entertaining
• Updated regularly
• Extensive with all resources in one
place
SHARABILITY
Make sure your visitors can easily share and return to your content !!!• Add to favourites
• Send to a friend functions
• Social bookmarking functions (e.g. Share This button)
• Twitter feed
• RSS feeds
• Widgets (to add your content to their website without
any web development knowledge)...
CONVERTIBILITY
What do you want your visitors to do next?
• Buy online• Phone• Email • Subscribe by email• Subscribe via RSS• Follow on Twitter• Post on their blog• Link to your site• Start a live chat• Visit other pages...
TRACKABILITY
How can you extract more value from your website?
• Track everything with website analytics • Click path analysis (which paths are your visitors
following)• Bounce rates (which pages have the
highest/lowest)• Goal conversions e.g. Sign-ups / sales• Ensure offline conversions are tracked as well• Cross reference with email analytics and phone
tracking software
Following these principles will undeniably help you improve your website visits as well as your ROI
Have you got an SEO myth for us
to prove or bust ???
Tweet us @whitelabelseos
using #seomyths
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