The New SEO

If your idea of search engine optimization is meta tags, site submissions, and keyword stuffed content, then keep reading.

The fact is many of the old SEO tactics are dead. It is not to say you can’t still use meta tags and submit your sites to search engines. Those tactics, if done properly, won’t hurt. However, their value to rankings has very little impact these days.

There are many existing myths with today’s SEO efforts. I could spend a whole other post discussing myths, but for now, let’s focus on the right things to do.

1. Link Building
I know link building is “so old school”, but it’s still important. Search engines use link popularity to measure the value of a website.

Link Building is not going away. It’s still is a concrete way for automated spiders to measure value of a site. It’s a solid formula for algorithms to understand and measure worth.

Obtaining high quality links should be a goal. Those links can be obtained by doing the following items correctly.

2. Social Media
The simple fact is there is a direct correlation between social media and search rankings.

There is the obvious fact that Twitter and Facebook conversation is showing in Google results. If you missed the Google & Bing Twitter integration news now is a good time to catch up.

Also check out Google’s post on real-time search integration.

That alone should be enough to tell you to get moving on social media. But there are also the unseen, long-term benefits to search rankings.

Social media marketing enforces a brand. Having a brand in the online community leads to conversations. Conversation leads to links (see the importance of link building above). That does not mean just creating a presence in Facebook is enough. In fact, many of social media sites will dynamically change your link or truncate it. The link value there is limited. It ultimately comes back to good content and good branding. Through that more conversation and more linking happens. In some ways, social media is an “off-line” campaign. Just like a television commercial can gather interest and awareness, social media can do that same thing. By reminding people, through good conversation, that you exist, it ultimately leads to brand recognition.

3. Video
Yes, video is a subset of social media. It reinforces the above topic. However, it requires its own strategy. Video is often called “The Easiest Way to a First-Page Ranking on Google”. Although that maybe a bit overstated, video is still an essential part of a modern day SEO campaign.

Google loves video. The key to video is not the video itself. In fact, Google can not actually read video. Just as important to the video, is the keywords that surround the video. By creating great titles and descriptions, on short concise videos will help the search engines pick up your video.

Good video earns a lot of links. In fact, there are 1000’s of AdSense-based sites that look for video to post on their automated “blogs”. Creating good descriptions and titles will help videos get picked up.

4. Local
As you probably noticed, Google Business Listings are showing more often in search engine results. Having a local business listing is essential. By creating and optimizing listings, you can quickly pass a competitor in search. Google has made the process relatively easy through their Local Business Center.

However, it’s not just Google. There are multiple places where adding business listings will boost awareness, links, and ultimately rankings. Below are a few others worth checking out:
www.superpages.com
www.yellowpages.com
www.citysearch.com
www.yelp.com
www.insiderpages.com
local.yahoo.com
bing.com/listings

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Back away from the meta tags, stop submitting your sites to search engines, and remove all those duplicate keywords you just added to content. With limited time and money, it’s best to focus on the big targets first. The ones that work.