Quick and Easy Solutions to 5 Very Common SEO Challenges

Many of our SEO students experience quite an eye-opening discovery as they begin their first day of training. They come in with the mindset of chasing an algorithm, but then somewhere along the way they discover that there really is no reason to chase the algorithm. What we actually do for the students when we have a chance to work with them in person is we help them grasp the full spectrum of search engine marketing and we impart to them a range of skills that generally changes the way they understand optimization. We teach them the difference between the myths and fallacies which may have heard somewhere else and we teach them the facts which are based on genuine research.

We put great emphasis on the value of creating original content of high value for their readers and Web visitors. There is a lot to say for content that serves some useful purpose and stands on its own merit. Sure we teach them how to get their pages ranked too, but we also teach them how to spend their time building unique strategies that benefit their visitors as opposed to old fashioned out of date "traffic tricks." The student often comes in with one mindset but by the end of the workshop, they've gained a whole new understanding along with a refinement of actual SEO skills that they take home with them.

Okay, so lets talk about some of the old SEO challenges and how a little shift in our thinking may hold simple but effective solutions.

1. The challenge of keyword research

Everyone obviously wants to optimize for those main keyword phrases that are so competitive, they can take some effort to tackle. They most certainly can be achieved and we demonstrate this to students too. But what I am saying is these type of competitive keywords need considerable more work in order to get ranked. What people forget are the awesome ranges of niches that are available. The "low hanging fruit" that are those phrases in fair to high use, but very low competition. The point being that you can enjoy excellent traffic and online business too, with just a few very targeted buyers coming to your Web site every day on a regular basis. They know what they are searching for and in essence, all they need is to be able to easily find you.

I wrote an e-book called Wordtracker Magic to explain easy and fast ways you can quickly extract the very best phrase combinations in a fraction of the time most people need to perform their keyword research. I also have a series of short instructional audio tips to help people get started and they are free to listen to anytime you wish.

2. The challenge of optimizing your page

Many SEOs look at optimization as their major challenge. How many times I have seen a new SEO student starting to write their Web content with their brain 100% focused on the optimization of the content. In other words they are focusing on how many keywords, where to put those keywords, working with other criteria but all to one end. All they are thinking of is just "Optimization." So what's wrong with that you may ask?

The challenge that many people have is as follows. They are so focused on where the keywords are on their page, that they are not really creating the level of "content quality" or value that they might have if they were not so preoccupied with optimization! You've all seen pages that are stacked with keywords, but how do these read quality wise to the average human being? Let's just say it's not a fraction of the potential it could be with just a little different approach.

I've even seen people so focused on the optimization process that they forget to even include any call to action. What good is even a number 1 ranking for the best possible phrase if when people read it, they just leave again because of no call to action.

So what am I suggesting? The solution is simple. Write with your researched keyword phrase in mind, but do not try to optimize and create new content at the exact same time.

Instead think about it as a two step process. So what if we take these as two separate steps.

Step 1 Create new content for your readers : Write some unique original content that you feel you can be proud of. Something you know your visitors will find interesting and useful. Don't even think about keyword density, or keyword prominence or keyword placement. Stay focused on the message of your content so that you end up with a well crafted page that reads well when you read it out loud and make sure it serves the needs of your readers. Make sure there is a significant call to action. Okay, now you've created your content, you have have done the hard part.

Step 2: Now go back and do a simple re-write for those search engines. You'll be re-writing with a finished article and just making mild changes to it for the purpose of optimization.

Tip: If you've done good keyword research and are optimizing for the right phrases, you'll find that with this 2 step approach, you'll be creating much better quality of articles for your visitors and because you have done good research, the optimization is not that hard.

Do you need to learn more about the process of search engine optimization? Study an online SEO course or come to one the our hands-on SEO Workshops.

3. The challenge of knowing exactly what search engine spiders are doing and how far they are crawling into your Web site.

There is an excellent tool which will reveal exactly what those search engine spiders are doing, how often they visit, which pages they visit, how often they stay and a whole lot more. This excellent program review of Robot Manager Professional was written by Robin Nobles. This is a wonderful tool that allows you track some really fascinating information (to the point of becoming addictive.)

4. Are you trying to get search engine spiders to come back and re-visit your Web site more often?

Are you trying to use a Meta Tag to get search engine spiders to come back and revisit your Web site every so often?
Save your time. Search engine robots actually run much better based on their own schedule and just because you include a Meta Revisit Tag <META name="Revisit-After" content="X Days"> does not mean the robot is going pay attention to it.

However, there is one tip which is extremely effective in getting search engine robots to come visit you much more often.
We refer to "content freshness" factors. It's not complex to understand. What you want to do is start adding some pages on to your Web site on a regular consistent basis. For example, if you were add one new article per month to your Web site, that would be good, but even better would be to add one new article to your Web site per week. The key is consistency. Each time the robot returns and sees more new content it tends to adjust the frequency of its schedule. There are other benefits as well but even if you were to only add new content regularly to your site for the sake of your visitors, you may enjoy some other benefits too.

5. Have you ever wanted a solid method for determining the effectiveness of a search engine marketing campaign within a specific industry?

If you have not read Marshall Sponder's free illustrated report, it explains in detail, a step by step method for measuring your search engine campaign's effectiveness and how you can perform client scorecarding through the power of metrics. If you have not read this report yet, download it and get started. Find out how you can measure site stickiness and brand blurriness. Enjoy.

In conclusion, always remember that regardless of whatever process you are working on, there are usually multiple ways to work around any specific challenges. There are many variations of a process that once you discover them and try them, you may find they make your life a whole lot easier. This is just one of the values we teach at our workshops. Performing solid SEO does take some legitimate effort to perform. Like anything else perfection does come from hands-on practice. However the process of SEO and performing successful search engine marketing does not have to be a stressful process at all.

About John Alexander
John Alexander is Co-director of Training at Search Engine Workshops offering live, SEO Workshops with partner Robin Nobles as well as online search engine marketing courses through Online Web Training. John is author of an e-book called Wordtracker Magic and co-author of the Totally Non-Technical Guide for A Successful Web Site. John and Robin also host an event called the Ultra Advanced Symposium on a quarterly basis.

Search Engine Workshops
. . . the premiere onsite search engine marketing workshops in the world!

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Search Engine Workshops. . . the premiere onsite search engine marketing workshops in the world!

Click here to go back to the index of SEO articles

Search Engine Workshops
. . . the premiere onsite search engine marketing workshops in the world!