I'm not an SEO Guru. I don't even play one on TV. But lest your temptation to hit the Back Button overpowers your natural curiosity, you may take comfort in the fact that a lot of what goes into SEO is Educated Guessing, based on trail, error, and discovery—combined with good old fashioned common sense.
The famously infamous, Matt Cutts, Google's voice to the people, has let us know that there are over 200 elements that comprise the algorithm for where your website sits on the SERPS. For obvious reasons, Google keeps their exact criteria a secret. But some basic concepts have emerged that are universally recognized as among the things you need to do.
A proper treatment of the subject requires a book, not a blog post ;-), but I have found a few simple things that work for my own sites that have brought near instant increases in Google Traffic. These are easy for a small business to implement, and they don't require a great deal of time.
New Content almost daily
I know you've heard this one before. You also know not every situation is conducive to daily content. But not everything has to be about your product or industry.
You can include Human Interest pieces, possibly in a special section of your site. It may seem that Content unrelated to your business message would dilute Keyword Density. But there is an argument that each page of your site stands on its own in many ways, and besides, there are many ways in which you can maneuver General interest into a relationship with Targeted interest.
To be honest, if your business is boring, most of your customers aren't especially interested in reading your Core Business Message everyday anyway. Try giving them something uplifting in addition to product specs. They will soon look forward to stopping by to pick up a smile 🙂 If you can somehow tie that smile together with your product, you have a winner!
Short Posts
A daily Human Interest post can be pretty short. Add a picture and you can double the size on the page. Choose your picture well and that could be the most important part of your post's written Content.
It doesn't take long to put together a short post, and doing so can give Google a reason to Spider you daily. Daily Spider crawling gives them a reason to send you more Traffic.
Although these pieces may seem to dilute your message, giving your customers a pleasant reason to come by each day can reinforce positive emotions about your company.
Be sure to include some kind of business reminder somewhere on the page, as well. This could be a simple box with a short message.
Long Articles
This is where the bulk of your Core Message Content comes in. Meaty articles that really delve into your industry, your products, and solutions to your customer's problems. Google loves long articles as much as they love short, daily posts. The combination of the two can be an irresistible pairing.
Obviously, these are not something you produce on a daily basis. But they help to establish you as an expert in your industry. With just a little reworking, they can be submitted to paper & ink Trade publications (they need your Content, anyway), giving you much more exposure with little additional effort.
And this in-depth Core Content will give you the balance you need to offset any concerns about short fluff pieces diluting your site's Core Keyword.
Your goal here is to created articles that are so powerful that others in and around your industry will be compelled to refer and to link to them.
Tie to an Unrelated but Popular Search Term
We already touched on the idea of writing Human Interest Content. Now let's take that a step further with an idea that's a bit controversial. If you write an article comparing your machine tool widgets to a big Entertainment Star, and include a picture of the Star, you are virtually guaranteed some traffic.
This is not Targeted traffic, and probably won't help your sales any, unless you are in the music or entertainment industries 🙂 The more you can somehow relate your product to the Star, the more "Relevant" your post will be to your Core Message.
Traffic Begets Traffic. When Google gets into the habit of sending you traffic, they just can't help themselves, and they will find other reasons/excuses to send you more traffic.
Keywords in the Graphic Name and ALT Tag
People don't like to read articles so obviously stuffed with Keywords that the actual Content is obscured. But every graphic is supposed to contain an ALT Tag, which is not really seen by the reader unless the picture doesn't load to the screen for some reason. So I do my Keyword "stuffing" here. The article Title should always have your Keyword(s) for your page, so a very legitimate way to Name your graphic is with the Name of the article. This keeps your graphics well managed, and allows you to repeatedly use your Keywords without penalty. I also use the Title for the ALT Tag.
Example: seo-guru-typing-keywords.jpg alt="SEO Guru Typing Keywords"
In the example above I could have simply named the graphic, keyboard.jpg or typing.jpg, but this way I can see the file months from now and know exactly which article it belongs to. If your post is an unrelated Human Interest story, then use the Keywords of your site.
Example: financial-security-happy-customer.jpg alt="Financial Security"
Everyday SEO
One last tip: Whenever you have contact with a customer or prospect, invite them to visit your website. Google will take notice of the Traffic you are generating on your own—and reward you by sending you more.
My recommendations are based on my own personal experience. And like I said at the beginning, I'm not an expert, I just know what has worked successfully for me. In any event, your own mileage may vary. But these ideas are simple to implement on a daily basis, and have certainly made my own site Google friendly. When I publish a new article, they are often Indexed within 2-3 hours depending on time of day. This shows that the Spider pays me a visit on a daily basis, looking for new Content to give to their hungry Searchers.
It's nice to know that there are simple things you can do for yourself beginning today!