Someone told me he didn’t think it was worth investing in search engine optimization (SEO) because it appeared to be a moving target, as the search engines are always changing the way they evaluate web pages for rankings. Well, the answer — as in all things web — is “It depends.”
If you are doing SEO with “secret” gimmicks and tricks, then it is a moving target. When the trick no longer works or you get “caught” for not following the rules, your web site could disappear from Google results.
It could ruin your business.
But if you do SEO techniques with an eye to improving your web site and helping your visitors as well as search engines, then you don’t have to worry.
Search engines just want to know what a page is about, and if it’s truly a helpful resource for visitors.
If you have such a page, then doing 3 simple SEO steps is most all you need:
- Insert relevant keywords in the page copy
- Insert same keywords in the title and description tags
- Secure quality inbound links to help search engines recognize the worth of the page
Good SEO is as simple as that.
When a web site page is optimized properly, search engine algorithm updates are more likely to help rather than harm your search results.
That’s because you’re not trying to “trick” the search engines into giving you a high ranking. Rather, you are working toward the same goal as the search engines: relevant and useful results for your visitors.
Easy Web Tip #95: Avoid trying to trick search engines into giving you high rankings. Just do the solid work of helping them understand what your page is about and why they should give you high rankings.
