There is a lot of talk going around about whether search engine optimization (SEO) is something that anyone can do. While it is true that anyone can learn it, not everyone can understand it well enough to be effective.
That may sound like a sell, but trust us – it is not. We want to reveal a few truths and secrets about SEO and explain to you why it may be better to leave it to the professionals – at the least the good kind of professionals.
SEO success is not as easy as some make it out to be. A lot of sites will tell you that you can just have great content and follow a step by step guide to ultimate SEO success. It is just not that simple. You have to understand all the moving parts and keep adjusting your method to fit your user’s experiences. That is hard to do while maintaining your business if you plan on doing your own SEO.
Can anyone do it? Sure. Anyone can technically perform brain surgery too, but it is more likely than not that the patient will die.
While SEO is by no means brain surgery, SEO is still something best left up to the Phoenix SEO professionals. Are you unconvinced? Let’s look at a few common elements that no one ever reveals about SEO and elaborate on them.
1. Content is king, but the parliament rules.
You might have heard the phrase, “Content is king!” It seems to be shouted from all corners of the Internet.
While this is technically a correct statement, it is not the full picture. Content is king, but there is a little more to it than that.
Content is more like a king that has been positioned as a figurehead. The king is still the ruler of land, but with a lot less power. The king still walks around getting the respect of noblemen, but everyone knows that his power is not what it used to be.
The Internet runs more like a constitutional monarchy. Content is the head of state, the figurehead of government. If not for him, the people would lose faith and the country would crumble. The real workers behind the scenes serve as the members of parliament. They run the government, but without all the notoriety and importance. These secondary support, if you will, are links and keywords.
Great content can be hard to come by. We mean “great content” in the competiveness sense. The kind of great content that will get traffic to your website.
Content is being created at an alarming rate. Studies suggest that nearly 2 million new blog articles are created daily. Two million new posts each day may not seem that crazy considering those figures apply globally, but it is nothing to sneer out. That is a lot of competition to worry about.
Content is still a focal point of any online writing. Thanks to high volume, however, content is no longer the sole pathway to SEO success. You need to combine links with keywords and great content.
Even great content will just not rank. Why? You need to promote your content effectively and purposefully. You need to hit certain social media platforms that really resonate with your core demographic all while using keywords and campaigning for backlinks.
In fact, studies show that the majority of content on any given site will not rank. It will likely be that a small amount of content will rank, adding to your overall rank on the SERPs. How do you tell what will rank and what will not? As we discuss below, that answer is not simply put into one sentence.
2. Not all content is good content.
This next one is not so much a secret. Content must be unique and captivating.
Blindly plugging in keywords will not do it. Anyone can do that. Good SEO comes from unique and engaging content. The next secret is that SEO is not an exact science.
There is no telling why Buzzfeed took off and other similar websites did not. They both have engaging content, yet only one type made it big. We can, however, speculate with good reasoning.
We already know that content is not the king that it once was. Content is king, but it must be a likeable one.
If you create content that your users do not respond to, then what does it matter? Your king’s subjects will revolt and leave. What is a king with his subjects – or in this case – users?
SEOs track user experiences. A successful SEO campaign not only involves tracking user experiences, but also analyzing those experiences. The data will give SEOs a better idea of how to best optimize your site for your user’s needs.
Keep in mind that some content is great, but it just did not rank well for whatever reason. Analyzing user experience may give SEOs a better idea of what did not work with pre existing content. That solid content can be re-optimized, so do not scrap hard work. Great content should not go to waste just because an original SEO campaign did not work.
3. You need backlinks.
Backlinks are not all bad. In fact, backlinks may have deposed content as the true King of SEO. Backlinks are only bad if the wrong sort are used.
Backlinks are actually one of the best ways to enhance your SEO success. If the content is good, then your content will be linked all over the Internet – at least in theory.
Some SEOs do not like to tell you that some backlinks are bad. They think that quantity is better than quality. This is not true. Google has updated their algorithms to process links for quality.
Links to your content are still very important. You just need to make sure that the links come from quality, related content. Google’s updates know to look for unrelated linking.
How do you get backlinks, then? Well, you could buy them, but a lot of black hat SEOs do not keep your content in a nice, safe neighborhood. They keep your site will the “bad” crowd that your parents always warned you about. Instead of pushing you up, they bring you down to their level.
You have to make sure that your Phoenix SEO firm or company has a good reputation.
4. SEO success takes time.
SEO is not an exact science, as we said. As such, no one can predict what takes off and what doesn’t.
Purposeful SEO campaigns take time as well. Google takes time to process user information. It takes time to turn around the information to develop accurate SEO rankings. It also takes SEOs time to process their client’s user experiences.
No matter the SEO campaign, it will likely take time. If a website found quick success, it was likely the result of an unpredictable event. Whether that sudden fame is able to be sustained is another matter entirely.
5. User experience matters.
User Experience is often overlooked by non-SEO professionals. Those conducting their own SEO campaigns may fail to accurately process their user’s experiences, relying instead on pure content to drive their campaign.
How do you track user experience? Well, it is complicated to be sure. You can collect data like the click through rate, bounce back rate, time on page, etc. You can collect them, but unless you have some grasp on human behavioral psychology, you can easily misinterpret those behaviors.
Content is key, but it must be purposeful. That is where user experience comes in. That is one way where SEO firms handle SEO campaigns better than the average person who is merely dabbling in it.
6. No one knows everything about SEO.
Immediately, you might be thinking, “why pay for a SEO firm to handle my website?”
SEO is constantly evolving, like the rest of the Internet. No one knows everything. This is not because SEO professionals do not have experience and knowledge, but rather because search engines like Google keep their secrets locked up tight.
It is true that Google publishes quite a bit about their goings on, but not enough to know everything. Their signals and algorithms are mostly kept secret, for obvious reasons. This, however, makes it difficult to know everything about it.
7. Social media is both a blessing and a curse.
Social media is both a blessing and a curse. Part of a successful SEO campaign should be focused on purposeful social media usage. That part is the blessing.
The curse of social media is that it could also tank a SEO campaign. If a website or blog article goes viral, it could mean instant success. You could be an overnight sensation, attracting thousands to your site. Social media could also attract the wrong sort of publicity.
The real issue emerges once all the hype wears away. Will the post and the website fizzle out or we it be better for it. This is where great content will reel in users and hopefully keep them returning to your website.
At Phoenix SEO services, we get that SEO seems simple on the outside. At some point, we all thought that. It is not as simple as many people believe. That is why we exist. We hope through this article you have come to understand a little more about the ever evolving world of SEO.