There’s a little bit of confusion as to whether SEO and internet marketing is an art or a science. It is actually more science than art, because there is a systematic way to go about acquiring traffic and generating buzz for a website and product. Only thing required is that a person understands the basics and knows what tools to use.
SEO Basics: SEO is more about a better visitor experience, and figuring out ways to attract new visitors. From this viewpoint, it needs one to be an expert in a specific sector or field that the site caters to, rather than an SEO expert. All that really needs to be done is to be aware of the Google guidelines outlined in its webmaster section, and use a suitable platform like WordPress for a blog or joomla for a site that needs a robust CMS.
Keyword Tools: Generating a list of keywords is the first step towards a long-term SEO plan of action. Everything that needs to be done henceforth is based around a keyword(s). So it is essential to have a nice, long list of keywords with significant query volumes that are being used by competitors.
SEO can be done manually, but it works better using keyword generation tools. The tools are more comprehensive and scientific in how they dig up and rate the keywords based on monetization value. The one that is used a lot is the keyword generation tool from Google Adwords, but there are other options like SpyFu, Wordstream, etc.
Onsite Optimization: The onsite optimization process essentially involves focusing the content on each page to match a specific keyword. Keywords in page titles and URLs matter a whole lot. Within the page content, the presence of keywords has to look natural and should not break the flow of the narrative. New landing pages can be created to target each keyword.
Other things that help include using the right platform and/or CMS so that it can automatically produce the required titles, URLs and optimal internal linking structure, which is a good strategy for all Internet marketing practices. Design and back-end scripts can be optimized by using the right fonts and graphics, and a better hosting server that speeds up page loading time.
Link Building: Search algorithms give a lot of importance to incoming links to a page and website. A link building campaign’s main task is to find and establish relations with relevant and important websites. Unless the webmaster is aware of how to work out three-way link deals and sitewide link partnerships, it’s best that a link building campaign be managed by a professional.
Analytics: Very important to have powerful analytics that can take raw logs and offer comprehensive analytical data. This includes keywords, referring source, landing pages, time spent, visitor demographics and clickthru data for banner and text ads. This data is what tells webmasters what is working and what visitors seem to like more. Provides room for doing more of what works and shows which sections need improvement.
To sum it up, SEO and internet marketing does not require a magic wand. There are things that one learns by experience, and others that can be done using tools and scripts. But the bottomline is that it’s still about talent, hard work and a solid product/service.
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