The document outlines the three pillars of SEO: domain authority, on-site optimization, and backlink strategy. It emphasizes the importance of site hierarchy, content structure, keywords usage, and ongoing content recency for improving search engine rankings. Additionally, it discusses the necessity of effective promotion and diverse content formats like video and infographics to enhance visibility and engagement.

1. The Three Pillars of Search Engine Optimization

2. SEO Pillars The ranking of your site resides on three pillars - your domain ’ s authority with search engines, your on-site optimization and your backlinking strategy. 1. Domain 2. On-Site 3. Off-Site

3. Domain Are there any pages that currently rank for any keywords? Are there any domain home pages with authority that already link to your domain? Are there any domain pages with authority that already link to your domain? Domains that already have a history with links for specific keywords are more valuable than a new domain since they have already established some authority with the search engines. New domains are much more difficult to get ranked than they were in the past.

4. Site Hierarchy What is the hierarchy of your site? Is your site greater than 3 links deep? Wide and shallow is better. Does your URL structure reflect a shallow site? (Fewer “ / ” in the URL) The site hierarchy is a key element that indicates to search engines the importance of the content on your site. A home page with many sub-pages works well. Incorporate design features like “ fat footers ” to link to many pages.

5. Site System Do you have a robots.txt file. Does it point to your XML Sitemap? Do you have a Content Management System that dynamically generates the Sitemap and Pings the Search Engines when updated? Do you have meta description tags to customize to improve click-through rates through the Search Engine Results Page? It ’ s key that your site “ roll out the red carpet ” for a search engine utilizing best practices - robots.txt files, XML sitemaps and valid HTML.

6. Page Construction Is your primary content at the top of the page ’ s construction (e.g. page before sidebar)? Are you utilizing page titles effectively? Are you utilizing heading tags effectively? How your content is displayed and utilizing HTML elements effectively can improve the chances of your content being indexed accurately.

7. Keywords Are you utilizing keywords that people search for? Are you placing those keyword effectively throughout titles, headings and content? Is the keyword bolded or emphasized? Is it repeated more than once? Do you have images with alt tags that represent the keywords? Keyword analysis and effective use within the content will ensure that the search engines index your page for the right keywords.

8. Recency Is your content recent? Is your content updated frequently? Is your content relevant? Focusing your content and updating it frequently will “ feed ” the search engines and ensure that they keep coming back to reindex your site. You build authority.

9. Off-Site Is your domain linked to from other relevant domains? Is your domain linked to utilizing relevant keywords within the anchor tags on other sites? While on-site optimization ensures that your content is indexed for the appropriate keywords, ranking depends on how other sites link to your content.

10. Promotion Are you promoting your content through forums, comments and other sites (without spamming)? Are you promoting your content through social networks and applications like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, etc.? Avoid trading links with others unless they have much greater authority than your site does. Promotion is key to your content being discovered and talked about. The more your content is discovered and linked to, the greater its authority and rank.

11. Strategies Are you utilizing Video to promote your content? Are you utilizing Podcasting or Audio to promote your content? Are you enticing others to link to your content through use of infographics and other viral components? Utilizing formats like video, audio, infographics and other methods that are viral and easily distributed on the web will get your content found easier... without as much competition.

12. @douglaskarr http://www.dknewmedia.com http://www.marketingtechblog.com http://www.corporatebloggingtips.com [email_address] For more information, contact Douglas Karr at DK New Media. We help companies reach their marketing potential.