Over the last 5-10 years, countless people and firms have worked as hard as possible to “trick” the Search Engines into believing that their content is worth ranking for keywords people search often, all so they could attract more visitors and make more money.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this concept, except for one crucial element: attempting to trick the Search Engines is the worst thing a business or consultant can do when trying to boost rankings!

In the beginning of Search Engine Marketing, the engines were so primitive compared to today, that website owners could literally get ranked for profitable keywords by simply stuffing the phrase on their page repeatedly, meaning anyone could tackle keywords that have the potential to make $100,000’s, or even millions of dollars every year!

Thankfully, Google stepped in to improve the algorithms, factoring in popularity (incoming links, treated like votes from other websites). Over time, their process became more and more complex (and thus, true to the core values of the Internet), which has improved the way consumers and researchers can find what they’re looking for as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, there are far too many SEO “experts” out there who believe that optimizing websites for the Search Engines is only a matter of gaming the system with code.

After learning a great deal from Aaron Wall, I have found that quite the opposite is true:

Turning your attention to visitors (and potential visitors, for that matter), is a much better strategy than focusing on what the Search Engines are looking for. The code can provide a solid foundation, but the structure itself is meant to reach much higher, and can only do so by building something worth talking about.

While SEO may sound like HTML, PHP or CSS to someone new to the online World, it’s important to note that Search Engine Optimization goes far beyond the code:

Build a strong foundation with the code, then create something of value on top. It’s all the Search Engines want, and it’s the best way to capitalize on the traffic they’ll send you.