Being found by your target audience on the web is a great way to keep your new business pipeline full. There are several ways to raise your search visibility and page rankings. Ideally, all of them should be practiced. They include developing authoritative status; excellent content using keywords including contextual and situational long tail phrases, off page SEO – social marketing, email marketing, blogging and back-linking. What is often overlooked is good clean HTML code that greases the skids for search engines.

In some circles, the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) profession has a reputation slightly above politics. Notice I have nothing against used car salesmen. They would do a much better job running the government than the misfits in office now, but I’m getting sidetracked.

There has been a lot of snake oil sold in the SEO marketplace. Brash claims and promises are made to business owners. “We’ll get your website in the first few listings on Google for your targeted keywords!” Those promises may be legitimate if the person making them is among the elite in the online marketing industry. And keep in mind that the value proposition and calls to action on your site need to be clear and strong to be effective!

The search engine’s mission is to find you the best information or companies to help you, according to that for which you’re searching or shopping.

Attempting to fake out Google has been a highly profitable game for sketchy web development companies. Figuring out how the algorithms work and getting unworthysites to rank high in Google serves nobody! Google has figured this out and has been making changes for the better. Some have cried foul, mostly those fouling up the web development industry.

There are some firms (including very small shops) who build great websites in clean code, which is step one! Then they focus on helping the client create excellent content that is relevant and valuable to the target audience.

There is a lot more to online marketing best practices and the Chuck Sink Link will be publishing more in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, here’s an article, very well written, on web development best practices by one who pulls no punches. The author is a bit techno-haughty and makes some controversial claims but it’s worth a read: the grand conspiracy of SEO agencies.

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by Chuck Sink