The internet marketing industry has seen a fair degree of up-and-down movement over the last twelve months. Ultra-profitable cost-per-action advertisements have been pushed around by advertising networks, often to the point of being banned from display entirely. Formerly profitable credit and loan management industries have come under the eye of recession-based regulators, leaving many once-successful marketers lacking a way to monetize their traffic.
However, one form for marketing has remained constant and steady: search engine optimization. From search-powered websites to long-tail micro-sites, the various strategic assets left out by search engine optimizers have enjoyed steady performance throughout internet marketing’s most disruptive years.
If you are aiming to capitalize on that oh-so-valuable search engine traffic, these five all-purpose tips, tricks, and tactics will no doubt help you succeed. Ready your PC, put on your S-E-Oh face, and use these micro-strategies to get your websites ranked highly and your advertisements out there.
Don’t over-think; just do.
Amateur internet marketers are often restricted by one thing: their intelligence. It is an annoying tendency largely exclusive to the highly intelligent – the tendency to over-think decisions, wrap actions in cynicism and reflection, and ultimately fail to take any real action.
Internet marketing does not depend on sheer ability, but on action. Rather than over-thinking every SEO-related decision, it is your responsibility to let some choices fall by the wayside in favor of short-term action.
Limit outbound links to “low-value” websites.
Google does not just read the links pointing to your website – it reads those pointing from your website to other people’s websites. If you are loading those blogs up with spam-style links to viagra distributors and hacker web presences, do not be surprised when Google’s opinion of your website’s value reflects the fact. Load up on quality outbound links, and use no-follow tags if you really have to link to something that could hurt your rankings.
Don’t compete with Google; compete with your rivals.
Hundreds of SEOs suffer from misguided priorities. Rather than competing with their search rivals to reach the top of the rankings, they compete with Google itself, aiming to beat its algorithms, fight against its tactics, and beat it is supposed intelligence. Don’t. Target your rivals, not the search engine itself, and you will enjoy a great level of search-related success.
Once you’ve perfected processes, automate them.
Internet marketers have access to a figurative buffet of automation options. From online bots to outsourced employees, there are hundreds of ways to cut down on development time and eliminate labor-intensive processes. If your time is valuable to you – and it should be – your best bet could be a targeted investment in outsourced labor and automated processes.
Use extensions, add-ons, and plugins to make SEO simple.
If you are a Firefox fan and internet marketer, you will no doubt be pleased with the huge amount of ultra-useful plugins and extensions available. Likewise, WordPress users will enjoy the equally vast range of SEO plugins and SEO enhanced themes. If your website’s rankings are truly important to you, you will be much more effective with a suite of applications, extensions, and add-ons behind you.