Sometimes it is easy to get lost in the details of SEO.
This is a simple game. You throw the ball. You hit the ball. You catch the ball. You got it?
- Bull Durham
Don’t get me wrong, SEO does require some advanced techniques to compete in most of the top areas, but it does boil down to a couple of important aspects to be effective in performing in organic search.
Here is the easiest way I have found to explain the basics of SEO:
Content = Relevance
Links = Authority
Authority + Relevance = Rankings
Rankings = Market Share
This doesn’t address the foundation of online marketing which is the site and all of the technical concerns that need to be addressed, but most of the typical technical concerns only need to be addressed initially and monitored. Like baseball, SEO comes down to the fundamentals which are content and links, then it comes down to practice, practice, practice.
The other important thing to remember when playing baseball or optimizing a site for search rankings, you need a great team that knows how to work together to stay in the game.
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{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
I agree that it is WAY too easy to get lost in all of the SEO “noise” about what is important this week with regards to the latest SEO trends and linkbuilding fads. the bottom line to achieving rankings is developing a site that has solid content, is useful to readers/businesses, and has plenty of links coming to it from relevant sources. I like the way you laid out the formula above…nice and simple.
For us to be succesful with what we are doing we have to build a nice team as to having thesame great goals!
Nice post! you’ve given us readers some useful information about SEO. Concepts are very well defined!
Very good points. I’ve been working with a company on getting their PR department to be more search engine aware and at times it can be frustrating.
Since they are so used to doing things the way they always have, the second I turn my back I see a press release go out with no optimization. I keep stressing the missed opportunities, but I guess old habits die hard.
This is as simple as it gets and I like that, good way to put it. So many people get very in-depth about reading all there is about SEO and I’m not trying to say you don’t need SEO knowledge but people tend to waste a lot of time reading, surfing the net and getting distrated when they could be building links or working on their own content.
Finally an explanation I understand (I’m a bit of an SEO newbie)… One thing I do like about SEO is the fact that it is 100% measurable… You type in a keyword and see exactly where you are… brilliant…
I like the simplicity of your formula:
I came up with a similar formula a few months ago. In retrospect, I probably could have left out ‘link popularity’ from the equation. In any case, mine formula for measuring link quality (link below):
‘The ABC’s of how backlinks help SEO’ is just below the fold:
– Backlinks & SEO
Hoping to get your feedback!
Then you get into a whole new discussion of what authority is and what isn’t. I think with SEO you just have to dive in and get your feet wet and see what works and what doesn’t.
I have a computer support business and find myself at a big disadvantage since I am a tech not a writer. A lot of my competitors have managed to post hundreds of pages about city neighborhoods and other non-business related pages that have resulted in top listings for many keywords. It seems unfair that such references appear to improve the keyword relevance for competitive searches. Just my 2 cents.
I agree SEO is a large learning curve that will take time to complete, thanks for the advice to help me avoid these “pitfalls” in the future! Also great explanation, easy to understand.
Well, I agree with the simple formula there.. Thanks!
I would tend to agree that certain things in SEO are definitely measurable – through Google Analytics for example. However, ranking is sometimes not the best example to use here of a KPI, as it is getting more and more variable per searcher, especially in the light of increased personalised search from Google. More important perhaps is numbers of visitors to the site, after all, visibility is one thing, visitors is to their site is more of what the company requires.
Beyond that, conversions are more important still, whether that is a sale, or something like an email or signup. This is the real nitty gritty. And measuring what changes bring about the best conversions rates is where it really makes a difference to the bottom line.
And all of this is measurable, for sure
That’s probably the most basic breakdown of SEO I’ve ever seen – Nice!
Helpful article, I am researching new ways to optimize my website for video production services I provide and this post was helpful. This is off topic but I heard someone mention code to text ratio? What does that mean???
I love the breakdown! I’m not the best communicator and I always get caught up in the details when I’m trying to explain how SEO works to potential clients. Great insight.
I also agree with previous poster about trying to share SEO info with the PR teams. No matter how many times I try to explain it, they still don’t seem to get it.