Perfect SEO Pages

In SEO Failure is the Key to Success

Ron Fortier — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:57:56 +0000

I wanted to take a few moments and discuss the concept that I believe is an absolute truth and that is that in SEO failure is the key to success. And that might seem like a very strange philosophy but if you think about it chances are in your life you’ve learned so much more from your failures than your individual successes. You’ve learned more from bosses how not to do things than been inspired on positive paths.

We all do tests on a daily basis. We operate on what we believe to be the best practices and the most effective means to achieve our goals, but the reality is we’re not perfect. We will make mistakes or perhaps we may do things right but they simply aren’t as effective as something else we might be doing. If you are truly trying to be the best in all aspects of your business you should be making some number of mistakes. Otherwise you’re just playing it safe and leaving money on the table.

A fundamental differentiating factor of the SEO business is that everything we do is tracked and evaluated. Much like infomercials, the SEO business has hard verifiable and quantifiable measure of success. If an infomercial runs and receives no orders, it is hard to argue that it was a success. If an infomercial runs and receives thousands of orders is hard to argue that it was a failure. Likewise with SEO if your page does not rank it is hard to argue that you’ve accomplished something.

Therefore as you test different content elements and technical aspects of your page development I think it is important that you do have some failure. With the failure or perhaps ultimately lack of success in ranking, you establish a benchmark where baseline from which you can iterate. Make it shorter, make it longer, add more details, add images MP3 files and other content elements that help focus the page around the phrase you’re trying to rank for.

Truly your success can only come from complete luck or from the iteration from your baseline. Said differently failure is your key to success.

SEO content should be written with the expectation that a person will read it

Ron Fortier — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:31:09 +0000

So often we get caught up in the technical aspects of SEO. We focus on the density and repetition of individual words or phrases. We concentrate on where to italicize, where to underline, and where to bold the text. We agonize over titles and over headings but there is always the chance that we don’t agonize over potentially the most important factor to consider and that is the reader.

After all are we not trying to motivate the reader to take action? The action may be as simple as click on a link, or it may be as complex as filling out a contact form but regardless of the action the intent has to be to get the reader to take action. I guess altruistically you may just be trying to impart information but the percentage of pure information posts has to be so statically insignificant that they are not even a rounding error if stats were to be performed.

Now I am not suggesting that we create content without knowing our ultimate SEO goals. You may be trying to establish anchor text and a link to a page. You want and expect the search engine spiders crawl and digest your page in the way you have planned. My hope is that you are writing for more than a search engine spider because dry robotic text has no viral component whatsoever. After all who would forward a link to a spammy blog post. The content must be compelling while still achieving the SEO benchmarks and targets.

Never lose sight of your target audience and right for them. It is compelling content that will enable you to go viral on twitter and that will get people digging your posts.

Can a 404 be a good thing?

Ron Fortier — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 20:16:41 +0000

Do you permanently live in 301 land? I’m not sure that is always the best practice. It is my opinion that it isn’t bad if Google finds a 404 now and then. After all it means you’re working on your site. It also means you’re human, and not some programmatically generated thing.

Read why 404’s aren’t always bad for SEO

PageRank Sculpting: Should You Be Using the Nofollow Tag?

Ron Fortier — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:17:49 +0000

There has long been a debate as to how to use the nofollow tag specifically to control the way that pagerank flows through the links on a page. Can you or is it kosher to eliminate certain links from pagerank distribution simply by using the nofollow tag? Why not learn from the best? Matt Cutt’s from Google confirms once again that content is King.

Want to know more about the do’s and don’ts of pagerank sculpting? I suggest that you read Matt’s excellent post.

Top 10 Mistakes of SEO’s

Ron Fortier — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 08:03:20 +0000

Wrong keywords, too little content, or no meta data? All are bad, but what would you put on the top ten mistakes of search engine optimizers? Duplicate title tags are a bad one. All flash sites are another one. After all, how do you do a deep link into flash?

The top ten mistakes of search engine optimizers

A Complete Guide to Search Engine Optimization

Ron Fortier — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 06:58:32 +0000

Sometimes you are looking for a complete guide. An article here is good, and article there is better, but what you’re seeking is the complete guide. And now Deepak Bansal has penned a book for your review. The book contains the ABC’s of SEO to boost your website traffic.

A new book on search engine optimization

Using Analytics to Measure Your SEO Success

Ron Fortier — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 03:57:58 +0000

Rankings are a good measure of success, but you should really use some analytic tool to truly measure your success. Tools like Google Analytics are invaluable. You really need to understand how your traffic finds you, and how much the interact with your site.

Should you use analytics to measure your SEO success

Details on the top 5 strategies of SEO companies

Ron Fortier — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 06:55:57 +0000

There is some debate on the subject of what are the top 5 strategies SEO companies should employ. What would you place at the top of your list? Keword research? Interal linking strategies? External inbound link campaigns?

What are the top 5 strategies SEO companies employ?

Consider building links via Social Bookmarking

Ron Fortier — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 04:51:19 +0000

Social meda sites are a hot topic right now. Should you consider building your inbound links via social bookmarking? It is something to consider.

Learn more about SEO and social bookmarking

Should SEO be an afterthought?

Ron Fortier — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 03:50:57 +0000

Are you kidding me? I cannot believe I still hear in this day and age of people who do not integrate SEO in the design phase. SEO cannot be left to a post process operation.

Read more about should SEO be an afterthought?