Think Like a Searcher to Increase Your Traffic

Think Like a Searcher to Increase Your Traffic

SEOs and site owners fight hard to get a top position on the search engine results pages for their chosen keywords. But that’s only half the battle at best. If you’ve optimized your way to the top but still aren’t seeing the traffic and conversions you hoped for, keep reading.

When you started optimizing your web site, you probably read a number of articles that urged you to think like a search engine. We've published several of those kinds of articles here at SEO Chat; I've even written one myself recently. There's nothing wrong with these articles, but they don't quite give you the whole picture.

Most of these articles mention at least some of the following points:

• Search engine spiders can't see images and video, so you need include alt tags with a concise description and keywords.
  
• Keywords must fall naturally; do not stuff them. Include them strategically in titles, headers, and content. Search engines judge relevance based in part on keyword content.
  
• Search engines love fresh content; if possible, update your site regularly (here at the Shed, we shoot for at least three times a week).
  
• Search engine spiders choke on dynamic URLs; use static ones whenever possible.
  
• Get other sites to link back to your site with your keywords to indicate to the search engines that your site is relevant for that topic.

Speaking of relevance, Jacqueline Dooley wrote an excellent article for us a while back that really illustrates the way a search engine spider "thinks." It touches on all of these points and more. If you can handle getting put down by the Google spider, figuratively speaking, you will learn a lot.

And if you don't like getting insulted by an automated program, even in the imagination and for educational purposes, cheer up. We're about to insult that spider back. So let's assume you know all about thinking like a search engine. It's time to step outside the search box.