The title comes from Joe Raposo’s classic lament for Kermit the Frog on Sesame Street. When it comes to SEO, most businesses understand what Kermit was talking about when he sang: It’s not easy being green. Green, inexperienced, a little new to this mysterious thing called search engine optimization.

It takes some time for most businesses to truly come to the self knowledge that SEO is not easy to understand much less execute. It’s more than just adding keywords to a website or changing the meta tags or site architecture to reach #1 in rankings.

Search engine optimization involves hard work and a time commitment that can’t be achieved quickly. There are no shortcuts nor are there any cookie cutter solutions that fit every company. Below are just a few of the most basic aspects of a successful SEO campaign.

• Create quality content that attracts and converts visitors to loyal customers. Don’t get so focused on SEO and keyword repetition that you forget about the end user. Write content and brand your website as a valuable resource so visitors will be interested, enjoy returning and hand over their hard-earned money.
• Build quality NOT quantity links that help your content get found by the search engines. Again, SEO shortcuts are often taken by some businesses who think that purchasing backlinks is a quick fix. In reality, search engines instantly detect unnatural links and ignore them. Building quality links involves creating valuable content and then marketing that content through blogs, websites, print marketing and social media sites. This process takes time and effort.
• Develop and interact with people through social media sites. Social media is a powerful tool for building the quality links that are mentioned above. Understand where your target audience hangs out online and then decide which social networks to become involved with.

Beyond the basics there are a combination of other things that affect rankings and search engine algorithms are constantly changing. Did you know that the number of years your domain name is registered can affect your ranking? It’s true. Google and other search engines want to know if you are in business for the long haul.

SEO is definitely not easy! It takes time and resources that should be implemented in the planning phases of building a website and then constantly reevaluated. If done correctly, you can prove to Google and other search engines that you deserve to stand out with a high ranking!

How about you? Are you feeling a little green or do you think you know it all when it comes to search engine optimization?

Share with all your friends on…