Search Engine Optimization (SEO) expert John W. Ellis was the featured guest speaker for a gathering of Social Media Club Greenville. The discussion was filled with excellent advice and tips from Ellis, who demystifies SEO for audiences and debunks the idea that SEO is tricky, complicated work.
Here’s a list of the top 6 SEO lessons shared at event:
Search engines love blogs. Blogs link to other sites; they are updated with new, fresh content on a regular basis; they offer high numbers of keywords on a single page; and they inspire user-generated content. All of these criteria increase search potential among the major engines.- Social Media impacts SEO. Social media and social networking sites provide real-time search, brand saturation, and link building mechanisms. As search engines continue to promote “social circle” searches, the connections we have to others will impact search at increasingly high levels.
- SEO breaks the HIPPO rule. SEO should be based on research rather than the HIghest Paid Person’s Opinion. Research indicates the best keywords to use: those with high search traffic and low results.
- Link Baiting ensures organic links. More links lead to more discussion on your site and higher search engine ratings. Strategies for encouraging organic links include: top ten lists, white papers, blogs, interviews, case studies and contests.
- SEO, by itself, is not the goal. Once you’ve risen to the top of the search engine’s rankings and people are visiting your site, you must still present good, compelling content that inspires users to act.
- SEO requires ethical constraint. As in public relations, the strategies employed in SEO can be used ethically or not. Falsifying links, spamming, and lying on other sites create links. Bad press creates links. Unethical practices are used in SEO, but reputable marketers should avoid these pitfalls.
What SEO lessons would you add to this list?
John A. McArthur, Ph.D. 
Hey nice info on SEO. These are a lot of good points you brought up. You should note though some of the things you should avoid too. Not all links are beneficial. You want trusted, worthy links to bring in traffic. Spamming and useless links only bring down the rank of your website. Fresh content is definitely a plus! Updating as much as you can with interesting information will surely bring you more traffic and show search engine robots you are important. I would love to hear some feedback on what you think about my SEO tips on my blog.
Thanks for the tips on what to avoid, and the reminder that the issue for incoming links is both quantity AND quality.