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SEO Fundamentals (stripped down)

  • June 23, 2014
  • Bradley Taylor

I had a meeting with a client earlier and we were going over what we are doing to optimize his site and get more traffic. We were going over one of the most important factors, that being plenty of fresh unique content. But, when I left there I felt like I didn’t convey all that goes into a full SEO effort. So, I have compiled this list based on the latest white hat methods and publications by Google. This is really what every SEO effort should consist of.  Some of these are client side responsibilities:

From the ground up

1) Make sure there are no current spam reports or blacklists – sometimes you may not be the first to own your domain. Or maybe someone reported your email as spam for no reason. Clearing these up helps in the overall effort.

2) Make sure old files and junk is removed from the active file on server. Google bot doesn’t take kindly to having to go through old junk on server. They reward you for making their job easier.

3) Make sure you are using latest version of WordPress (or whatever site CMS you use) and that all of your plug ins are up to date. Do this periodically. The danger in having out of date plug ins is that your site can be crashed or slowed down by missing or incorrect programming.

4) Make sure all of your tags and Categories are fully filled out on the back end of WordPress (or whatever CMS you use) – Each tag needs a description.

5) Create in bound linking by posting on other people’s blog. Include your keywords and a REAL comment.  Take time to read their blog and comment something useful.

6) Add fresh helpful content to your site as often as possible. Create blog pages daily if at all possible and make sure to fill in the meta tags and descriptions on these blogs. Do not copy and paste information. Do not take shortcuts. Write the article or have someone write the article. If it isn’t unique it is a waste of time.

7) Share blog posts on social media. Create a social media account for your business and share at will. Google + is an important one to share on (even though nobody likes it).

8) Make sure your site maps are up to date and properly listed and tested inside Google’s “webmaster tools ” section. Also, any instructions for robots should be in a “robots.txt” file.

Things NOT TO DO

1) Do Not keyword stuff. Putting your keywords in any little crevice it will fit or filling the background with keywords of the same color is a major no no. You are not fooling Google, only yourself.

2) Do Not use multi-auto-submitters. Auto submitting to “300 search engines” is bogus. There aren’t even 300 real search engines and anything “auto” is a bad sign. There are no free lunches or short cuts.

3) Do Not pay one of these companies that will make you “#1 on Google in three weeks”. Chances are you will just be throwing $400 down the drain.

4) Do not use ChatGPT or other AI to create content. (updated March 2023)

 

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