Three Prongs
of the SEO Fork
Opinions on what constitutes the three prongs of the SEO fork
may vary, but there are three essential components of any web
page that must be in place in order for that page to rank highly.
And it's not just ranking highly that's important; the page has
to stay there for a lengthy time under reasonable circumstances.
First Prong
The first prong in the SEO fork is the web page's Meta tags. These
are the parts of the page that you don't see when you access a
site with your browser. But the search engine robots see the Meta
tags, and they will use them to assist in the decision of how
that page is ranked.
The obvious Meta tags, and really the only ones you absolutely
should have, are the title tag, the keyword Meta tag, and the
description Meta tag. The title tag is not, strictly speaking,
a Meta tag. However, it is often referred to as one. It is the
one tag that your page must have, as it is the single most important
of all the 'invisible' elements on any web page.
Your title tag should include your primary keyword phrase. It
should be readable by a human, as people will see it in the top
browser bar. It should be fairly short and to the point, less
than 80 characters optimally. The title should start, if possible,
with your primary keyword, and can include a secondary keyword
if you wish. Or it can simply consist of your primary keyword
phrase alone.
The keyword Meta tag is one that many web developers ignore these
days. They reason that the major search engines no longer heed
the keyword Meta tag, so why bother including it. This is at least
partly true, but some of the minor search engines do still consider
the importance of the keyword Meta tag, so I would advise its
inclusion. You will never be penalized for including it, and it
may help on occasion.
The description Meta tag is still very much used by most of the
search engines. It is often the text that is used in the listings
description. For this reason it is wise to craft a good description
of about 200 characters. Don't praise the web page - let others
do that. Be factual and non-emotional. In short, provide an honest
description.
Second Prong
The second prong in the SEO fork is links, both internal and external.
A properly designed web site should have its internal linking
structure set up in a natural and economical way. There are no
hard and fast rules, but the main page will usually link out to
every page, and every page will usually link back to the main
page. The main page will often have a link to a site map, which
will have links to every page in the site. There can be more internal
linking, but it should not become confusing or excessive.
External linking can often mean mutually agreed links between
two complementary web sites. It can also mean a one-way outbound
link, or the greatly desired one-way inbound link. The ideal situation
is a large number of one-way inbound links from relevant sites
that use appropriate anchor text. This will give the pages a considerable
boost in the rankings.
Third Prong
The third prong in the SEO fork is content. "Content is King"
they all cry, and they are right too! Without good content your
web site says nothing. People visit web sites to gain information.
Even the visual sites hosting nothing but video clips have information.
That's why people love the sites with the best information.
Have you ever done a search for something and chosen to go to
a site, only to find nothing but AdSense ads? That's not useful
information, and the major search engines don't like that either.
Original good content will always win out over useless garbage.
The best original content is written exclusively for the web site
it is published on, and it appears nowhere else.
When you have the three prongs of the SEO fork in place, you
will be in an excellent position to have your web site rise naturally
up the search engine rankings. You will be providing exactly the
kind of site they like to see, and so you will be rewarded for
your efforts. There are many so-called black hat techniques that
can achieve pretty much the same results, but why bother when
doing it 'right' is really so much easier.
About Melberg Marketing
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