seo

I recently came across a blog post by a fellow SEO copywriter by the name of Liam Bailey that discusses the idea of Google now recognizing certain keyword synonyms, in addition to the keyword or keyphrase itself.

The example Bailey uses is with the terms overseas property and property abroad, citing that Google appeared to be recognizing each phrase as one in the same. And while the writer of this post provided no hard, concrete evidence that this was in fact the case, aside from personal assurance, as an SEO copywriter myself it really made me think.

I encounter clients and fellow marketers alike on a regular basis who seek to define their link building strategy by a set of rigidly defined absolutes.  These rules don’t bend and they certainly don’t evolve with the ranking algorithm or with the needs of the business. Unfortunately, the static nature of this approach to link building often comes at the expense of some outstanding link partnership opportunities.  I’m going to address 2 of my favorite, most common and most detrimental linking absolutes.  

Absolute 1: Never Pay For Links

The economy is tight right now. We all feel it, and everyone’s looking for a way to save a couple of bucks here and there. The time comes to renew your hosting, and you consider your options. Dedicated or shared? Does it really matter that you could have more security and be crawled faster on a dedicated IP address when shared hosting can save you a decent amount of money? So you make the decision, enjoy the savings, and sit back. After all, no harm done, right? Um… don’t be so sure.

We all know how important SEO is- this is what makes your website visible in search engine result pages (SERPs), and this is how you attract users to your site. But what happens when a user reaches your site and can't use it? They go to your competitors, and you lose conversions, ROI, and repeat traffic.

So what are some ways you can avoid falling into usability error traps and keep your conversions and traffic?