The SEO industry has experienced a sudden boom over the last few years, and we are in the thick of it at this exact moment. As this focus on SEO continues to build, the thoughts and strategies have become more intricate and involved. It is becoming ever more clear that the concept of a “basic website” is on its way out. This fact is making website designers and site optimizers wonder whether it is still possible to achieve overnight, painless SEO success these days, even though everybody else out there is making the same efforts?
When SEO first began, it seemed as though SEO was the magical key to the absolute best search engine ranking. And, for a while, it really was. All that was required was a list of keywords within the meta tags of a site, and there it would be at the top of the search lists at all major search engines and directories. And then, meta tags no longer counted, and doorway pages became the “thing”.
That didn’t last, leading next to links wherever they could be found. The more, the better. When links became important, web designers and web masters hurried to have link scripts built in to their sites and have directories of relevant categories. Most recently, this has changed to text link ads – paid links.
With all of these fads, Google was struggling to keep the “legitimate” efforts separate from the “SPAM” or manipulated sites. With paid links being overused, Google had to work overtime to filter out the manipulation of ranking. This is the primary reason that there is such a delay in the addition and indexing of new sites and brand new domains, even on this state-of-the-art, enormous search engine.
The problem that many sites face, though is that legitimate quality sites are sometimes being swept away in the catch-all fishnet being used by Google to filter out the “bad guys”. Webmasters who have poured months of time, and thousands of dollars into finding the ideal keywords for their sites, and then applying them with the best possible strategy going are now finding that their efforts were more of a fad than a long term investment.
However, their efforts were likely not entirely in vain. SEO does still work. It must be remembered, though, that it is not a matter of following one fad or another, but is instead a careful balance of the elements considered to be most important by Google and the other major search engines. It also means that a high ranking website will be one that is continuously updated to maintain its value in the eyes of the great Google.
Therefore, no longer is there any need for hours upon hours of time, and thousands upon thousands of dollars spent on attempting to fool search engines into giving you a good rank for the keyword phrases you think are most important to your site. Instead, work with an SEO specialist to find the keywords that actually have value to your site worked into your content. SEO isn’t just a matter of packing your content with the keyword you like best so that it looks like a bad form of keyword chicken pox. It is a delicate balance of keywords sprinkled at a certain ratio to the rest of your content’s text.
Furthermore, this content needs to be informative. Something that your visitors will value. This will increase your number of visitors, and, since this is one of the elements most valued by Google, this will help to increase and maintain your rank over time.
The point is that SEO can still be achieved rather painlessly and still be successful, as long as it is performed by someone who is aware of the latest important elements established by Google, and knows how to avoid getting caught in the filters. Your task, therefore, is no longer to spend a great deal of time and money on SEO, but to find someone who can assist, advise, and provide for you in a timely manner.
The results won’t happen overnight, nor will they even be seen within the first month, however will constant attention, they will be seen. Google has made it impossible to simply create a site that tops the ranks forever. But Google has not made it impossible to climb your rank and maintain a high status. Show them that you have a quality site that matters to the web users who make searches using certain words, and that these web users want to see your site, and Google will reward you with exactly what you want – the high ranking you need.
Copyright 2006 Mark Nenadic
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