Search engine algorithms have evolved dramatically over the last few years. Following major search engine updates, particularly in the last three years, many of the traditional search engine optimization (SEO) techniques and tactics are no longer relevant. If you continue to embrace the old and outdated SEO practices, it will become increasingly difficult for your website to achieve good rankings in search engine results.
Create Content for Readers, Not Search Engines
Google, Bing and other search engines have acquired strong capabilities in recent years to differentiate between good quality content and the kind of superficial content that is created just to win the attention of search engine crawlers for the sake of high search rankings. Keyword stuffing is not a good idea now. You should instead focus your energies on creating original, relevant, useful, and reader-friendly content to win top search rankings.
Stop Chasing Unworthy Links
Generating inbound links just for the sake of gaining favors with the search engines no longer works well. If you generate links from dubious or irrelevant sources, engage in reciprocal links, or purchase links in bulk, it is not going to help anymore. On the contrary, your site may end up attracting penalties from Google and rank lower than what it originally deserved.
Superficial Press Releases Won’t Help
Paid press releases and free online press releases are not going to achieve much traction in terms of boosting your website’s search rankings. A press release that is genuinely newsworthy, and includes an announcement about a new product, procedure or technology related to your practice, or informs about a special event, launch or new development, is always welcome. But distributing online PRs just for the sake of it will not add to the credibility of your website as far as search engines are concerned.
Do not Ignore Social Media Engagement
Merely having a token presence across various social media networks will not help from an SEO perspective. Search engines are likely to consider genuine social signals such as comments, likes, shares and links, which can only happen when you engage proactively with your target audience over social media.
By: Naren Arulrajah with Vikas Vij
About the Author:
Naren Arulrajah is President and CEO of Ekwa Marketing, a complete Internet marketing company which focuses on SEO, social media, marketing education and the online reputations of dentists. With a team of 140+ full time marketers, www.ekwa.com helps dentists who know where they want to go get there by dominating their market and growing their business significantly year after year. If you have questions about marketing your practice online, call 855 598-3320 to speak one-on-one with Naren.
