Search Engine Ranking – Secret to help you rank #1 on like Google, Bing and Yahoo.

By Dennis Romano
SEO Digital Strategist and Founder, Envisiondr.com

Given what I do for a living, people (those currently paying us for advice, and those in front of me on line in the hardware store) frequently ask me to share the latest “tricks” for improving their site’s search engine ranking.

What an indictment of digital marketing

Even though the intelligence of search engines continues to advance faster than tricksters can follow, there persists an idea that there are low effort, quick and dirty tactics that can improve a site’s ranking.

The truth is, the same tactics that “experts” would recommend just a few years ago (like buying links) will land you in Google penitentiary today – and when that happens, it takes a long time to work yourself off a search engine blacklist.

And, those lazy practices are what ruined the Internet and gummed up SEO marketing for the rest of us, anyway.

When I go to Bing and enter a search term, I don’t want to land on a page of only slightly related links that lead to more links or to resources that may or may not answer my question. I want to land on the most relevant page the first time.  Period.  And, so do you!

For example, many people, particularly on the B2B web development side, used to think of keyword stuffing as not only a good idea, but as a requirement for good SEO.

This is because even fairly-recently, search engines were only capable of interpreting the simplest signals.  Things like keyword density – stuffing keywords into a web page to make it seem more relevant were all the rage.

Keyword overdose and website death by black hat tricks

If one or two phrases related to your hobby or business could help focus Yahoo on your page – why not stuff 35 or 40 sort-of-related phrases to increase the number of views?

Fortunately, that trick no longer works. Nor does creating pages for every keyword variation or buying backlinks.  (Just don’t, it is search engine suicide.)  When a visitor from your intended audience arrives on your page – you want to provide value for them, not gobbledygook. Writing with the intent to trick machines is not how you inspire trust in your product or service.

SEO master guidelines still need to be followed

Don’t get me wrong, it’s still important to stay current on SEO master guidelines. Understanding best practices for things like tagging and handling non-textual content and Anchor Text are still very important (that’s why my clients still need me). It’s just that there is no good reason to publish a website without having something interesting to share.

About Content

It is content that the search engines need – it’s why people go to them.  In fact, according to Bing, content should be “easy to navigate, rich and engaging to the visitor, and provide them the information they seek.”  It should also be clear, deep, and easy to find.

Content should be original, well-written, accurate, and engaging. And there is no ideal length however the rule of thumb for blogs is 800 words are “good” and 2500 words are “best”. 

Business Website Content

For business, websites write just enough to serve the needs of your target audience and convert them into a customer.

That may mean a few hundred words or that may mean several thousand words. We also notice that for the most part, well-written content ultimately survives Algorithm changes too.

Please do it right

Critically, a lack of time and resources can often lead to rushing or, potentially even worse, the outsourcing of content creation to non-native speakers, budget services, or to inexperienced writers using keyword suggestion software without the domain knowledge necessary to understand what’s important to you and your audience.

For this reason, every bit of copy on our sites is written by a human being, a native speaker of the page’s primary language, who is experienced in the domain about which they are writing.

Well, folks – that’s the trick to ranking #1 in Search engine rank results. Feel free to contact Dennis if you have any questions or are interested in utilizing our company SEO or website design services.