Both pairs of gloves I carried were soaked through. My fingers were numb to the bone and my toes were as good as nonexistent.
I was fine, though … happy, even … until we had to traverse a fifteen foot stretch of vertical rock. I didn’t look down, but in my imagination the drop was several thousand feet. Even if it was only 50 feet, one slip could have been disastrous.
I slowly inched my way across, muttering “Crap” with each breath.
Obviously I made it, and looking back it wasn’t nearly as hard as it seemed at the time.
I admit that bushwhacking up Kings Mountain in a heavy, cold rain was an exhilarating and memorable experience … in spite of, and maybe because of the fear.
I couldn’t walk for days after running my first marathon, but I talked about it for months. My first 100 mile bike ride was sheer joy the whole way, especially near the end when I pushed myself to pass people up the last hill.
You simply can’t know the emotional pleasure you feel from pushing yourself to the limits of your abilities unless you do it. Nike is right, you know …
SEO Is A Lot Like Mountain Climbing
To build a web site and hope for search engine traffic is the same as buying a new mountaineering outfit and expecting the top of the mountain to come to you.
That’s why I say that SEO – Search Engine Optimization – is so danged hard that it’s easier than you think to get to the top.
It’s one of life’s many paradoxes. What’s hardest is easiest once you’ve done the work.
I propose that the number one reason most businesses don’t rank high in the search engines is that they’re too lazy or cheap.
They build the site, “optimize” it by inserting a few keyword phrases here and there on “all” 15-20 pages, and then do absolutely nothing else. They sit and complain that the Internet isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Search Engine Optimization is HARD WORK.
The people at the top will have hundreds, if not thousands of highly optimized web pages, each focused on a variation of their primary keywords. And, whether they have an abundance of pages or not, they’ll work at creating quality links back to their sites. Plus, they’re usually active in social media and content distribution.
In short, they work to get to the top.
“But You Said It Was Easy as Pie…”
I’ve looked at a lot of web sites, and in my estimation no more than 5% of all businesses do the work that’s necessary to move to the top of the search engines.
That’s 9 out of 10 businesses who do next to nothing.
So, if you want to move closer to the top, all you have to do is a little. Don your fancy gear, walk a few hundred yards, and before you know it you’ll be looking down upon a vast sea of competitors.
Work a bit harder and you’ll come within view of the top.
Work even harder and you’ll reach the top.
What It Takes to Get to The Top
Although the search engine landscape is rapidly changing, here are the top five things you can do to move closer to, or even reach, the top of the search engines:
1. Expand Your Search Horizons
Google finally admitted that they have highly complex algorithms to organize semantically-related keyword phrases (“dog food” is related to “dog treats”).
When you research your keyword phrases, compile a long list of related keyword phrases. This includes keywords that might use the same base word (“consulting”), and phrases that are industry related.
2. Create Lots and Lots of Pages
See if you can get three to five pages PER keyword. If you want to rank well for 20 primary keywords, then you should shoot for 200 or more pages. That’s why blogs are so wonderful … it’s easy to add content to a blog, and visitors expect there to be a significant amount of content.
3. Optimize Each Page
Obvious, yes. And, it’s worth mentioning. Here’s a little trick you can use to get more bang for your content buck:
Use a primary keyword for which you want to rank high in the URL of the page, and a secondary keyword (related keyword phrase) in the Title Tag of the page. Don’t worry, Google will find both, and you’ll get ranked for both keywords instead of just one.
Then, be sure to use ten or more of your semantically-related phrases within the body of the page (each page should have 400 or more words).
4. Spread The Word
“Back links” have been the butter that completes the bread of internet marketers. They have lived and died on having as many links back to their websites as possible.
This has led to various methods, such as link farms, that are now obsolete. You can rest assured that Google is working hard on neutralizing the latest link-building methods.
What do you do? You write quality content (articles) and distribute them to quality blogs and websites for distribution. Instead of focusing on quantity, you focus on quality. This approach not only improves your search engine rankings, it gets you quality clicks back to your website from authentically interested parties.
5. Get Social
The “New SEO” is social media. Google is paying attention to the noise levels on social media. They see this as a good gauge of interest in a website.
What you want are people “Bookmarking” your site with tools like Delicious. You want comments on your blog … people to Digg you, and comments on the Digg. You want your articles to be Tweeted and Re-Tweeted, and your YouTube videos to be viewed, voted on, and viewed again.
The ONLY way that I’d bother to use Social Media as a search engine optimization technique is by using an effective tool. To do it manually would take a team hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars.
And, the ONLY tool of which I’m aware that fully automates SEO through Social Media is called Synnd.
The View From The Top
If you truly want to rank well in the search engines, you’re going to have to work at it. That’s the bad news.
The good news is that you’ll be part of an elite minority who does their homework, and that will quickly put you at the top.
Would you like help with your search engine strategy? Call or email me and let’s get started today. I’ll help you draw out a realistic strategy, and if you like, help you to achieve your goals as quickly as possible.
P.S. And do check out Synnd.
