If you are new to SEO, you are probably reading a lot of information online and in how-to books about keyword research, link building, META tags, etc.
And while these are all very crucial elements to building targeted traffic to your website through the search engines, they are in fact building blocks of a larger SEO structure. They all rely on each other to support the SEO foundation. If any one of these building blocks is missing, the structure will collapse, and you could miss out on profitable search engine traffic. But if you truly understand the relationship of these building blocks, you will have a rock solid foundation with which to execute all the tips and tricks you learn, and will see your search engine traffic and profits soar!
When doing research for this article, I was looking for some ideas for the simplest and most direct way to explain the different building blocks of SEO and how they relate to each other. I found one so brilliant I wish I could take c
redit for it. But I have to tip my hat to the folks at SEOmoz for inventing this diagram.
All of the techniques and building blocks that you’ve read or heard about fit into one of the above components or cornerstones of SEO. Every building block of SEO can be categorized as a technical component, a content component or a trust component. Now that you’re wondering what fits where, let’s dive on in!
Technical SEO Component
The technical SEO components are typically what scare people the most, especially if they are new to SEO. But you don’t have to have a detailed understanding of how these technical components work to know what they are. And if you know what they are, then you can reasonably talk to your web designer about them. Executing the wrong technical components on your website could result in the search engine spiders being unable to access the content on your site. They include, but are not limited to:
- Websites built entirely in Flash
- Including important text in images
- Use of iFrames
- Use of session ID’s
The above technical no-no’s should be prevented to allow the search engines to access your content. This is the first crucial component to address. Kind of like giving the search engines the keys to your house. Of course, once you’ve let them in, you need to give them a guided tour. This is where the content component comes in to play.
Content SEO Component
The content component of SEO is the one that is discussed the most. Typically this is in terms of keyword research and writing keyword relevant articles. It is very important for business owners to understand the language their potential customers use when searching for their products. If you are optimizing a product page for “key fobs” and everyone searches for “key chains”…well you see the disconnect.
But content issues don’t end with keyword research and article writing. Information architecture is an often neglected part of the content component. Information architecture basically breaks down to navigation and linking structure of your website. Now that you’ve given your search engine friends the keys to your house, how hard are you making it for them to find the bathroom?
In terms of information architecture, the easier you make it for your readers and customers to find your content, the better it will be for the search engines. This includes using things like:
- Flat site architecture – The fewest number of clicks from the home page to important content.
- Breadcrumb links
- Anchor text links within articles
- Universal link menus
By using the same language as your customers, and holding their hands as you guide them through your site, you will automatically be doing the same for the search engines.
So now that you’ve given the search engines the keys to your house and arranged the furniture to make a path to a door clearly marked, “bathroom”, you need to make sure they aren’t afraid to come inside.
Trust SEO Component
The third and final component to building a rock solid SEO foundation is trust. Simply defined, this boils down to links. Building a strong network of inbound links from relevant, trusted sources tells the search engines that your site is also a trusted source for your particular niche or market. When the search engines trust your site, they will be more likely to serve it up in the top of their results pages.
When you break down SEO into these 3 main components, it’s much easier to see how they relate to each other, and how success can only be achieved when all 3 are present. If your search engine friends trust you, but can’t get in the front door your site won’t rank. If they can get in front door, but stumble over the coffee table to get to the only bathroom upstairs that you’ve labeled, “kitchen”, your site won’t rank. Only if they trust you enough to use your keys to breeze through the living room to the bathroom will your site rank. This is your foundation to generating tons of targeted search engine traffic and sales for your website.