The first is kind of obvious but so important. Provide great content and build a professional looking site.I created a site that had some good content but the site itself lacked the professional sheen that my competitors had and on the internet where your competition is a click away that can be fatal. By monitoring the bounce rate of your site through Google analytics and by looking at competitors sites its easy enough to spot when a sites web design isn't up to par.

The second is research. If you don't do your homework you can end up optimizing for a search term that no one is hunting for or that even with a number one position doesn't convert visitors into customers, readers, subscribers or whatever. Finding a search term that has not been optimized heavily for and that gets a lot of searches is one of the most important aspects of an optimizing campaign and should be given the time it deserves. Consider not only geographical alternatives on a theme but also misspellings.

Consider also whether or not your site can deliver for the visitors that your optimizing campaign will bring in. If for example you are optimizing for cheap electronics have a look at who your competitors will be once you're on the front page of results . If they are offering products at a much lower price than you and have a wider range then the research stage is when you should be judging whether or not a search term is worth the hassle. Keyword research is the first thing an SEO company should do for your business.


Calum Macleod is an SEO consultant for Scotland web design company 360innovate

Article courtesy GoArticles