| People mention SEO, but that's such a broad term now. So many people have different opinions on what SEO really is. It's not just "optimizing your site" and then spamming links to your site all over the place. Let's forget for a moment about links. What's critical is that you build a site that's search engine friendly. Here's what I would concentrate on: - Unique content, well written (hire a good writer if you can't write the copy yourself). - Site structure is important. Think of a pyramid type structure where important high level concept pages link to categories that link to subcategories that then link to more specific pages. Some sites only have high level and then category pages, and that's just fine. - SEO Best Practices. Use unique title tags, heading tags (h1, h2, h3, etc.) and image alt attributes on all images. Link within sentences to other pages on your site. - Privacy policy, disclaimer, and TOS pages should be on the site. - If you appeal to an EU audience, then make sure the proper cookie notices are there on the site. See Google's CookieChoices.org. - Add a blog. Update it regularly with fresh posts, talk to your users. Even if it's just updates about new features. Tweet, +1 and Like your posts (i.e., share them whenever you write a new post. - Press Releases can still help. Add press release to your own site on your press release page, then distribute. - News. Add a news page on your site, link out to where you've been mentioned in the news. - Hire a PR guy or gal. Someone who has contacts in your industry who can help pitch story ideas. SEO isn't just about links and optimizing your content. It's about getting your brand mentioned. A good SEO can optimize a site. A great SEO can get your brand mentioned in the news and drive traffic. I could get into all sorts of other SEO details, but what's important is to get your site taken care of first. It's got be search engine friendly and crawlable with unique content, though. |