Those are all important details, of course, and will ultimately contribute to the ranking you get on Google, Yahoo, Bing, and the other search engines. But there are two other details that are even more important… and they are ones that far too many online marketers overlook: research and testing.
Why will these two details make or break your search engine optimization campaign? Look at it this way:
Without the proper keyword research, you’ll likely end up optimizing the wrong keywords and phrases. Ever jump on the highway and drive 50 miles in the wrong direction? Well, the frustration felt from that will be minor compared to the aggravation of working hard to achieve a top three search engine position and a keyword that can’t actually help your business.
Testing allows you to make the most of the traffic your business website receives. It’s important to know which products, offers, and marketing messages your visitors are responding to most, and you’ll never know that until you are properly testing your pages. Whether it’s split testing, advanced analytics, or simply keeping an eye on web traffic and page view times, you have to have the right information if your search engine optimization plan is going to be as effective and profitable as it could be.
There’s a lot that goes into a good search engine optimization campaign, but research and testing are two details that you can’t afford to overlook. Use them both, and you can ensure that your campaign not only gets off to the right kind of start, but keeps moving in the right direction.