Vanessa Fox from SearchEngineLand reports that “Google made between 350 and 550 changes in its organic search algorithims in 2009″. So, whatever Google’s rules were on January 1, 2009 for ranking websites, they were quite different December 31, 2009!
What’s a site owner or SEO webmaster to do?
Well, stick with the basics for one and of course, keep adding and tweaking the site not only for the search engines but for the target audience as well.
Here’s a list of the basics that I follow when optimizing websites…
1) Keyword research is the key – assign 1 keyword phrase per website page and don’t forget to use the semantic phrases as well.
2) Make sure that keyword phrase is where it’s supposed to be. Meta tags, header tags, bold, at the beginning, in the middle, at the end and within links.
3) Silo the website architecture and use breadcrumbs and smart menu navigation throughout.
4) Spread the word via articles, social media and social bookmarking.
5) Monitor each page of the website. Find out what’s working, what’s not working and then make your changes. Internet marketing is a constant tweaking process. Don’t kid yourself to thinking that it’s a one time deal.
So, the lesson here is don’t get too caught up about the rankings of your website. Look at the specific stats your website is telling you. Fix the pages that aren’t working. Change the keyword phrases that aren’t bringing in good traffic. Believe me, you’ll get to the top!
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