As you begin to consider what it is you’re doing with SEO, keep something in mind: SEO is all in the details. You may have heard this tired phrase before, but don’t discount it because it’s no longer completely fresh and ‘‘buzzy.’’ It’s still true. SEO, especially organic SEO, is all about the little things you do that make a big difference over time, and sometimes even immediately.
For example, I work on a web site about identity theft, and one of the things I do is create content to help people avoid identity theft or recover from it if they have already been victimized. In the course of taking over this site from the person who worked on it last, I found myself fighting struggling page ranks on various search engines. One thing I did to combat this was some keyword research.
I looked into all the keywords that people were using to find my site, and then I began integrating those keywords into content that people are actually looking for. I still don’t rank number one for my most desired keyword (identity theft), but I do rank on the first page for many of the Long Tail keyword phrases that my users search for (such as disaster identity theft, senior identity theft, and vacation identity theft).
It was a minor change in the larger picture. I was already creating content for the site, but by focusing on some of the terms that I learned visitors were using, I improved my web site’s search rankings. In at least one case, that improvement happened on the same day!
In other words, don’t discount the little things. Even minor details, such as refocusing your keyword efforts or adding the right tags in the right places, can make a major difference in the amount of traffic that your site receives.