subject: Five Tips For A Future Proof Seo Campaign [print this page] I've been working in SEO for several years now and I've seen some dramatic changes in how search engines rank websites. In 2011 we saw the Panda update forcing unique content across the web, in 2010 we saw low quality links become devalued more and more, and so on. Over the years a lot of things in SEO have changed, but some have stayed the same. In this article we're going to talk about ways to future proof your SEO campaign -- that is have your hard work today pay off not just tomorrow but well into the future.
Obviously no one knows what the future holds, but these tips will act as a great guide for what most SEO firms are doing to make sure your campaign is future proof. Make sure you ask your SEO provider about what they're doing to work for you well into the future, and use this article as a guide on what you should be asking.
-Link Diversity Is Key
Link building will likely be critical in SEO for the near future, and today diversity is key. Don't have all your eggs in one basket when Google updates their algorithms and devalues certain types of links. You should make sure you're getting a variety of links ranging from articles to guest blog posts to blog comments to social links to web 2.0 and so on.
-Produce Good Content
I tell all my SEO clients to produce quality content on their website, and that will remain the same well into the future. Search engines love ranking fresh content on top, so try and write a few blog posts every week and you'll see quite a bit of traffic from those long tail keywords. It will also help obtain natural links from websites who think you have good content, which is always a huge plus in the world of SEO.
-Stay White Hat
One thing that never changes is the people who think they can game the system by blasting out tens of thousands of low quality links. Make sure you stay white hat and don't spam sites -- as a general rule of thumb any link is a good link as long as it isn't spam.
-Quality > Quantity
Back in the mid 2000's, quantity was much more important than quality. You could blast several hundred junk links and get ranked for anything, but today you need relevant, contextual, high quality links to rank well. Don't just go for an SEO firm because their SEO Packages offer more links than another firm as not all links are the same. Make sure you build quality links and you should be fine well into the future.
-Always View SEO As A Long Term Strategy
SEO takes some time to see results. Anyone who produces results overnight isn't going to sustain those results very long. You should always view SEO as a long term strategy and do things to future proof your SEO campaign. If you want traffic now, turn to pay per click, but if you want long term results, then SEO is the way to go. Keep your campaign future proof by understanding that quality results take time to achieve.
While we don't know exactly what changes search engines will make in the future, these tips should guide you to start future proofing your SEO campaign. A quality SEO firm will already be taking these steps to make sure you stay ranked, but if you're using a lower quality firm it never hurts to reach out to them and ask them about the points listed above -- it can make the difference between a great long term campaign and a short term flop.
Simple SEO Group is a Small Business SEO firm specializing in helping businesses gain more online visibility.
