It’s a race to the top. Everyone wants to be at the top of Search Engine results. And why wouldn’t you? You get more visitors, page views, leads and customers? But how do you get to the top of Google? Or even Bing or Yahoo?

The most common way, that everyone heard of, is to have the right keywords on your site. But as you can see from the chart below that are so many other factors influencing how well you rank.

This infographic is actually from 2011, and although search engines constantly tweak their ranking algorithms and add new variables, the fundamentals to ranking well remain the same.

I have this chart printed and pinned to a wall in my office. It provides a quick reference to ensure I have the basics covered when I create new blog posts and pages.

In the original post on Search Engine Land, Danny Sullivan also takes us through his previously published ranking factors charts. As you can tell, each revision improved significantly. This makes me confident that an updated version of the chart could be in the pipeline. But in the meantime, I’ll continue using this Period Table of SEO Ranking Factors and you should too.

If you know of other charts, maybe something more recent, please comment below. Would love to see what you’re using as a reference.

Rat Race to Crack the Code

It is obvious that everyone is trying to crack the Google Search Algorithm. There are a lot of very smart people spending their sleepless nights attempting to reverse engineer the algorithm, running endless A/B split tests and searching for shortcuts to generate numerous backlinks; to a point of obsession. To me at least, all this effort seems to yield only slightly marginal improvements. Any major improvements on rankings are usually short-lived, as most of these practices are what is considered to be Black Hat SEO, or borderline Black Hat. And smart SEO experts know not to deploy them, otherwise Google will catch on and ban their sites and their client’s sites.

Create Good Content

Matt Cutts said it many times before, just create good content. All good SEOs say the same thing. Of course there a number of good SEO principles to follow, such as have your keywords in the title, url, Headings, etc., and if you create good original content then you would get the links, ranks and credibility for your work. What I also learned from all this ‘catch-up’ work is that Google’s Algorithm is always changing. What SEOs talk about today, will be different tomorrow. The only thing that hasn’t changed is that Google values good content.

As I mentioned earlier, there are SEO principles to follow, ofcourse. There is no shortage of online resources and books at your local bookstore to help you optimize your great content for your target audience to find. However, you need to start with good quality and original content. If you do that, the links will come in, subscribers will flock and your authority will grow.

Whether you’re an SEO novice or an SEO Expert, work in sales or marketing, thinking of building a website or are a seasoned webpreneur you know and understand the importance of having the right keywords to drive web traffic that converts. The debate about ‘Why you need to have the right keywords’ has been long over. But now, the main question is:

How Do I Generate Keywords?

There are different approaches and philosophies to generating keywords, and is a science in itself. I like to start off by doing some research using Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool. This will help you identify top keywords that drive large amounts of traffic. However, even if you do identify the right keywords, you need to have the right SEO practices in place to ensure your pages are optimized for that keyword.

My best piece of advice when optimizing for specific keywords is to create content for people, not search engines. I discussed this point in greater detail in one of my archived posts: Optimize for Human First, Search Engines Second.

If you’re just starting out, and need some base keywords, analyze your competitors websites. You can use Textalyser to generate keyword analysis of your competitor’s websites. You can use some of these base words to expand your research using AdWords Keyword Tool.

These online tools will provide you with a comprehensive list of related keywords, competitiveness and how many searches have been conducted for these keywords. But one thing you won’t see is how well they convert.

So, the next logical question is:

How Do I Generate Keywords That Convert?

The answer to this question lies in your ability and willingness to do some market research. If you been running your business offline, listen to and keep track of words and phrases your clients use. Most people will use conversational language to perform online searches as well.

If you already have an established website, analyze your visitor data using one of the analytics tools. Find out how people are finding your site, what keywords they use, which keywords make them stay longer, which keywords convert visitors to paying customers and so on. This subject is beyond the scope of this blog post. See what works and what doesn’t. Optimize your future content based on well performing keywords.

Of course having the right keywords, is just one piece of the puzzle. There are dozens of other SEO tactics you need to deploy such as having properly optimized tags, page titles, links, etc.

As I mentioned earlier, I strongly encourage you to prepare content for people first, and search engines second. Good quality content will drive traffic, reduce bounce rates, drive conversions and prompt your site visitors to share with their networks.

Archives For SEO

Fundamentals of Ranking Better on Search Engines

Just Create Good Content

Rat Race to Crack the Code

Create Good Content

How to Generate Keywords

How Do I Generate Keywords?

How Do I Generate Keywords That Convert?