Learn SEO | Search Engine Optimization Tips and Techniques

If you are any kind of barbecue fan then you have heard the term “low and slow”.  Search engine optimization is like a good barbecue. To be effective and long lasting SEO needs to be low and slow as well.  The best barbecue is when the meat has spent 16 or so hours on the smoker with indirect low heat and everything cooks at a nice even temperature and the smoke is allowed to penetrate the meat.

Search engine optimization, if done correctly, is also a process that takes time. If you are expecting your website to instantly pop in on page one of Google I am afraid you are going to be in for a rude awakening. I will admit there are times when a new website ranks well but that is usually for some obscure keyword or phrase that has no competition.  But for the most part a website entering into a highly competative arena is going to take time to rise up the search rankings.

My first attempt at smoking a brisket was a disaster. It cooked way to fast over heat that was about double what it should have been. Grease from the brisket started a fire in the smoker and it went down hill from there. I tried to salvage what I had but when I finally thought it was all done it was barely fit to eat. The outside was almost black from the crust that had formed when the fire erupted. The middle was barely cooked and most of the juices had been sucked out.

The same thing will happen if you try to rush your SEO campaign. I can guarantee you that if you use shadey techniques to get that top spot you will have a fire eventually and Mr Matt Cutts will come put your fire out in a serious way by banning your site. Shadey SEO techniques include hidden keywords, buying text links, link schemes, keyword stuffing, etc…..   If you conduct your SEO campaign correctly you will have a great site that is well done and ranks well on Google and the other search engines as well.  Like smoking a slab of ribs or a brisket, SEO has to be planned and prepped and then given time to grow naturally. Here are some of my tips for a great search engine optimization campaign.

• Plan your site with search engine optimization in mind.  That means designers and SEO people need to put their ego’s aside and work together to create a site layout and navigation that is people friendly and spider friendly.
• Go organic – don’t by links from large companies that promise you a hundred inbound links for x amount of dollars. You never know where those links are coming from and odds are those companies are on the radar of the search engines and it doesn’t take much to follow that link trail to you.
• Great content – If you want naturally occurring one one way in bound links (read organic) then you have to have something worth linking to. Write great content that people will want to read and use. Make your site a resource that people will come back to over and over again.
• Don’t rush things – SEO takes time and you must be patient. Quality always grows over time.  Sure you can go out and do a thousand link exchanges in a month but that kind of activity raises a red flag with the search engines and is more than likely to get your site banned or at the very least buried deep in the search rankings
• Don’t be too flashy with bells and whistles on your site – Your website needs to look good and make a good first impression. But if you have too much going on and it causes your site load slowly people are not going to wait around. It is kind of like biting into a rib that has been cooked too fast…… it is tough and chewy and not very good…… usually winds up with the dog munching on it.

Of course there are many other things that go into a good SEO campaign but at the core is a slow process that isn’t too hot that produces good long term results.

There are of course the technical issues such as page titles, descriptions, keyword selection, navigation and such and I will touch on those in future postings.  What is your SEO technique like? Low and Slow or Hot and Fast??

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