It looks like everyone is ready to share their special, secret stash of SEO tips. Some people claim they have the ultimate set of tricks to help you get a foot in the backdoor of the search engines. Others claim to have unlocked the secrets to all the algorithms. The truth is that SEO is based more on common sense than anything else. And the best tips that you'll ever get are not only simple, but they are based on practical knowledge, not smoke and mirrors.
No Magic Wands
Unfortunately, many of us still think of the computer and cyberspace as having a touch of magic or science fiction about it. This is why some of the most useless SEO tips promise some kind of a magic formula to break the SEO system. The first thing to understand here is that there is no magic involved whatsoever. An effective SEO strategy is based on marketing techniques and harnessing the latest in SEO tools. Since the field is changing rapidly, it's imperative to know exactly what is happening and what the newest trends are.
This brings us to the next important aspect of SEO tips- common sense. Take a look at your website and pretend it isn't yours. Is it easy to navigate? Does everything look crowded? Do you have to trawl through the entire page to find the links? Remember that if a person lands on your site, you have just a few seconds to make a good impression. If your site is hard to navigate or doesn't provide the relevant information, potential customers will leave as quickly as they arrive. What's worse, they'll tell others that your site has nothing to offer.
Got Content?
If there's one thing that the search engines love, it's good content. Unique, relevant and creative content that is updated regularly will guarantee you a place at the very top of the search engines. To be honest, of all the SEO tips this is probably the most time consuming. But it is definitely worth the effort- what's more, there is no short cut to good content. Spammed or over-stuffed content will get you penalized or even blacklisted by the search engines. Get into the habit of providing new content regularly- best of all, you can archive your old content and still drive traffic to your site.
One of the SEO tips that a lot of people tend to ignore is social networking. Joining communities, online forums and actively blogging will bring you a unique kind of traffic- the kind that might actually translate into sales. Better yet, this kind of networking gives you a great chance to share links with active people, not just a slew of dead link farms. In order for your optimization techniques to succeed, all you really need is to follow these SEO tips along with a good measure of common sense.