Monday, September 24, 2012

SEO Strategies In 2012

SEO Tips In 2012

Published on by: James H. Hobson

When a domain name and website are new they lack any existing off-page SEO elements. The SEO process for a new domain and website presents unique challenges and opportunities. Success for achieving high organic placement for any particular keyword or search phrase requires a level of work (skill + hours) to not only “define the site for search engines” but to also outpace and out maneuver your current online competitors. Specific and deliberate efforts will need to be made for each and every of your desired target keywords or search phrases.

SEO Opportunities

A new domain and new website have no history with search engines. Although this means an initial flat-line for organic rankings, it does assure that there are no problems with past SEO work which may be deemed by search engine algorithms to be “black-hat” or non-compliant to desired standards. Starting with a clean slate is a great opportunity however you need to have patience and be willing to invest a very substantial amount of work to sculpt your online ranking.

SEO Challenges

Search engine algorithms are ever evolving in their ability to gather and process information about a website. Algorithms process over one thousand factors to determine the order in which sites should be ranked for a given keyword or phrase. A new website is challenged with building a properly structured profile of “SEO credentials”. Because a new website is starting at ground zero, there is a tremendous amount of work to be done to become competitive with very well established and ranked websites.

A factor that is of value, but cannot be managed, is the “domain age factor” for your domain name, the age of backlinks and the age of online content that is associated with the domain name (URL). Typically, SEO work will yield even better results after the site has been online for at least one year. . It is worth mentioning that if you purchase a domain that has been used before it WILL have a history with search engines. Sites that have been banned for black-hat SEO have destroyed all value for the associated domain. Any site that is subsequently using this domain will suffer from the bad history of that particular domain.

Important SEO Elements

Unique Content is extremely important. Any scraped content (copied from other sites) is not only illegal but it will affect your site with a duplicate content penalty. You should write all original content or, if you are using a web design company or SEO company to write your content, get a written statement that they are providing all unique content and not violating any copyright laws.

Backlinks are a key part of any SEO strategy. The process of building a backlink footprint must be implemented with a strategy that will mitigate the risks of search engine penalties and yet achieve optimal results. Obviously acquiring a large number of high quality links is important however Google’s algorithm is particularly sensitive to link velocity, meaning acquiring “too many” links “too fast” is a signal of “unnatural linking” and will yield very negative results.

You should always avoid any “link farms” or services that provide mass links from spam blog posts. There are many online services that offer outsourced link building and may seem to be legitimate however if you make a mistake in choosing the right company your site may suffer severe ranking penalties. Under no circumstances should you get links from “bad neighborhoods” meaning sites dealing with gambling, porn, etc.

Social Media Signals are a key factor for current search engine algorithms. You should share links between your website and your social media business pages. It is important to note business pages and not from your personal social media pages. Examples of top social media links include Google+, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Frequent social interaction is the key ingredient for social signals. Posting good content and obtaining social approval signals such as a +1, Like, Share and Follow are all something you need to acquire. Hiring an inbound marketing company to develop a true inbound marketing strategy is worth considering.

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