The frame of mind you are required to be in if you want to succeed in ranking a website with SEO is really no different to the frame of mind required to succeed in anything else, business, rapping, acting or otherwise. I think Will Smith said it best when he said “If you are not making someone else’s life better, then you are wasting your time.” I am going to explain how you can implement the message behind this broad motivational statement into the individual elements of your SEO campaign and make it a success.
Choosing Keywords
I can think of many occasions when I have searched for something in Google and see the first result and think, “Hell yes! This is exactly what I needed. I can stop looking now.”
Whenever I pick the keyword I would like to focus on I ask myself whether I am going to be creating that exact same meaningful experience for Google’s users. So many people just pick phrases they think will convert like crazy due to the amount of traffic they will be exposed to, but they don’t stop and think about what sort of experience they will be creating for the user. When a user sees your website in the SERPs their life needs to become better, otherwise your business and your bank account will not benefit from the experience – ultimately you are wasting your time. This is also good strategy when choosing AdWords keywords.
Writing Content
I spend a lot of time on the web and being the online marketer that I am, I read web copy and notice straight away whether or not the author is putting just that little bit too much effort into mentioning their focus keyword. It is called keyword stuffing and besides the fact that it reads badly it is not meaningful for your readings who are seeking out information, the reason why they are reading your content in the first place. I am not the best copywriter in the world but I believe in what I am writing about and that the copy that I am providing is solving a problem that the reader is searching for, in saying that I don’t even think about how many times I am mentioning a specific keyword. Sure, from an analysis point of view I often go back and check that there is a reasonable keyword density but I always notice it comes naturally when I am writing good stuff and I never have to change anything. My aim is to make the life of the user better and by doing so; my keyword density is spot on.
Choosing Anchor Text
More so than both of the other sub-topics in this post put together, I get into arguments with people who tell me things such as “It would technically be relevant for you to link out to your SEO page, every time I mention SEO in a blog post.” While my SEO page would technically have something to do with what I am talking about, landing on a sales page would not improve the experience of my reader who is trying to learn something about Latent Semantic Indexing (you see what I did there?) or anything else I may be posting about. Basically, to choose anchor text that Will Smith would be proud of, you need to take a look at what problems you are solving with your page and then link to it with anchor text that would grab the attention of a reader with that problem. You won’t always get to link out with your focus keyword as your anchor text. But, I promise if you use this method, Google will very soon start seeing you as the most relevant result when users are searching for your products or services. I like to think of it like digital Karma.
This really is priceless SEO advice. These practises are what we provide our clients with and it is the reason why they are achieving results as well as keep paying us. This strategy does take longer, but the results are well worth the wait. Go forth and make it happen, but don’t do anything Will wouldn’t do.
