Search Engine Optimization is a field that is constantly evolving. With every new breakthrough in web technology SEO undergoes a rapid overhaul and only those willing to keep up with the latest trends can be assured of a place at the top of the search engines. The year 2012 marked the demise of many websites that failed to remain relevant to the SEO practices of their times and became outdated. At the same time many new internet marketing companies and websites efficiently utilized the available SEO tactics and developed strategies that ensured them a top spot. Here are some SEO strategies that you should keep in mind for 2013.
Search engine bots have become much smarter now and are easily able to detect spam and automatically generated content. One point that cannot be stressed enough is that you should never compromise on the quality of your content. Google can tell when the content of a website is genuine and of a high quality. Grammatically sound and correctly spelled blogs and websites are going to be ranked higher than the ones that are shoddily put together. The strategy of writing simply for search engine bots will not work anymore and is sure to lead to low rankings.
Link building is a useful exercise to increase the search engine ranking of a website. However the idea is not to blindly generate as many links as you can. The sources that your links come from matter as well as the quantity of the links, if not more. Google values and gives higher ranks to those websites that boast varied link portfolios. Hence, as part of your internet marketing strategy, make sure that your links are obtained from a variety of sources like web directories, social media and document sharing websites.
A point often overlooked by internet marketing experts is the importance of fresh content. You can spend endless hours generating links to your website from all over the web but search engines will any day favor websites that regularly churn out new content. Websites that always stay up-to-date and are successful in staying relevant by coming up with original content are ranked higher by search engines than the ones that don’t update their content as often and go stale in the process.
The world is becoming increasingly mobile. More and more people now surf the web from their mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. But technologically advanced though they may be mobile devices are smaller and therefore not ideal for viewing most websites that are not specially optimized for them. The search engines on mobile devices take this fact into account and give higher ranks to those websites that are optimized for smartphones and tablets. So if internet marketers want a larger mobile presence they should work towards developing a mobile-friendly website as well.
Getting the better of search engines and achieving those much coveted high ranking spots can be the difference between the success and failure of a company. Therefore, it is important to learn from past mistakes and accordingly devise strategies to tackle this highly competitive turf.
All this talk of search engine optimization should not make one forget that the most important strategy any website can have is to provide original and meaningful content. It is not a good idea for companies to try to come up with ways to deceive search engines. Search engines constantly revise their algorithms to generate better and more reliable outcomes and it is the job of a good SEO expert to keep track of those changes and plan their company’s online marketing strategy accordingly.
