New Year SEO Resolutions 2013
It’s nearly New Year’s Eve and with the 31
st of December comes the annual tradition of making those resolutions that, let’s face it, we won’t be keeping.
Promises of giving up smoking, being
healthier, reading more and giving more to charity are all made with the
best intentions but come the 27th January all will have been long
forgotten.
However as we are all in the resolution mood; if you are an online
business or you rely on your site to bring in valuable business then
maybe there are some resolutions you seriously should think about making
and keeping during 2013.
Unlike making fad lifestyle resolutions that you’re just not going to
keep, changing the way you work with your site could help make 2013 a
very good year indeed.
So here are my top four resolutions that all site owners should make (and keep to):
This year I will write great content
Don’t just write content – write great content.
Gone are the days of simply writing for the sake of creating a link.
If you just write a generic article, submit it to an article submission
site that realistically isn’t going to be seen by anyone then you will
be wasting your time. You won’t even be getting the benefit of the link
you were looking to create. Why? Well links from these free article
sites don’t hold any value.
Google want content but they want great, unique content. Content that
will engage an audience, content that will provide valuable
information. Content that will give searchers the information they were
searching for.
They also want you to create content that people will share.
With Google’s continued authorship push this is also going to be an element you will need to keep an eye on.
There are so many ways you can create great content but before you
even think about writing externally – you need to check your own site.
- Does your site content do the job?
- Does it provide the information your potential customers need? Does it answer their questions?
- Does it sell?
- Read it back to yourself, get others to read it – is your message coming across?
If you answer no to any of these questions, then it could be time for a refresh.
Once your site is up to speed then it’s time to look at all the other
avenues content can provide. But before you start it is highly
important you know exactly who you are writing for. If you aren’t
engaging with your audience then you won’t truly be writing for anyone.
Do you actually know who your audience are?
Think about the type of content you can create. What purpose will it
serve; does it answer any questions or provide a resource that would be
helpful?
What types of content can you create? Well here are just a few ideas to get you going:
- Add a Blog to your site
- Hubs
- Guest Blogging
- Whitepapers
- Press Releases
- Guides
- Whitepapers
Of course, the type of business you are will determine what you can
write about and what platforms you can create content for. Don’t just
write for the sake of it – have a purpose.
This year I will become more social
No; this doesn’t mean you should spend even more time down the pub.
If this is one of your New Year’s resolutions then fair play but this
isn’t what I mean.
Something I have spoken about quite a bit in the last year is my
frustration at online businesses that refuse to embrace social. They
“don’t think it is for them” or they “don’t have the time”.
2013 isn’t going to slow down the importance of social and the more
you hold off having a presence the more you are going to be left behind.
Social signals are now unavoidably important.
No matter what sector you are in there is always a social spin you
can create. Look up your competitors, see how they are doing it, and
learn from them.
People aren’t just using Google to look you up. Your presence is
being looked for on all the main social platforms and if they can’t find
you then you can be sure they will be finding your competitors.
Social is also a vital part of brand protection. If you don’t own
your brand socially then who is to say someone else won’t sign up and
take it. In this day and age, not owning your brand in all the right
places could be highly detrimental.
Start becoming social.
Sign up and create your profiles. Keep them consistent to your
website branding. Make sure all the information marries up. Without even
tweeting or making your first update you have already grown your brand
online.
This year I will vary my link building
Targeting only exact keyword links is massively a thing of the past.
Don’t get me wrong you still need to link build using keyword links but
the estimated percentage of links that you should create with this
tactics has drastically changed.
Your link profile needs to change.
You need to be building links for your brand not just the terms that
you want to link for. In fact you need to be building a higher
percentage of links for your brand than you do any other type of link.
Not only that, you need to be creating a healthy diverse link profile.
There is no exact percentage score but maybe aim for a split of
around 65% brand related links, 25% keyword targeted links and 10% all
other type of links.
If you carry out the first two resolutions then you are already well
on your way to creating a good diverse link profile because if your
content is link worthy then you will naturally be winning.
If you are being social then again, you will be creating social signals and links back to your site.
You see link building for 2013 isn’t about getting your site included
in as many free directory sites as you can. It’s not about spamming
blogs with comments just to create a link.
This year I will vary my link building
Targeting only exact keyword links is massively a thing of the past.
Don’t get me wrong you still need to link build using keyword links but
the estimated percentage of links that you should create with this
tactics has drastically changed.
Your link profile needs to change.
You need to be building links for your brand not just the terms that
you want to link for. In fact you need to be building a higher
percentage of links for your brand than you do any other type of link.
Not only that, you need to be creating a healthy diverse link profile.
There is no exact percentage score but maybe aim for a split of
around 65% brand related links, 25% keyword targeted links and 10% all
other type of links.
If you carry out the first two resolutions then you are already well
on your way to creating a good diverse link profile because if your
content is link worthy then you will naturally be winning.
If you are being social then again, you will be creating social signals and links back to your site.
You see link building for 2013 isn’t about getting your site included
in as many free directory sites as you can. It’s not about spamming
blogs with comments just to create a link.
Regards
Team Greatsol-Seo
www.greatsol-seo.com