The SEO Expert’s 7 Secret Skills For Campaign Success
Generally speaking, SEO is an art of combined skill sets working in synergy to produce the best possible results in the search engines and of course, with your prospects. Every successful SEO expert understands and utilizes to the maximum extent of their knowledge these seven specific skills for maximum campaign success.
1. SEO Web Design. With the available tools and technology today, just about anyone with limited HTML knowledge can successfully produce an eye-catching website with flash animations and clever features to entice visitors. What some business owners don’t understand is that over 50% of your design work is actually done before a single code is written for your site.
Correctly built websites are constructed around specific keyword research and consumer clicking habits. Without a fundamental understanding of SEO and search engine algorithms, your website will not be structured properly, search engines will not index it properly, and ultimately, your targeted prospects will never find you. Websites are business owners most powerful marketing tool, and yet, have been some of their worst investments when not properly structured by an SEO expert.
2. HTML Coding. Site building software is sufficient enough for constructing a useable website. However, honing specific HTML coding skills is what sets apart the search engine winners from the losers. Advanced knowledge of search engine spider tendencies, algorithms and HTML coding is essential for any SEO campaign success. Search engines constantly update and change their indexing algorithms, making HTML coding an ongoing learning experience.
3. SEO Copy Writing. It’s a true art form. Incorporating your targeted keywords into seamless sentences while simultaneously creating a strong persuasive impact and call to action to prospects. It takes practice, practice and more practice! If you’re not already a strong writer, this may be one of the most difficult parts of constructing a successful SEO campaign.
4. SEO Marketing. Marketing is what we’re doing here, right? Marketing your company and products on the internet starts with researching consumer search and click habits directly related to your sector or niche. This is essential to success, as a site built around incorrect keywords or phrases will ultimately reach the wrong targeted audience.
5. Superior Eye For Detail. A quick and simple change to a web page can have devastating results if not addressed properly. A high search engine ranking can be lost overnight by a simple HTML error, among many other things. Having a keen eye for detail is key, as literally every dot and cross throughout your website plays a role in a successful SEO campaign.
6. Patience is a Virtue! Patience, patience, patience! It’s a must-have skill when working on a successful SEO campaign. Changes implemented today may take a week or longer to adjust themselves with the search engines or other linking assets. A common problem I see is with business owners who purchase a new domain, and expect it to surface on the search engine results pages (SERPS) overnight. New domains can have a “trial” period of 3 weeks, 3 months, or even 3 years before the search engines decide to index it. Patience and persistence is key!
7. Proper IT Knowledge. Fundamental IT and mathematical knowledge is the last secret weapon of SEO experts. Highly successful SEO experts have a strong understanding of programming at a detailed systems level. Combined with the aforementioned skills, IT knowledge wraps everything together in an easily recognizable plan of attack.
You need results and you need them now, and as a business owner, you’re busy. Who has the time to research and wade through endless mounds of data and statistics? Who has the time to read endless books of regurgitated information on “proper keyword research”? I would tend to believe that as a business owner, you don’t. Thankfully for us, there’s great free tools to make this a quick, easy, and successful process. It’s important to understand that SEO is truly a long term investment, with long term, sustainable results. SEO is not an overnight solution by any means. The point of these action posts is to cut through all the technical jumbo, rumors, and philosophy. You need simple steps to improve your web marketing this year, and that’s what we’re going to do here.
Since (we assume) your SEO has been either accidental or non-existant to this point, it will serve you best to target only one (1) specific keyphrase per page of your website. For example, if you were a plumber in Massachusetts, your home page may target the phrase “plumber in MA”, while your service page may target “plumbing service in Massachusetts”, while your contact page may target “emergency plumber in Massachusetts”, and so on. At this early stage in your search engine optimization, and for quicker results, it will serve you best to target only one (1) specific keyphrase per page.
Search engine optimization has always been quite a complex and diverse topic, full of much debate, that’s constantly changing and evolving. Business owners are often times left confused when trying to tackle their own SEO, as there have been hundreds of myths and falsified facts that have been freely distributed about search engine optimization over the years. Some of these myths held a pinch of truth, although no longer apply due to outdated information and updated algorithms, while others were simply rumors and opinions that never held a pinch of truth to begin with. Web designers and SEO consultants often times have differing opinions, expertise, and experience regarding search engine optimization. Combine this with the growing amount of blogs, forums and social networking sites and you have the perfect environment for creating myths, and spreading them like wildfire!
SEO companies