SEO for Beginners: I Am Legend – Starring Google as Will Smith

Image by thms.nl via Flickr

This post is in response to one of my newest friends who I really respect for asking how to get more traffic-quick, fast and in a hurry through SEO.  See so many people make the mistake of not asking that you’ve got to give someone props for asking questions-especially when they ask the right question like my friend did!

Dunno if u saw or remember Karate Kid. But u can liken what I’m about to say to Mr Miyagi’s wipe up wipe down method LOL!!!

See the way SEO works is there are lots and lots of search engines but even more websites. Of course the dominant search engine is google, who controls something like 70% + of the search engine market.

Understanding google will help u a lot in this game. Did you see Will Smith’s zombie movie, I Am Legend? If you didnt, don’t even matter. Lets just visualize Google as the proverbial house on the hill-in a land full of blood thirsty zombies.

In this case though the Zombies are websites who use overly aggressive or outright spammy tactics to get their search terms to the top of Google. What do you think Google will do to protect their house?

If u said fight, u were absolutely correct. See in the beginning of search engine optimization technolgists/web masters learned that if they did shady stuff like stuff their pages with keywords (words that their visitors type into the search box to find the websites) they could get higher rankings.

What did Google do-they fought back with an update. And that cat and mouse, back and forth ebb and flow between Google and website owners has been in full effect every since.

What that means to u is that it’s exponentially harder to get ranked for the search terms that matter for you than it was for those early website owners. By harder I mean its more expensive (yep SEO can get super expensive), it takes a lot longer, and it’s not just a matter of grunt work anymore – you actually gotta think and think and think…Then u need to test, test test and improve, improve, improve.

Put it like this on average it has taken me six to seven months to get my money sites ( pages with strong call to actions that make my visitors pull the trigger and either answer “yes I wanna buy or no I aint buying”) ranked within the top five results.

Of course, it’s worth the wait. But I’m just saying SEO isn’t a magic lever that u get to turn on and off. The big benefit that SEO has had, historically (before Google’s hyper aggressive sweeping chances went into full effect), is that once u SEO a site u’ve got a near permanent ATM machine (again I’m talking for sites that have offers and sell stuff as their business model, sites that earn revenue solely from ads are slightly different).

The way SEO gets expensive is that it can be highly time intensive, it requires robust research (which means u have to pay for programs), heavy duty data mining or analysis, as well as automation software to help u with the grunt work.

There are gurus out there that will have u thinking that there’s a magic pill for SEO but don’t believe the hype. Google aint giving out free zombie passes (sorry couldn’t resist when their business model depends on them precisely matching search results to the intent of the searcher.

So how do u get onto the coveted page one or even better top result position for ur keywords? Well, I will end on this note…

There’s 3…No 4 pillars (four thanks to Google’s latest sweeping overhaul – the Panda update) u need to build ur search strategy around:

1. Website Architecture – the structure of ur files, urls, html tags
2. Onsite optimization – how ur using keywords and content on ur site and internal linking
3. Offsite Optimization – How many ppl are linking back to u, what words do they use to link to u, who r these ppl (r they nobodies in the eyes of Google or are they reputable?), is it a steady build up or is it more of a big push (in other words do ur links come over weeks or months or all at one time-if its in one big pop that smells fishy to Google)
4. Social Proof (the new kid on the block, thanks to the Panda update-how dare the damn folks at google LOL – How many ppl are using Google plus to plus ur content, how many are tweeting it, liking on facebook and etc.

Again this is crazy general but just call me Miyagi… aight!

Lastly, those four things were just pillars. The rock that they are built upon is keyword reasearch. Which can be a beast. Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying u gotta be a rocket science to do SEO cause u don’t.

But u need to have the mindset of one of those detectives on CSI though, which means u need to be 1. steadfast and hard driving 2. highly systematic 3. willing to change courses when the scent goes cold.

So honestly, given all that is anyone gonna tell me that this can be done in weeks or even a couple a months?

Usually when the gurus sell their quick approaches they’re addressing only one pillar or they are using a work around – a temporary crack in Google’s armor that they have exploited to good effect in the past… Just remember though. Google is the house on the hill, they will eventually find that nick in their wall and your sites WILL suffer if were relying solely on that crack in the wall to get in the house.

So what’s a sister or brother to do? Become an invited guest into the house of google; not an intruder. And again u become the invited guest through courtship – applying the four pillars of SEO on top of that foundation, which is keyword research.

Tagged As: Google, Panda, Search Engine, Search engine optimization, Web search engine