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8 Important SEO Principles; A Quick Review

SEO Principles: Is content an important part of SEO?

The answer is simply, yes.

As far as SEO is concerned content plays a significant role in either promoting or degrading your website and yes, unique content is the keystone of any SEO plan of action. The content of your website remains the most important aspect of your SEO strategy. The SEO tactics are only helpful if the content is good. Without high-quality content no SEO tactic will help you drive organic traffic to your site.

Coalition with Google is foremost

Cooperating with Google is important than bypassing it.

While trying to optimize your website for Google, you can either co-operate with Google or you can use the blackhat SEO technique to out-smart it. Blackhat SEO is a type of technique that follows techniques to out-smart Google and finding ways to artificially increase your rankings etc. These methods might work in the short-term but it is always advisable to work along with Google in the long run. This will help you build a better asset out of your website and move traffic to it.

Comprehend OR Combat Google

It’s always better to understand Google and go by its rules.

When we say we have to avoid blackhat SEO techniques and work along with Google in the long run it means not only to abide by Google’s set out rules but to incorporate them into your business to support it. Generally, Google works by providing search results or information that exactly match the search query or keyword(s), it servers by retrieving information matching the search query from its huge database. Simply put, to rank high in Google it is very essential to post content that will interest the visitor rather than employing content for the sake of ranking. . E.g., of a SEO company

Having good quality content is not just enough 

Popularize your quality content.

As mentioned before, having top-quality content is of utmost importance; however having unique and useful content is not merely enough. Organic traffic will not be driven to your website even though you have a good content. This is because, Google will not know about your content by just publishing it. Nor will it trust the content.

This obstacle can be overcome by making your article or content popular. If you post your article on Facebook, some will share it while others might retweet it etc. Google will track all these mentions and will recognise your content is of high-quality. So when someone searches on the related article, your page will rank high on Google and it will result in more organic traffic to your website. 

Trash unimportant articles

Delete old articles.

If any of your articles are more than two years old and do not have much readership anymore, and have limited link equity, it is advisable to delete them. However, if you wish to keep the older articles you must Noindex them so that your other, more recent articles, do not lose their link equity.

Noindex pages that must be on your site, but do not need rank

Unimportant pages can be set to NOINDEX.

Most people want their articles to be ranked on Google, along with their home page. However, you don’t need “About Me” or “Contact Me” to rank. You also don’t want Terms of Service and Privacy Policy to be ranked. You should noindex these pages, which notifies the search engines to not rank them at all. You can noindex your pages in the following ways:

  • Modify your robust.txt file by adding Disallow: /example-directory/example-page.html, add <meta name=”machine” content=”noindex”> to the page header,
  • (OR) Use a WordPress plugin.

If you are the single author, you should also noindex your archives as it duplicates the content of your website, and you can get penalised by Google for duplicating your content.

Post title must begin with most valuable keyword 

Title to begin with keyword.

For your rankings to improve, you must use the most important keyword in the headline of your article. The title tag is the most essential on-page factor to optimize the keyword. You must also make sure that other posts linking to your website also use the same keyword.

Strictly avoid reciprocal links 

No to reciprocal links.

Unlike backlinks the reciprocal links have void SEO value as they return exactly the same link equity as they receive hence, you must avoid engaging them only if they are valuable. In case of offering a backlink you could nofollow them unless you haven’t made a mutual reciprocal link agreement, by contradiction it is considered a grey hat move. You must try to get run-of-site links like bolgroll etc., as these are high-quality links. You must also make sure that these links are relevant to your site. . 

 These are the 8 important SEO principles. 

Author Bio:

I’m Ramya Raju, a freelance web designer/writer based in India.  I have worked in a number of SEO projects and have a good insight into creating a web design with SEO techniques incorporated in it.  Apart from web designing and SEO I also contribute high-quality articles to top class websites and blogs. Besides business I am part-time wildlife photographer and generally an extrovert, I also like travelling to different destinations.

Contact:

Ramya Raju,

E-mail: ramyaraju896@gmail.com
Website

Mobile: 9442474516

 

Please note: This is a guest blog.

Ramya Raju

Ramya Raju

50 thoughts on “8 Important SEO Principles; A Quick Review


  • Christine Derrel 2013/08/26 at 1:58 pm

    To be completely honest, I would say that it is all about Great content and after that promotion of your great content to the right people, dont you think???

  • Joe - Search Boost Marketing 2013/09/16 at 7:43 pm

    Thank you Ramya, great points for sure. I would like to add that a new search metrics report correlates greater rankings for websites with more social media activity. Shares on Facebook, Googe + 1’s, Twitter and Pinterest all having the greatest impact. Even more than on page seo factors themselves. So for today – don’t forget about quality content that will get you shared with these social media sites. And adding the social media sites to any website will help make it easy to share your content as well. Have a great day, Joe

  • Hi Joe,

    Thanks for the genuine reply. I will certainly follow your advice.

    Regards

    Ramya Raju

  • Webmaster Forum 2013/09/24 at 6:01 pm

    i disagree with one of your point like deleting old articles as they are old they might have gained their own authority within long time frame.

    Secondly, old articles are valuable as it can bring search traffic and even if they might not that much high but every single visit is precious.

    Thirdly, i have seen old content ranks much better and they are stable because of their authority.

    Lastly, they can also contribute in pagerank if its linked with homepage in most cases every page is linked with homepage for navigational purpose.

  • Really Good and unique principles. There are so many principles or strategy that we are following to promote the business. I really got some unique idea from here.

  • Nice one. Everyone want their website to be optimized, when clients aproach them for a business. Webmasters are very difficult to understand, Since search engine like Google keeps updating its search algorithm and also it takes long time to see the results even if they understand it and implementing on websites. Many are hesitated to take risk implementing New techniques when there is uncertainty.

  • Copywriting Services 2013/10/02 at 6:11 am

    Ramya, good post. I’m sure the hummingbird changes and the not provided will make the SEOs life more interesting 😉

  • Ramya thanks a lot for sharing these 8 important principles of SEO.
    I would like your opinion about what came first chicken or egg?
    I mean in the event that a website has to choose on focusing efforts and choose to do before between growth in social networks or create backlinks?

  • You actually need to concentrate on both the things means growth of social networks and link building.

    Both of these are linked together produces great result.

  • TC Business Marketing 2014/01/07 at 10:12 am

    Two things:

    First, I disagree with removing old content. Webmaster Forum above is right in that old articles will gain authority and help contribute to your overall Domain Authority which is important for ranking.

    Second, you have an error in your article. It should read robots.txt, not robust.txt.

    Thanks,
    Clinton

  • Search Engine Optimization 2014/01/09 at 2:50 pm

    This is what i was looking for, very helpful article

    i can say that content is important

    Thanking You

  • Sukhbir - Zeemo 2014/01/10 at 5:01 am

    Whilst you do raise some excellent and valid points, it is important that you don’t overlook high quality content and social networking in favour of SEO. It is a combination of all three that make for a truly successful online presence. If you’re content isn’t good (it’s too long, boring or doesn’t make sense) no amount of SEO or social networking is going to save you – and vice versa.

  • Hello Ramya

    A great and useful article you have written. I appreciate it. I want info about SEO driven articles but nowhere I found a deep and genuine help. My search finishes at your blog.
    Thanks again. And Please in future also oblige us with great articles on SEO and other topics.

  • Everybody want the website to become enhanced, when clients aproach them for any business. Website owners are tough to understand, Since internet search engine like Google keeps upgrading its search formula and it takes very long time to determine the outcomes even when they do know it and applying online. Most are hesitated to consider risk applying New techniques when there’s uncertainty.

  • Hello Ramya,

    I like this useful things. some E-commerce Site is having Less Content than what to do for that site ,in future write something on that. anyway i like SEO things here you mention.

    Thanks,

  • It´s a great article, and it´s very easy for people to learn the basics of SEO and concentrate only on important things.
    The content of course is the base of a great online marketing. That´s all about.

  • hello Ramya!
    first of all very good post, you really placed all the necessary information but i’m still confused about your noindex idea. if one is a single author can it harm it’s blog or could be vital in long term?????

  • MMMM…..The million dollar question, I think it will get more important in the coming years as a ranking factor, but good content does not get you ranked any better, obviously that does not include copied content.

    Good content ranks you better indirectly! but popular social signals and engagement.

    Great Article Raymond ;?)

  • Nice information, i am implementing above guide on my latest website

  • This is a really good tip especially to those fresh to the blogosphere.
    Brief but very precise info… Many thanks for sharing this one.

    A must read post!

  • Still these are very good and basic principals to follow. But the high quality content only always plays a major role to get good amount of traffic.

  • Hi Ramya,
    Are you sure about deleting old articles ? Don’t you think that will harm your google indexes?

  • Very nice article. We all agreed that CONTENT is the most import thing to consider. Link building, blog commenting, social bookmarkings etc will also help you rank in SE. I’ll share this link to my colleagues so they will and will be using white hat. Thanks for sharing.

  • Great article, I really enjoyed the read. Ya it really seems that with the way Google is moving these days Content has once again become King. Its like they say, “unoptimized is the new optimized” lol. That being said there is still a proper way to achieve this and the SEO business is busier than ever.

    Really Liked this article. Very informational and easy to read. 🙂

  • Thank Ramya, we really needed this information since we are just starting an effective seo strategy

  • Just want to say your article is as astonishing.
    The clearness in your post is just spectacular and i can assume you’re an expert on this subject.
    Well with your permission allow me to grab your RSS feed to keep
    updated with forthcoming post. Thanks a million and please keep up the enjoyable work.

  • forbrukslån uten sikkerhet 2014/09/04 at 9:33 pm

    Have you ever thought about writing an ebook or guest authoring on other sites?
    I have a blog centered on the same topics you discuss and would love to have you share
    some stories/information. I know my visitors would
    enjoy your work. If you are even remotely interested, feel free to shoot me an e-mail.

  • I agree with Webmaster Forum that “OLD ARTICLES” might have gained their own authority within long time frame..
    old article is also important for your blog/website

  • This is very interesting, You are a very skilled
    blogger. I’vejoined your feed and look foreard tto seeking
    more of your fantastic post. Also, I have shared your site in my socil networks!

  • I run a website that showcases footwear and experimented with reciprocal links and this hit me hard in the rankings! Definitely avoid this method of link building at all costs!

  • This is nice post. I love to read it on daily basis. Keep it up.

  • Thanks for sharing such helpful review here in your web page. It is very important to maintain a healthy content and honoring search engine rules.

  • It is definitely true that content really isnt cutting it anymore and it is harder than ever to draw traffic to your site.

    There seems to be only two things are are working well at the moment and that is PBN links and Social signals.

    Social signals for my sites have proved remarkably effective. Each time I post new articles I always make sure these URLs are shared across the bigger networks like FB Twitter etc

  • Daniel Anderson 2015/03/27 at 1:02 pm

    Thanks Ramya for sharing these tips. Some are very useful like I was engaging a lot in reciprocal links but now after understanding your point that they are not really good, I have decided to stop doing it.

  • A piece of advice for anyone reading this is make sure you dont have any duplicate content on your site, keep your affiliate links to a minimum and make sure you content adds value.

    Just been struck by a thin penalty from google and my site lost its rankings overnight

    Word of warning!

  • Great advice and writeup,

    What would you say about internal anchor texts are they more of a ranking signal?

    Also rather than deleting your old articles, would you not rather update or recycle them and use the urls?

  • Sam - Legal Steroids 2016/01/15 at 2:01 pm

    I know this post was written in 2013, there might be important updates added to this but still I find this useful and certainly adding this blog to my SEO/SMM blogs to follow. Also taking notes of Ramya Raju’s contact info.

  • I think I am late in reading this post too Sam but this post increased my knowledge.

  • Things are still the same after a few years and this article is still very relative. Internal ranking factors still work well, but being over optimized can hurt not improve rankings.

    I would always let the 404’s drop due to issues with redirects within your website!

  • Content is not a vital part of the SEO equation, Without good content you are going to have a real lack of engagement on your site and sharing been performed.

  • Cedric Markwatson 2016/04/02 at 11:38 am

    All the points are explained very clearly, Great source of information. Thanks for en-lighting us with your knowledge, it is helpful for many of us.

  • Caitlyn Gamache 2016/04/21 at 9:54 pm

    Valuable post. Good to know something new. Thanks for that.
    Caitlyn

  • Cedric Markwatson 2016/05/03 at 6:29 am

    Thanks for your efforts to create an excellent post. There is no doubt that high-quality content is a demand of this era. Without having informative content, you can’t get top position in SERP easily.


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