What is “Real SEO?” Most people in the web design industry would agree that “Search Engine Optimization” involves optimizing your website so that you get more visitors coming from search engines. However, the specific methods used to achieve this result tend to vary widely. Overall, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) consultants have gotten a bad reputation as a bunch of charlatans, which they partially deserve. Many SEO consultants over the years have employed tricks to fool search engines into ranking pages higher than they should. But modern search engines—with Google leading the pack—can see through these tricks and ignore them.

Regardless of all this dirty SEO laundry, you still want your website to rank higher in search engines. How should you go about accomplishing this?

Cre8tive Group has a distinct advantage over many other agencies due to the Discovery process which we take our clients through at the beginning of each relationship. This helps a client focus their organizational purpose and develop a marketing plan, which significantly aids in the optimizing of their website for search engines.

This article is the first in a three-part series on “Real SEO,” where we examine what really matters to search engines and what you can do to help boost your website traffic. Let’s begin by examining the concept of authenticity.

Is Your Website Authentic?

Now, when I say “authentic,” what I’m asking is whether or not the website is a true reflection of your organization. Have you ever been tricked into signing up for a mailing list when  creating an account on a website? Have you heard of companies “astroturfing” with fake blogs? These are among the tricks employed by organizations who think it’s easy to manipulate people online.

Some SEO consultants seem to think these same tricks are appropriate when trying to attract new visitors. But why would you want to trick someone into visiting your site? If someone realizes they’ve been tricked into visiting your site, they will leave and probably never return. Search engine marketing is about more than just how many visitors you receive—it’s about what people do while they’re at your site. Which of these two scenarios would you rather have happen with your website?

1. You get 1,000 new visitors, but 800 leave immediately.
   You are left with 200 engaged visitors.
2. You get 400 new visitors, and only 120 leave immediately.
   You are left with 280 engaged visitors.
   

So what is the best SEO technique? Create great, authentic content and get links to it from other websites. And although links to your content are important, they can only come after you have great content, thus “content is king.”

Do You Have Great Content?

What is great content? The best kind of content is content that’s interesting, helpful, and unique.

Is Your Content Interesting?

First of all, your content has to be interesting. This may mean that it’s funny, poetic, tragic, or thought-provoking, but it has to be relevant to your audience. If your target audience isn’t interested, then you might as well just stop right now and go home. This is the easiest part for commerce and social networking sites: if you have stuff that people want, you’re golden.

Is Your Content Helpful?

Your content needs to be more than just interesting. Content that’s only “interesting” doesn’t stick in people’s minds. “Interesting” content is optional. If you want to create a loyal following of visitors, your content also needs to be helpful. This may mean it helps people accomplish tasks, like a recipe or a how-to guide does. Or it may teach people something that they didn’t know they wanted to learn. If your site asks something of people, this question is especially crucial. Whether it’s time, money, or just brain capacity, people are a lot more willing to give things to your organization if they’re also getting  something. The simplest thing you can give them is interesting, helpful content.

Is Your Content Unique?

A website with interesting, helpful content will probably do pretty well. But what if you want to do better than “pretty well?” What if you want to be the best? If so, here’s the last question you need to ask: what do you know that nobody else knows? What type of content can you provide that no one else can match? If you have a good answer to this question, then you have taken a big step on your journey to web greatness.

Keep It Coming

If you have an authentic website with great content, your content will most likely compel people to begin linking to it from their websites, further propelling your site upward in search engine rankings. But it’s not an overnight process, so be patient.

This is often the most difficult part of running a successful website, though—keeping your enthusiasm going after the “new site smell” has worn off. It’s all too easy to let a site lie fallow for a few months if you’re just not feeling up to creating new content…but don’t! If you do, it’s a strong indication to your visitors that you don’t have much to say. The easiest way to ensure continuous content output is to schedule it. Then you just do it every week, or every month, or however often you choose, regardless of whether or not you feel like it.

As you produce more content, more people will find you and link to your site, and search engines will get more “hooks” into your site. And the more “hooks” a search engine can get into your site, the better off you’ll be.

(In part 2 we’ll be talking about findability; how your writing and word choices dramatically affect your website’s search engine placement. Look for it next month!)

by Charlie Fiskeaux II

Charlie is driven by a desire for excellence, and his strength is found at the intersection of form and function where he serves up remarkable applications. Charlie also writes at his blog, of People and Pixels.