Selecting an ethical SEO firm to manage certain aspects of your online marketing will not necessarily fast track your effort toward success. After all, SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. However, an SEO company that does their job above-board, instead of relying on “black hat” tactics, will achieve better results for you in the long run. Building links is one of the most important, yet most difficult aspects of SEO. This makes it tempting for unethical SEO firms to use the path of least resistance in achieving more links.
Lots of websites make it possible for anyone to quickly build links by including a link to their site when signing guest books, using forums, or leaving comments on other people’s blogs. Other “bad” link-building methods include submitting links to article sites and paying others to link to your site. Search engines recognize these spammy links and give them little value in determining search rankings. In fact, search engines tend to penalize sites that use these links heavily. Therefore, these kinds of link-building tactics should be avoided altogether.
White Hat, Ethical SEO is a Marathon
An ethical SEO firm will optimize your tags, create excellent content, and share on social media to build your links. These “white hat” tactics are the favorites of the search engines and will bump your site up the rankings faster than unethical link building. Granted, there is a little more work involved with these link-building methods, but the results will reflect that dedication to honest, hard work. Here are a few quick tips about these top link-building methods:
- Optimized Tags: your title tag should be 50-60 characters long, and ideally, it should start with your keyword. Limit your meta tag to 156 characters, and be sure that your keyword is included there as well. Each page should only have one H1 tag; multiple H2 tags are acceptable if they make the content easier to read.
- Excellent Content: shoot for at least 300 words on each page; 450 words or more is better. Keep keyword density at 1-3%. This might seem low if you’re used to the old goal of 5-10%, but that density is now considered keyword overkill and will hurt your page ranking.
- Social Media: sharing content on social media can be a good way to gather more “natural” links. Use your social media platforms to introduce your site to new readers. Be sure that you regularly add interesting and relevant content to keep people linking to your site and coming back to read your next post.
If you are having trouble telling the difference between “good” and “bad” link-building tactics, think of it this way: if the sole purpose of the activity is to get another link to boost your SEO, it’s “bad.” “Good” link-building is primarily about improving credibility, brand recognition, and traffic; SEO should be the secondary goal for each link-building tactic.
Are you ready to find an ethical SEO firm that can help you get your SEO on track the right way? Every day, PersistSEO helps companies improve traffic and search rankings using only the soundest practices. To hire an ethical SEO firm that has a proven track record of satisfied clients, call PersistSEO at 770.580.3736.