Linking, particularly backlinking, is all the rage with the SEO blogs and newsgroups today. And, there is no doubt that linking is extremely important to SE. However, linking is not the central issue. If the page being evaluated by the search engine robots does not rank high for the keyword phrase being evaluated, the page is going to be downgraded substantially. Effective SEO must begin with building pages that rank high for keyword phrase content. And, it’s common sense: the search engines are programmed to help people find the information that they’re searching for. Most people don’t go to business websites to be entertained by animation, streaming media, or flashy graphics. They make the first visit, along with return visits, because they expect to find information, products, or services that they want and need.
What does that tell the owners of business sites? It says that pages of self-aggrandizing verbiage will not increase traffic to your website, or convert visitors to customers — regardless of how many links you have. You need to go through a logical step-by-step process to determine the profile of the visitors you hope to attract, determine what information they are looking for, and then provide some good, hard hitting, free useful information that will impress your potential visitor/customer. That means giving away some potentially valuable advice, but what you will get in return is invaluable: credibility. When you are able to get in front of a potential customer and leave them with the impression that you are a credible source of information that can help them solve their problems or meet their needs, you’ve accomplished a great deal and are well on your way to increasing your visitor/customer conversion ratio.
Some sites use a “What’s New” page that is updated at least monthly. Others offer a series of “white paper” type links containing useful information on potential customer problems, while some offer blogs that address issues of concern to their customer base. There are many techniques, but content is king. You must give away some good advice on a regular basis to draw potential customers to your site and to keep them coming back for more.
And building these pages to meet the criteria of the search engine crawlers is an evolving science. The frequency, placement, and formatting of the keyword phrases, along with the meta tag coding, are all key components to building pages that will rank high for keyword phrase content. There is a variety of tools to help construct pages that will rank high for content with WebCEO and SEOmoz being two of the more popular with SEO specialists.
What are your favorite tools for ensuring that your pages are ranked high for content?