The SEO (Search Engine Optimization) industry is guilty of over-complicating the process of attaining good rankings. While ranking well with Google is no walk in the park, the concepts are very easy to grasp; even for novices.

Here’s a few tips and tricks for the aspiring optimizer in you:

1. Lay a solid foundation

Make sure your web developer is well-versed in current W3C/SEO practices. If your website is standing on shaky ground from the get-go (bad navigational structure, duplicate content, links from bad sites, static TITLE tags, etc.) you will never give yourself a fair shot at taking over your key market(s).

2. Stay in the loop

You can keep yourself in the loop of how Google views your site by doing any of the following:

• Searching for your target keywords (of course)
• Type the following argument into Google’s search box to see how many of your site’s pages Google has indexed: site:domain.com
• This argument will give you a sampling of other sites that are linking to yours. This number will not be 100% accurate because Google chooses to protect their ranking algorithms by withholding some of this information. Nevertheless, it will still give you a good idea of where you stand: link:domain.com

3. Good Links = Great Rankings

Don’t fall for the trap. We’ve all seen them at one point or another: “10,000 links for $29!!!”.

If you take anything away from this entry, make sure it is this: 10 great links will take you further than 1,000 bad links.

What’s a good link? Let’s say you’re a florist in Miami, FL. Do some networking, online searching, or simply flip through your local yellow pages and start calling up businesses that are related to yours. Maybe another florist, wedding planners, caterers, event planners…you get the picture.

Once you get in touch with their webmaster, explain to them how you think you can form a mutual relationship by exchanging links and/or content and you’d be surprised just how many will be willing to work with you. All it takes is a few simple phone calls.

What’s a bad link? As a florist, you have no business being linked to from a mortgage broker’s website or a car dealership. Does this seem like a natural exchange to you? Google’s algorithms are smart enough to make this distinction and you may even be penalized for exchanging too many links with unrelated sites.

Remember, this works both ways. Make sure that the websites that you want to partner with don’t link to bad neighborhoods of websites….it may affect you as well.

4. Always be writing

Whether it’s the latest special, a news clipping related to your industry, or maybe just some advice you’d like to provide your audience with…constantly publishing great and original content will go a long way in accomplishing your ranking goals.

Also, the more you write…the more your audience will tend to trust your website for good information. If you write it, they will come.

5. KEEP IT NATURAL!

Everything in the SEO world takes time. It takes patience. Over-night success is very very difficult to achieve unless you’re diving into a brand new market with little competition.

Don’t take shortcuts, but work smart.

Don’t waste time going after 1,000 mediocre links from people you don’t even know when you can go out and actually network personally with your link partners and form long-standing relationships.

Write. Write. And write some more. Your clients will thank you and so will Google.