Build Stronger SEO

This week I’ve been learning all about the world of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and it has me thinking about the ways in which we search for everything. Most of the time when I have a topic to search I go to either Google or Yahoo. If I am searching for something local I use Yahoo local. If it’s a complete question that I need answered I will to Google. It would seem at first that searching is just that easy but further research shows things are more complicated than meets the eyes.

Search Engine Optimization is just a fancy way of saying that you want to improve the visibility of a website by having it appear in more searches. Though SEO is important to many businesses that do online-marketing it is also of great importance to many in the music industry that are looking to sell records and build a name for their artists.

Here are a few keys to creating a good SEO strategy for folks on a budget or just beginning:

1. Be sure that you ping your blog, index your posts in Google and keep posting to sites. It’s also important to post to sites that have keywords that will lead to your site.
2. Doing step one will create back-links, which allows for more hits on your website.
3. Write content that references keywords someone would search to find your blog or website. Having the keywords in the content of an article on your website or even a slogan could prove useful in getting more hits.
4. Build a social network with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and a blog. This seems to go against the idea of building a strong ranking and SEO but it too can help in efforts to get your website noticed.
5. Professional networking is also a great way to get more hits on your website.

If your budget is larger and you have money to spend then some paid services are available that guarantee crawling, which is going to put you at the top of rankings. It will also allow for your site to be linked with keyword searches on sites like Google and Yahoo. Some would caution that paying for these services is a quick solution to a larger problem of the sustainability this method brings. If you pay for a service such as this it’s often hard to keep paying in hopes that you will get the same successful results. Building a strong SEO overtime is the best way to go. Remember that patience is a virtue.