SEO Is Like Dating

Spark

SEO dating

It’s no secret that SEO can be a little confusing, and much like the opposite sex, is often misunderstood.

SEO is a complicated process, and takes time and commitment to truly benefit from. As with dating, SEO is an area where some thrive, and others flounder, where spending money doesn’t guarantee success, and where you may have wasted time before in the past. With that said, there is hope.

Don’t be too eager

Nobody likes a try hard. Especially Google. A good SEO should use optimization techniques effectively, not excessively. This is a crucial distinction. If you flood your site with keywords, in/outbound links, and manipulative metatitles, Google will deem your site to be unauthentic, causing your traffic to plummet.

Just like cologne on a first date, too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. Don’t over optimize.

Be yourself

We all know that content is king, yet it’s surprising how many sites still utilize “black hat” strategies. Google’s recent updates, most notably Panda, have been increasingly content focused, rewarding sites that feature original content, and provide real value to their users. Black hat techniques may offer you short-term gains in traffic, but your success will be short lived. Google will eventually realize what’s going on, and your traffic will look something like the graph below…

Black hat vs. white hat

*This graph serves to illustrate the point above, and is not based on real data.

Your content strategy should be unique, authentic, and focused on consumer engagement. If you attempt to be something you’re not, you’re going to attract the wrong type of traffic to your site, which will be clearly reflected through your analytics. Instead, focus on rewarding the users you do want to attract. This is what will have the best long-term impact on your traffic, and ultimately, your conversion rate.

Make sure you speak the same language

Your website language is an incredibly important factor in your Google rank. Simply put, if your site isn’t readable by Google spiders, you can’t rank. HTML is undeniably the language Google recognizes most easily, however, web design trends have been swaying more towards minimal, image-based sites. Unfortunately, if your site is heavily image based, or uses java or flash, to Google your website’s speaking Greek (metaphorically of course, Google does actually recognize the Greek language).

Don’t be cheap

Gemma Foster, Spark’s SEO Specialist, wrote a great article on the downsides of cheap SEO, so you should already be well aware of the issues it can cause. Simply put, if you take your date to Taco Bell she might not call you again, but if you go cheap on SEO you can incur a Google penalty, of which the effects are much more lasting.

Whether you’re performing your own SEO or hiring an expert, it’s important to maintain realistic expectations. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Do your research, make goals, and set a timeline, while realizing that with SEO there is no cookie cutter solution. Every industry, and every client is unique, requiring a customized strategy.

Questions? Comments? Let me know below, and if you’re interested in increasing your search engine presence, give us a call!

Spark

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