Tech Rant: SEO Debunked

There's no mystery or hocus pocus to get a top search result, but know that you're really looking for a good content editor who will gear your site for SEO.

SEO or search-engine optimization is the strategy to increase your website traffic by obtaining a high-ranking search result on the top search engines. To have your site appear in the top three to five results, let alone number one for a given search term on the first page of search results is a much-coveted spot.

To gain a top search result, it's about page content and title tags. Come up with a list of key search terms/phrases for your site. Place them in your homepage HTML title tag (Ex. "Buy Tires, Brake Service - Bubba's Tire Shop"). Then in your homepage content, write informative text that incorporates these key terms/phrases throughout the page. Do the same for your sub-landing pages and content pages, and give them their own unique and relevant title tags.

Another big help is to have the first piece of content on the page be text as opposed to an image, especially if it's the name of your company or content title, along with a short description that again uses your key terms/phrases. With today's CSS techniques, you can easily style this text to look as if it's an image or your company's logo. When you do incorporate images, be sure to add the appropriate "alt" attribute for the image/content.

Yes, you should have HTML meta tags for keywords and description, but these are not weighted as heavily as content and title. Also goes without saying, your pages should load as quickly as possible not just for search indexing, but for visitor retention and usability.

Additionally, provide as many links back to your site/pages as possible, which can be easily achieved by having all your company's social media sites link to your site, and regularly update social media with links to individual content pages. Rankings also improve by having your site clicked within the search results, so every time you run a test to see where your site ranks for a given search term, go ahead and click it.

When your site content is good to go, and if you haven't done so already, submit a Google sitemap.

There's been a lot of discussion of late about mobile vs. desktop sites, and if Google is ranking mobile-friendly sites higher than others or not. More specifically, if responsive-designed sites are being ranked higher than a site that has a separate mobile site and directs/serves mobile pages to users based on the device being used.

Google claims it does not favor any mobile URL method vs. another, provided all page assets (CSS, images, etc.) are accessible to their Googlebot indexing agents.

There has been no definitive proof to date to dispute Google's claim, but I think it's very interesting that just above this claim, Google states in bold text, "Responsive design is Google's recommended design pattern." Certainly, makes you go "Hmmm... ", but from Google's perspective it makes sense for them to prefer only indexing one site vs. doubling the number of pages indexed per site for dynamic/separate mobile sites.

Of course, choosing a mobile format should be dictated by your site's content and functionality, for example an ecommerce site's shopping functions may be better suited with a separate mobile site. I for one, prefer the responsive design if applicable, because you only have to create/maintain a single site.

While it wouldn't hurt to have an "SEO expert" go through your site, make sure they know that content is (still) king. - Salud!