Does Your Website Fail The Most Basic SEO Test?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a fancy way of saying you want to beat Google at its own game. Instead of shelling out $100 for every few measly clicks, you want to earn the organic traffic of the three-quarters of searchers who never click on Pay-Per-Click ads. We know that 61% of Web users worldwide use the Internet to research products and local businesses, and that means search engine optimization services are crucial to your future success.

Unfortunately, if you work in SEO services or web development long enough, you’ll meet plenty of frustrated business owners who fail the most fundamental test of search marketing. It happens all the time, an anxious manager hires the top Web design company he can find, then freaks out when his amazing, shiny new website gets buried deep in Google search results. And it’s all because they failed to learn the most fundamental search engine optimization lesson.

So, what’s the first SEO test you need to pass? Is it a mobile-friendly upgrade? Nope, although that is important, especially now that 63% of adult cell users go online with their phones (as of May 2013). We also know that global mobile ad spending is expected to more than triple in size by next year. But that’s not the correct answer.

Is it building links? Social media marketing? Voodoo?

Here’s where so many websites go wrong. When someone is launching or redesigning a website, they find the most elite, fancy web design company they can. A small army of highly educated and extremely talented website designers put together an amazing looking, technological marvel of a website, with fancy splash landing pages, rollover animation, and more bells and whistles than your local model train store.

There’s just one problem. The actual keywords their potential customers are typing into Google, almost never actually appear on their website. Your most important keywords should have entire pages of content built around them. If those keywords don’t appear on your website, then you’ll never rank for them in Google. Full stop. Do not pass Google, Do not collect link juice.

We know, this seems too obvious. But ask any search engine optimization expert, and they’ll confirm that they see this all the time.