What Really Matters When You Do Your Website SEO?

I realize that there are too many misinformation regarding how to do your website SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for your website or blog. Some experts said you have to look out for your meta keywords, others said that Google bots don’t look at those anymore. Some people said LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) is important, while others dismiss it. The purpose of this post is not to tell you what works and what’s not. Cause I myself can’t claim that I have properly tested any of the theories mentioned above. Instead, what I’ll do here is to tell you 3 stories that you need to remember when doing your website SEO.

1. The Third Pig

Remember the fairytale about the three little pigs and a big bad wolf? In that story, a wolf visited the three little piggy brothers that are living in three different houses. The first pig built his house out of straws, but a wolf blows it down and the pig runs to his brother’s. The second pig built his house out of woods. So, it’s still not strong enough to withstand the wolf’s blow. But, the third pig’s house was built out of bricks. And, guess what, the wolf failed to destroy the house no matter how hard he tried.

So what can you learn from this story?

First, don’t be short-sighed when doing your SEO. You might have a short term ranking gain by doing reciprocal linking or link buying. But, we all know it won’t last long, Google will most likely find out about it and ban you from appearing their search engine ever again. Second, build your site with a solid SEO at its base. If you’re using WordPress, you can install the all-in-one SEO plugin, XML Sitemap, and the Yet Another Related Post plugin to help you. If you’re not, adding simple meta title and description to your site can go a long way in optimizing your blog. To summarize, build your blog as strong as the third pig’s house.

2. The Ant Factor

Ants are social insects. The worker ants work together, gathering food back to their colony for colder days. They walk very slowly and they can only carry a very small piece at once. But they work every day, repeating the same motion over and over again, following the same path to their nest. Until one day, when the winter come, they’re able to survive it without having to do anything anymore.

So what can you learn from this story?

SEO doesn’t offer instant result. If you want to have that, choose other traffic methods, like PPC (Pay Per Click) marketing or video marketing. Instead, SEO works by consistently doing small simple things everyday. Some on-page optimization here, some link building there. Rinse-and-repeat. Until one day, your site rank on one of the top three spots in Google and you get tons of traffic without having to do anything anymore. But, just like the ants need to gather food again for the next winter, you have to repeat the same motion again for your next post.

3. The Wisdom of Crowds

A excerpt of James Surowiecki’s book, The Wisdom of Crowds.

In 1906, Francis Galton, known for his work on statistics and heredity, came across a weight-judging contest at the West of England Fat Stock and Poultry Exhibition. This encounter was to challenge the foundations of his life’s study.

An ox was on display and for six-pence fair-goers could buy a stamped and numbered ticket, fill in their names and their guesses of the animal’s weight after it had been slaughtered and dressed. The best guess received a prize.

Eight hundred people tried their luck. They were diverse. Many had no knowledge of livestock; others were butchers and farmers. In Galton’s mind this was a perfect analogy for democracy. He wanted to prove the average voter was capable of very little. Yet to his surprise, when he averaged the guesses, the total came to 1197 pounds. After the ox had been slaughtered, it weighted 1198.

So what can you learn from his story?

Don’t be a smartass. Ask people what they want, what they’re looking for, and how they look for it. People are smart. So, use Google Keyword Research Tool to find out how the people in your market search for products, like what type of keywords they’re using. Go to forums to find out what problems your market are currently facing and some possible keywords. And, use social media sites, like Twitter, and other blogs in your niche to see what’s currently hot in your market and where it’s heading.

These are the three stories that represent the three aspects of search engine optimization; they are keyword research, on-page optimization, and back linking. I hope that this post has been helpful. Feel free to leave comments below or tweet it if you like it.

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