What's your best hidden SEO secret?

[ChrisMacNaughton]

I suppose that my biggest thing is good analytics and figuring out what your specific KPIs will be for a specific site.  After figuring out the best KPIs, work on those, don't get distracted by keyword rankigns, those can change all to easily when Google decides to chagne the ranking algorithm.

Focus on why we want rankings: to get converting traffic.  If you're spending hours or days working on something, it had better effect the bottom line for the company or it isn't woth doing.

[MozMan2]

I wish I knew what you were talking about, it sounds interesting but not very clearly explained.

[LuminConsutling]

As I read through these down the page, this is by far the best answer yet IMHO

[Dan-Petrovic]

Agreed, community is something that can not only educate but get you going and inspire to do more and better. It does get a bit lonely if you are hiding under a rock for too long.

[seoforward]

SEOMOZ and the web in general teaches me so much everyday, and I know it's basic but to write for the audience not the engines

[kaashifk]

My best SEO strategi is to get moving and to stop consuimng infomation..in the begining i used to buy way to much SEO stuff, an dofun dmyself suffering from infomation overload.. Till one day i just formulated a plan and got cracking..

My plan..

effective keyword research

identifty top 3 competitors and opensite explore them

cheack,check and double chek ALL your onsite meta data

recheck all onsite meta data

proceed to offsite

first and foremost submit to directory sites

then spend and hr each day to build backlinks, aiming to build 1 extra link than the day before BUT also take a gap day on a random day each week inbetween, use this day for admin tasks like checking analytics,rank checks,check if any of your links have been indexed etc but above all, use this day to go back to your 1st day of the weeks links you tried to build and check up on them etc etc

Also try and get a guest blog op for yourself on a blog in your niche.

Finally,stay far away from anything remotely dodgy!

hopes this helps and good luck!

[petrakraft]

Hi Kaashif - thank you for sharing your "secret".

[seospain]

Not so much a secret but for me it's build a quality site for users and not for engines, don't rely solely on Google and other organic search traffic (use multiple channels like newsletters, blog commenting, link bailt, blogging, social etc) so that if you organic rankings are hit, it doesn't take out your business completely. Work hard on converting the visitors you do get by making good use of Google Analytics, usability testing and conversion optimisation. Ok, so that was more than one but I couldn't help myself.

[HiveDigitalInc]

1. Create a bunch of blackhat, auto-genned spammy sites in your space...

2. See what they automatically get long-tail traffic on...

3. Write content on your site targeting those keywords...

[petrakraft]

Lol - that's a different approach ...

[tomcraig86]

Our site is customer facing, and we need to keep the content low in some cases, so we use different JQuery plugins to 'hide' some content from the viewers.... but not search engines

I wouldn't say it's black hat as the content is 100% original and very authoratitive (optimised oviously), it's just a way of getting your content on the page without having the old CSS margin: -10000000000000px trick I bet you all know!!

[dlrPaul]

Red Bull - "It gives you wings!

[petrakraft]

Off topic - this doesn't apply

[NickPateman81]

Great idea Donnie. This comment may well have changed our initial SEO strategy. I'm guessing you've got experience in this area - can I be nosey and ask what your testing process is?

Many thanks!

[MontanaFlynn83]

Very nice feedback, thanks for this.

[Tradingpost]

RSS TO TWITTER!

[AaronSchinke]

So true. I still think we are secretly being productive in the down town. SEO is much more creative than people give it credit for. A little bit of everything involved!

[jdeb]

I've long held a business idea based on just this issue: hiring out henchmen who are paid to beat you up if you don't meet your deadlines. I'm sure a "gun to your head" option, charged hourly, could be arranged to suit your particular requirements.

[Shareef-Defrawi]

Stop hoarding the link juice and link out to related sites! Not so much a secret but something that is too often overlooked.

[IslandLogic70]

A website called SEOmoz.org. Shh.