SEO Games VS SEO Game Plan

We all like playing games, don’t we? Playing games is great when you are young, but even as adults we continue to play games that adversely affect our lives, work and relationships. Like in life, in the SEO world too, we get many chances to stop playing games, and instead create a game plan for success.

In SEO mistakes can be costly, and yet I see people everyday taking such foolish chances that could drastically affect the future of their online business.
In SEO, time is money, and yet I see people everyday wasting time chasing a “high”, a “quick fix” or a “quick payout”, rather than working on developing a long term SEO strategy that creates value, builds a strong link, web and social reputation, creates a buzz, and attracts targeted traffic that can lead to conversions.

We know this, so why do we still continue playing unnecessary games?

Ignorance

The biggest reason we play games is ignorance. Would you hand over your company, product or service in the hands of a computer geek sitting in a far corner of the world? Then why are the same considerations not given to your online business.

SEO experts need an understanding of branding, marketing, content generation and technology, including understanding of search engines, best SEO practices and analyzing user behavior patterns from the past amongst other skills. Many clients have the wrong ideas and perceptions about SEO, and these wrong ideas eventually end up proving costly and a waste of time.

Expectations

We play games because we expect some ‘payout’ from playing the game. After all it’s about winning, isn’t it? Yes when you are in sports arena, winning is the goal, but wrong expectations from your SEO campaign can lead to frustration and eventual failure.

Impatience

We play games because we lack the patience to sow and reap at the right time. A farmer knows he has to sow before he can reap. Only with consistent effort can the fruits of labor be enjoyed. If you are looking for short cuts in SEO, then your online business could get cut short.

No Vision

We play games because we don’t take the time to understand the bigger picture. We find comfort in the present, by chasing mindless goals of the future. If your online goals focus on “tripling traffic” without creating any value and a strategic roadmap to reaching there, it’s time to talk to a SEO expert who can assist you in creating a realistic road map to online success. A good seo strategy makes common sense, and business sense, otherwise it’s just nonsense.

The Games People Play

1. I know better!

The search engines have given us guidelines to follow. We have heard it straight from the horse’s mouth, and yet everyday we see website owners, webmasters and even SEO professionals flouting the basic foundation principles of search engine optimization.

Google SEO Guidelines
Google Webmaster Guidelines

2. Chasing traffic instead of “creating value”

This one is a classic. When you focus on chasing traffic instead of creating real value, whatever you create (even if the rankings and traffic show dramatic increase), like a beautiful dream will fade away when the morning comes. When you focus your energies on creating something of value, that value goes on growing with each passing day.

3. Buy instead of “Earn”

Easy right! You have a wallet full of greens, and money can buy anything. True in many instances it can, but when you choose to buy rather than “earn” as the focus of your SEO strategy, be prepared to see the results drop when the money stops. That is not to say that all paid links are bad, but rather that the focus of the SEO should always be towards earning links by creating value. Search engines can identify which links are paid and which have been earned. Natural links are “earned”, and the search engines definitely prefer natural links over paid links.

4. Compete, instead of plan to Succeed

Competition brings out the best in people, the worst in people. True! I beg to differ. If your SEO strategy is focused on beating the competitors, a lot of time is focused around what your competitors are doing or not-doing. Is not success based on enhancing your brand, products, services and value offering? Don’t get bogged down with search rankings of your competitors, rather focus on what you can do differently, and enhance the value you provide every single day.

How to stop playing Games?

You can stop playing games by creating a SEO game plan. A SEO game plan is founded on principles of creating value with intent of making it visible across relevant web, user and social communities for higher search rankings, traffic and conversions on your website.

The Right SEO Strategy Ahead covers weekly and monthly strategies you need to be implementing for long term success of your online business. So stop wasting time playing games, and start work on your SEO game plan.

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5 “little known” Keys to Succeed at SEO

In knowing and understanding these 5 “little known” Keys, could lie the answer to succeed in your online business.

1. Patience

Unlike PPC and SEM where the results are quickly visible, SEO is known to take a long time before you can see any tangible results. We are talking about 4 to 6 months of consistent SEO effort, so “patience” is one of the qualities you must have for long term success of your online business.

I have seen too many SEO strategies fail simply because the SEO client got frustrated with the process, and deciding to do something about it spoke to another SEO expert who guaranteed results quickly. A new SEO expert wants to promote their own strategies, and normally downplays the efforts of the past SEO to buy extra time.

Don’t waste your time starting from scratch, choose the right SEO strategy, and stick with it!

For those in haste to see results or increase sales, please use PPC and other paid forms of advertising. SEO is by no means for the impatient hearted.

While the results of the PPC and SEM campaigns normally dwindles down as quickly as the campaign reaches its end, the results of proper SEO optimization and natural link building can be seen for a long time even after you have stopped the SEO activity.

Of course that does not imply that the PPC campaign or the SEO campaign needs to be stopped, as we know that “consistency” is the next key to higher search rankings.

2. Consistency

What is consistency? Consistency simply means to take an activity of value, and repeat it again and again at specified time intervals. The reason consistency is so important for SEO is that both the users and search engines eventually know what to expect from you, and when they can expect it. But keep in mind that once you build expectations, its best you stick with it.

I advise a weekly SEO strategy that forms the heart of the SEO campaign. So each week you can create exciting content, syndicate that content, and then promote that content across relevant web, user and social communities. Compliment this with a relevant link building activity each month and you have a great SEO strategy that focuses on creating valuable content, and making that content visible.

If this seems like hard work, it is. If creating content is not a task that you wish to undertake, or outsource, then I advise not to focus on SEO only, but on other forms of online marketing as well. But if your intention is on creating value, then content is the way to go.

There will be times when you feel like giving up, or postponing it to another day. Don’t, for we know now that “persistence” is the next key to online business success.

3. Persistence

We have been patient, and consistent in our efforts, yet sometimes the results we seek just evade us. Keep in mind search ranking is not a cause and effect, but rather a correlation of many parameters, so predicting search ranking behavior becomes rather impossible, even for the search engines themselves.

This brings us to our next key “persistence”. Don’t give up! If you have been creating value consistently, then the results you seek are not far off. Even though search ranking behavior cannot be predicted, by creating value and being persistent, you will achieve your online goals.

If you are still not getting the results you seek, then perhaps you need to look (re-evaluate) at your content for “creativity”.

4. Creativity

We are all part of a larger creative force. Perhaps that’s why we feel inspired by anything creative. While creating content for mortgage broking is more boring than creating content for an entertainment website, all the same, the principle of creativity applies.

Who says an article about mortgage broking needs to be boring? Don’t think like a dinosaur, we all know what happened to them?

Look around on Twitter, Social sites, YouTube, YahooBuzz etc. The stories that make headlines (voted by users) are the stories that are unique, have an interesting twist, or just presented in a creative way, and not necessarily the biggest story or best writing.

So what makes creativity tick? It’s “passion” that’s the next key to everlasting online success.

5. Passion

While its creativity that drives your online business and search rankings, its “passion” that will fuel your efforts to leave behind a lasting legacy. No matter what business you are in, if you don’t find the passion in doing it every single day, you will eventually fail.

They say that “hell” is our own making. Knowing and understanding the 5 “little known” keys will pave the way to online success.

If you can’t find the “passion” in your existing business, then maybe you need to look within for your reasons to pursue this business. If you have found your passion, then finding a SEO expert who is as passionate about SEO will act as the catalyst to success for your online business.

6. The Last Key

I know the title says “5 Keys", but I could not resist telling you about the final key for your success. The final key will open the doors which you had not imagined possible. This key is by far the most important, and yet this key lies within all of us.

But I will not give this key out so easily. You will have to work hard to find your passion and creativity, and learn to be patient and consistent. You will have to learn to act now.

If 10 people leave a comment on this page asking for the last key, I will share the last key, but that’s up to you guys and gals out there.

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How to Earn Natural Links with SEO?

If you read the above title carefully, the answer to building natural links has already been given. In case you still did not get it yet, then you will want to read further.

First, what are natural links and why have they become so important?

Search engines want to give the users the best possible experience and the most relevant results. In the early SEO days, link building (number of links to your website) was critical to achieving high search rankings. In the future, link building will be just as important, but the way the links are being valued by search engines has evolved.

The new metric for “link value” is based on certain qualitative measures that are becoming more and more critical to long term online business success.

Link Value = [Relevancy + Credibility + Participation + Diversity + Popularity]

Is the site linking to your website?

Relevant – Getting a link from a football ecommerce site for a Pets site is not relevant? Getting a link from the website of a Vet doctor is!

Credible – Getting a link back from a new domain, or a website which offers little or no value, or a website/webpage that just has outbound links or from link farms is of NO value, even if they have decent page rank. Getting links from industry related sites, blogs, local associations or in the communities you participate in (article sites, social sites etc) is considered credible.

Valuing you – Good websites reward users who participate in their community. The more you participate, the better reputation you have and better the link juice passed. Participating in select 10 to 15 article submission sites, and 10 to 15 social bookmarking/ social media sites, and 2 relevant blogs/forums is good. More is not always better.

Diverse – Getting 1000 web directory links is NOT as good as getting diverse 200 links from relevant web directories, article sites, social sites, video submissions sites, blogs, industry related sites, forums, PR sites etc.

Popular – Getting a link from a website that is popular with good traffic is better. This is just common sense. A relevant and popular site = targeted traffic for your site. I am not sure if there is any “link value” worth mention here.

So the number of credible links from relevant and diverse web, user and social communities is one of the important parameters search engines are evaluating while ranking a website/ webpage.

For a moment let’s get back to the title of this blog post “How to Earn Natural Links?”

The operative word in the title is “Earn”. In the new link playground of the future you will have to ‘Earn” the links, and not buy, exchange, barter or trade for them.

While buying, exchanging, bartering for links worked in the past, and your website is not getting penalized for it, sooner or later these links will become obsolete like the dinosaurs. The top search rankings will eventually be dominated by websites that are getting linked-too based on the merit of their content or value they provide.

To earn links you have to create “reference worthy links” by creating content of value that the users will find informative, unique and resourceful. Creating 2 to 3 new blog posts a week, and syndicating and promoting that content across relevant social, web and user communities is a good SEO strategy to build natural links based on merit.

The biggest bonus with creating great content (and making that content visible) is that webmasters around the world like linking to relevant and informative content as it benefits their users.

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