The number one most important thing to focus on when trying to build traffic to your website is… content that your target audience can use! That’s it, top dog. No debate.
And yet, there are so many SEO “experts” out there who seem to either miss this or ignore it altogether.
I am a partner at a web design and development firm. I know a few things about SEO.
But, for some reason, I get pitched DAILY via email and occasionally on the phone by companies trying to “improve my traffic” using words like “dramatically” and “guaranteed.”
First of all, did they even read our services page before they called? Doubtful. We rank very well and get great traffic. And yet, they seem to know something we don’t.
They have the secret! Whew. So glad someone knows the secret.
Yes, I’m being a tad bit snarky here. But, it drives us insane that so called experts are feeding good, reputable companies a bunch of malarky.
The other day I was speaking to an MBA class on online marketing. One of the students (who also owns his own company) asked if he should listen to all the “optimization companies” calling him. My answer, there are lots of great SEO firms out there but “if it seems shady, it is.”
SEO firms who are great at what they do will probably not be cold calling you.
Most of these companies are one trick ponies. They found a solution that worked and continue to use that again and again. Great! You’re getting traffic, awesome! Is it converting? Are you building trust? Is this sustainable? What happens when Google changes the rules? Are you safe?
The only way to truly know you are safe is to always focus on delivering great content to the user. Focus on their experience. Focus on giving them what they need. Google is smart enough to see this and rank you accordingly.
If you try to game the system, think about who you’re up against… a bunch of very smart programmers whose job it is to sniff you out.
But wait, what about Meta keyword tags? That’s the answer! You have to have Meta keyword tags right? Hmm, let’s ask Matt Cutts, head of the webspam team at Google, what he thinks (in 2009!)…
There are Meta tags that Google will use but Meta keyword tags have no impact on ranking whatsoever. Meta descriptions, while they don’t directly impact ranking, do have some importance in terms of traffic.
Google will use your Meta description in the listing (or some version of it). So, it is a good idea to have a compelling Meta description. But, it has very little to no impact on the ranking of your website.
It’s the content, the utility content that matters. And unless they are discussing code, they’re either pitching advertising or snake oil.