Search Engine Optimization Marketing - 11 Things You Didn’t Know About It

If marketing is your kingdom and content is king, then SEO is the knight in shining armor that always saves the day. Without strong SEO, your content is powerless, and all your marketing efforts will crumble and fall. In this digital marketing age, SEO seems to be all that jazz, because in all honesty, it is all that and so much more. SEO’s increasing popularity has made it the talk of marketing gatherings, but I bet that there are some surprising things you do not know about it. Ready to find out more?

# 1. You Don’t Have to Submit Your Site To Search Engines

There is no need for you to submit your site to search engines. Google, and others like it, will use crawlers to find your site and index it, so basically manually submitting your site will not index it earlier and will be a waste of time and energy.

#2. You Must Keep Up With Search Engines’ Technologies

Google is known to release new technologies from time to time. If you are an early adopter and jump on the wagon before everybody else does, your site will rank higher on the search engine’s results page. When it comes to SEO you need to be the first to market with new technology and keep up with the recent trends.

#3. Meta Descriptions Have No Impact In Search Rankings

Meta Descriptions are those little pieces of information that appear beneath your site’s title on a search engine’s results page. It is reasonable to assume that these tidbits are significant when it comes to ranking, right? Wrong. Google itself has admitted that meta descriptions have zero impact. Yet! Do not just rest on your laurels and leave your meta descriptions to chance. They will not affect your ranking, but they affect your click rates. Meta descriptions are important because they are the determining factor that will drive people to your site. If they are not well written, no matter how high you rank on the Search Engine’s Result Page, your traction will not fare very well.

#4. SEO Can Be Used To Target International Markets

SEO can help you rank your site globally and not just locally. You can do that by offering a country-specific domain with country codes. You can also host each country in a different directory or subdomain. Naturally, when targeting global markets, you need to translate your content into a couple of other languages, and if possible, list your business in web directories of the targeted countries.

#5. SEO Is More Than Keywords

Yes, read that again. SEO is more than keywords. So do not go all keyword crazy, trying to jam every possible keyword that could potentially lead search engines to you on your headline. Remember, it’s quality, not quantity, that matters. Three excellent and strategically used keywords will do better than thirty randomly used ones.

#6. SEO Is Not A One Size Fits All

Search Engine Optimization is a broad marketing term that applies to several different niche disciplines. There is technical SEO, link building, local SEO, international SEO, content marketing, on-page SEO, off-page SEO, and more. Each one of these requires a different skillset and approach. So before you go on your allocating money and resources on SEO, determine the appropriate SEO strategy and find the best person for it.

#7. You Don’t Have to Put All Your Content On Your Homepage

Your homepage is the first impression that your potential buyers will get from you and your brand. Do not jam all your content on your homepage, and do not overwhelm them with every possible information. Let them know the basics and make this first impression a pleasant one, so they will want to find out more about you and share your site. Force-feeding them with facts will have them leaving your site in no time!

#8. Duplicate Content Is Not Always Such A Bad Thing

Sure, duplicating your content may harm your SEO, but this is not a principle set in stone. As long as you follow the underlying rules for republishing content on your site, search engines will not penalize you for it.

#9. Do Not Get Too Excited About Incoming Links

Incoming links are not always good SEO. They are, of course, a great way to boost your ranking and increase your traction; unless they come from a dubious site whose credibility is questionable. Controversial domains and sites can hurt your rank and damage your trustworthiness, so do not get overly excited with every incoming link.

#10. There Is Not A Rule For How Many Times You Must Repeat A Keyword

Keywords are vital but repeating a crucial keyword five times as opposed to fifty times will not make a significant difference in your ranking. In fact, there is not a magic number of how many to repeat a keyword to rank higher. The quality of your content is much more important than quantity, and you should use keywords smartly and eloquently to makes the reading experienced flow seamlessly and not seem forced.

#11. Optimize Your Content For People Not Engines

At the end of the day, people are the ones who will read your content and decide whether they like it or not. Let that sink in for a minute. It is people who will drive your brand to the sky, not search engines. If you fail to deliver quality content and engage your readers, no matter how high up your rank, you will be left there alone, enjoying the view from the top.