The most effective SEO tactics are constantly evolving. Each time the search engines go through an update, their algorithms are changed to focus on different components. The components that carry a lot of weight with the search engines now might not mean a thing by the time a new update rolls out. If your SEO campaign isn’t versatile enough to roll with the flow, you and your website are going to be left behind.
all alone……
……..at the bottom of the search engine results……….
……on the very last page.
The good news is there are lots – and I mean lots – of ways that you can avoid having your site end up in in SEO purgatory and I’m going to list 100 of them with you right now so that you can start putting together your best SEO campaign yet.
1. Thou shalt provide high quality content.
The benefits of high quality content are threefold: It helps establish you as an authority in your niche; it makes people more likely to share your content with others; it will give your site high marks within the search engines.
2. Thou shalt not duplicate content.
Duplicate content will get you penalised by the search engines or perhaps blacklisted or banned all together, all of which defeat the purpose of your SEO efforts.
3. Thou shalt write for people, not for search engines.
Even though search engines are, technically speaking, robots – you don’t want your content to read as if it was written for one. When creating content for your site, remember you’re writing for a human audience. Be sure that your content is easy to read, easy to understand, well-written and informative.
4. Thou shalt know your targeted audience.
You have to know who you’re speaking to in order to know what to say, right? That’s why you should know who your targeted audience is before you being posting content to your site.
5. Thou shalt write for your targeted audience.
Once you know who you want to talk to and what they want to hear, you can create content that will convey your thoughts in a way they will be most receptive to. Knowing what your audience really wants puts you in a better position to provide them with it.
6. Thou shalt not spin.
It’s usually poorly written, hard to read and does your search engine rankings absolutely no good. Never mind the fact that your audience is going to be turned off by the machine-generated babble that content spinning programs produce. Just avoid it all together.
7. Thou shalt not wear a black hat.
Black hat SEO tactics are one of the top reasons website end up penalised, blacklisted or banned from search engines. If it’s a sneaky underhanded trick, stay far, far away from it because it will absolutely do your site more harm than good.
8. Thou shalt research relevant keywords.
Do your homework by researching which keywords are ranking within your niche. Choose a few of them to incorporate into your content.
9. Thou shalt not stuff.
Once you’ve found relevant keywords, use them naturally and sparingly. Write your content to include the keywords in a way that they occur naturally. This is great for your readers and great for search engine rankings.
10. Thou shalt keep keywords relevant.
Keep your keywords relevant all through out your site. Change them up so that they are relevant to each page instead of using the same ones over and over, page after page.
11. Thou shalt reciprocate with links.
If someone links to you, link back to them. It’s good karma and good for SERP as well.
12. Thou shalt not partake in link schemes.
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Even if you end up with 1,000 inbound links by being part of such a tactic, you won’t benefit from them because they will usually be from very low ranking, low value sites.
13. Thou shalt avoid low value links.
You want inbound links. You just don’t want low value ones from low ranking, invaluable sites.
14. Thou shalt strive for high value links.
Inbound links from high value, high traffic, reputable sites will make your site ‘cooler by association’ where the search engines are concerned and can really help improve your site’s ranking.
15. Thou shalt not beg for links.
It’s tacky. Earn them by providing quality content that establishes you as an authority in your niche instead.
16. Thou shalt spy on your competition.
Check out their search engine rankings, keywords and link strategy to see if there’s anything about your SEO campaign that you can tweak for better results.
17. Thou shalt use keywords in your meta data.
Your visitors won’t see this, but the search engine will hone in on it so be sure that you include relevant keywords in the meta data on each page of your site.
18. Thou shalt have a site map.
Use a site map creator to provide the search engines with a map of your site. Maps make it easier for the search engines to crawl your site to find the good stuff that’s going to get you a high ranking.
19. Thou shalt not hide stuff.
Hiding keyword-laden text or links on your site won’t help your rankings and may even get you penalised.
20. Thou shalt read the guidelines.
Educate yourself about the search engine guidelines and what they deem appropriate or not when it comes to SEO tactics.
21. Thou shalt follow the guidelines.
Failure to do so may result in your site being penalised or blacklisted.
22. Thou shalt create compelling headlines.
The more compelling the title, the more likely people are to click the link.
23. Thou shalt include keywords in your titles.
This will help search engines find your content more easily.
24. Thou shalt not covet your neighbor’s blackhat.
If you see your competition engaging in blackhat SEO tactics that seem to be working well for their search engine placement, resist the urge to follow their lead. They will be back at the bottom in no time because of penalties and blacklisting.
25. Thou shalt know thy search terms.
Which terms are people most likely to use when looking for the kind of content your site has to offer? Those terms should be your keywords.
26. Thou shalt use long-tail keywords, too.
Keyword strings of three or four words are easier to rank on than single keywords.
27. Thou shalt name your images correctly.
Use relevant keywords to describe your images. Rename them according to your keywords. Use your image alt tags
28. Thou shalt keep a blog.
Link your posts back to your website.
29. Thou shalt keep your blog current.
Always add fresh content to your blog to keep it interesting.
30. Thou shalt comment on other blogs.
This gives you a chance to link back to your own blog.
31. Thou shalt not spam other blogs.
Don’t overdo the commenting bit. You don’t want to look like a spammer.
32. Thou shalt link to other blogs.
It will make them more likely to link back to yours.
33. Thou shalt only link to high traffic blogs.
Low value links won’t do you any good so avoid linking to low-end blogs and splogs. You don’t want to be associated with a bad link neighbourhood.
34. Thou shalt be grammatically correct.
Be sure your content is grammatically correct and error free.
35. Thou shalt not violate the TOS.
Violating the TOS of a search engine will get you banned. Don’t do it.
36. Thou shalt not violate your audience’s trust.
Don’t spam them, send malware or constantly hound them to buy something. Treat them like you want to be treated.
37. Thou shalt distribute press releases.
Press release distribution is a great way to create quality inbound links and is mostly eggective when you need to get that breaking news out to your prospects.
38. Thou shalt do article marketing.
Article marketing is another great way to create good inbound links. I am not talking about the article marketing pre-penguin era. Use high quality content and use ONLY niche based article websites.
39. Thou shalt refrain from using FLASH.
Using some FLASH is acceptable, but creating an entire site from it leads to poor search engine results due to the lack of quality text. Plus, it’s really annoying to visitors.
40. Thou shalt reciprocate engagement.
Responding to queries, social media comments and other commentary left by your following will help build trust and establish your authority in your niche.
41. Thou shalt reward your audience.
Provide them with free ebooks, white papers and other free, yet resourceful content to help build trust and loyalty.
42. Thou shalt use anchor text.
Use keywords as anchor text when linking back to your website or blog.
43. Thou shalt add variety to your anchor text.
Use different keywords as anchor text instead of the same few over and over.
44. Thou shalt link to different pages.
Don’t just link to the same page using anchor text. Link to a variety of different pages within your site or blog for best results.
45. Thou shalt be geographically correct.
Use geographical keywords in your content to rank high in local search engine results for your niche.
46. Thou shalt obey the TOS of your hosting provider and ISP.
Failing to do so is another way to get your site taken offline.
47. Thou shalt not buy links.
Google will come down hard on you for this.
48. Thou shalt not sell links.
Google will doesn’t like this, either.
49. Thou shalt not fill up your site with ads.
Nobody likes ads so use them sparingly and place them strategically for the best results.
50. Thou shalt not mix advertisements.
Keep your Google, Yahoo and other ads on separate pages from one another.
That’s it for this week but make sure you stay tuned until next week where I will give you the run down from 50 – 100 top seo commandments, including the secret that is “The Code”.
