From the folk at Search Engine Land- A great infographic about Search Engine Optimisation Ranking Factors, displayed a la the Periodic Table. You can find the full version on their website: The Periodic Table Of SEO Ranking Factors
This image lays out the basics of Search Engine Optimisation: the On-Page Factors in grey, the Off-Page Factors in green, some of the many violations that unethical or ‘adventurous’ SEOs might make (in red) and how the process of blocking a site from a search results page can have a negative impact on your website’s rankings (yellow).
Content Creation- An Important On-Page Factor
In fact, I think creation of quality content for your website is fast becoming a critical component of your website’s ranking strategy. That’s why I like the way this image places such an emphasis on Content as an On-Page factor.
Quality, Research, Engage
Content should be original and of great quality. It must engage your website’s visitors, which is a reason why video and images are so good as a content option. Lots of people prefer to look at images and to watch video- a picture is worth a thousand words, and all that!
Words
‘Words’ acknowledges the use of specific keywords and phrases on the website, and is perhaps not as critical as it was thought to be in the past. We used to work very hard to ensure the keywords you were trying to get the page ranking for were everywhere on the page- the headline and subheadings, several times in the text (some SEOs got very caught up in something called ‘keyword density’ and would make sure the keyword appeared on the page to make up 5% of the total word count), in the alt tags of images… What this meant was sometimes the text didn’t read very well at all! You’d see things like “If you are looking for a dentist Sydney you’ve come to the right place”…ugh! Just awful!
These days we write for the audience, the human visitor who reaches your website looking for information. We do this because a) it’s the humans and not the Googlebots that will pick up the phone to make an appointment, so we need the words on the page to make sense! b) Engaged readers stay on a website for longer: a good signal to Google that your website is providing information that is relevant to users (and therefore means it is likely to get a boost in the rankings) c) Writing crappy text for a professional’s website is just bad form IMHO!
Fresh
Take note: the final Content factor is “Fresh”. Fresh new content must be added to your site on a regular basis, be it monthly, weekly or even daily. And not just for a little while: you need to be committed to this strategy long term. It’s a bit like brushing and flossing religiously for three months and then stopping, assuming that since you’ve achieved awesome dental health you can stop putting any more effort into it. Building the authority of your website takes long-term commitment. But it’s well worth the effort!