The fundamentals of SEO
An effective
SEO strategy can be summarised in four words, according to an expert in the field.
Dr Peter J Meyers, president of business website consultancy User Effect, wrote on SEOmoz that practitioners need to adopt an SEO policy balancing the four Rs:
- robots
- ranking
- relevance
- results
With regards to robots, Dr Meyers explained that it is important to create a crawlable website filled with linkbaiting content in order to attract the attention of search engines like Google. Moving on to ranking, it was suggested some SEO operators wrongly focus on getting number one on Google for specific keywords to the detriment of everything else.
Keyword relevance and results
Keyword relevance was highlighted as another vital issue, although he pointed out many clients often make the mistake of choosing unpopular phrases that fail to drive click-through traffic. And he warned that SEO traffic is only useful if it drives bottom-line results, such as by generating leads or completed purchases.
He concluded: "The vast majority of SEO problems come down to narrowly focusing on one area – whether it's trying to get every page indexed, ranking for one keyword or obsessing over link quality, I'd say that 80 per cent of bad SEO boils down to missing the big picture."
A recent survey of 140 UK B2B marketing professionals, compiled by the
Internet Advertising Bureau and B2B Marketing, demonstrated the demand for SEO services. Approximately 14 per cent of respondents identified search engine performance as the digital medium that they invested in most heavily – less than email campaigns (18 per cent) but more than display ads (13 per cent) and PPC (10 per cent).
