The Chemistry Behind Competent SEO Tactics
Whoever said that search engine optimization is an art, clearly was mistaken- at least according to those with a more rational mindset. As the internet has evolved, so too has the science behind organic search results. While there are hundreds, if not thousands or millions, of search engine optimization checklists and strategies available online and off, there is one thing all content strategists will agree upon:
There are fundamental building blocks to successfully optimizing your site for search engines. Without addressing those building blocks, your site may be destined to have low traffic syndrome.
Whether students take chemistry 1 in high school or chemistry 101 in college, they all learn that each element has various properties like atomic weight, electron affinity, atomic size; and some of these properties have periodic trends as you read across the Periodic Table of Elements. When combined, the compounds and molecules formed can take on several complex properties and serve different functions.
Just as atoms are the building blocks of chemistry, so too are the essentials behind Search Engine Optimization. Similar to atoms, the fundamentals of search engine optimization carry different weights, may have preferential treatment in different search algorithms, or different field size limits for indexing. Combined, the various properties of a web page can determine whether the page is ranked #1 or #2 in the search results. More importantly, when the wrong tactics are combined, the results (much like in chemistry labs) can be hazardous!
SearchEngineLand released this great infographic summarizing some of the key criteria to consider when optimizing your website for search engines.
from The Periodic Table Of SEO Ranking Factors
Learn more about these different characteristics at Search Engine Land's Guide to SEO.
Additionally, you may want to read Erin Everhart's great article "6 Best Practices for Modern SEO" featured recently on Mashable. The article describes how SEO has changed as Google has tweaked its algorithm in the last year.