SEO – Top Serial Killers

There’s a lot to remember when incorporating search engine optimisation into your marketing plan, especially if you’re going at it alone via DIY SEO. There are methods that you are using and not using that could be hurting your ranking right now. If you’re not happy with your current search engine ranking, find out how you can combat some major SEO killers!

Have You Checked The Quality of Those Links?

Quality link building is an important component for good rankings. If you associate yourself with high ranked sites in your niche, it’ll only help grow your visibility to search engines. Furthermore, you need to work hard to get your own websites featured on those golden, Google-approved pages; proving again the required daily commitment for achieving high page ranks.

There are various elements used in Google’s algorithm for ranking; factors like anchor text, relevancy and user-friendly sitemaps are all calculated into a site’s ranking for example. High-authority sites with .org extensions also look good to Google. If you’re writing a blog post, and a certain .org site is relevant to the post and its readers, feel free to include it naturally within your post.

Avoid linking to sites that have been hit hard by search engines for spam. That’s why it’s important to research the quality of the links you’re including in your strategy.

Do You Have Enough Link Bait On Your Site?

This is an important one that may be overlooked. While checking for quality links is vital for link building, you have to make sure your own content is up to par. Link bait is exactly that, web pages that encourage people to link to them in their own posts. Along with site promotion and social media outreach, having link bait-friendly content can make an extraordinary difference in your SEO rankings.

If you’re content lacks that edge your target visitors want, then it’s time to make a change. If your content offers some kind of value to the reader, it’s definitely link bait material. Try adding fascinating and relevant video content to your site to increase more backlinks too!

Meet Penguin & Panda!

Don’t be fooled by the cute names, as these normally cute and cuddly creatures are real killers.

Are you familiar with Google’s notorious Penguin and Panda updates? If not, that’s probably the reason why you’re unhappy with your SEO ranking. SEO experienced some major changes when Google rolled out their Panda update in 2011 and it continues today with the current Penguin edition.

For example, if you’re still keyword stuffing your content, then you’re definitely killing your SEO! Stay away from Black Hat SEO techniques, keyword cloaking and duplicate content too, since those don’t bode well with Penguin. Furthermore, you have to make sure that your anchor texts aren’t included with content that’s deemed unsatisfactory by search engines.