Applying SEO best practices like keyword research and link-building is a surefire way to start increasing your search rankings. However, in a recent Search Engine Watch post, Chris Boggs warns us not to forget the non-SEO ways to get websites consistently ranked for relevant desired terms. "SEO involves getting lots of moving pieces coming together in the right way to form a perfect storm of sorts," Boggs explains.
After polling his fellow SEO team members, Boggs offers these top "non-SEO" tasks to support the SEO process:
Enhance website usability. Improving the information architecture of your site helps it be more easily found by spiders, Boggs notes, and increases the potential for internal linking with solid anchor text.
Work with other marketing teams. Work together with your other marketing teams to ensure the message being delivered offline is incorporated into the site's visible text. Always make sure to combine your efforts with the paid-search team, for example.
Incorporate traditional PR efforts into the SEO plan. Optimize press releases to help your company's website perform better within search results. Ensure proper placement of structured hypertext links within the article to relevant pages at the site, and help distribute the article.
The Po!nt: Seed those perfect storm clouds. To yield long-term success, think beyond SEO best practices and keep in mind how these "non-SEO" factors also drive organic traffic.