Perhaps one of the most widespread misconceptions about SEO is that it is an essentially distinct process from building your own site. This is due in part to the misnomer of “optimization” ~ implying that you design your site, add content, and then somehow “SEO” or “optimze” in order to increase rankings.
The fact is real success often comes from doing the opposite. The first and last rule of search engine optimization is to build a site really, really worth linking to regardless of personal or financial interest. And why? Because it is good content more than anything else that will attract natural incoming links, and it is quality links that determine search engine rankings.
If you do reciprocal linking, “one-way” linking, article submission, directory submission and so on, they will help, but ultimately they are artificial linking methods designed to create links which mimic natural, incoming links, and mimics by definition are not the genuine article. Search engines are not perfect and such measures can be of real help, but for continued success a site must sooner or later attract natural inbound links in order to succeed.
In sum:
- A great site with great content will eventually attract natural inbound links, but without SEO efforts it may take an unnecessairly long time to achieve the rankings it deserves.
- A mediocre site with mediocre content will be much less likely to attract natural inbound links at any time, but with SEO efforts it may achieve rankings it does not necessarily deserve.
- A great site with great content combined with ethical SEO practices will both attract natural incoming links and have the awareness and systematic effort behind it to push it up the rankings to where it rightfully belongs. It is these kind of sites that Google, Yahoo, MSN and the rest of them want, and much more importantly what people want ~ both you and your visitors alike.
Build a great site, and perforce you will be doing great SEO. And if you can appreciate this, you very likely have what it takes to build a truly worthwhile & successful site and succeed in search engine optimization.
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