SEO Strategies for 2012: Crest Media’s New Year’s Playbook

If there’s one thing our Los Angeles SEO firm has noticed, it’s that search engine optimization has grown up – a lot. Of course, that’s not to say that bad SEO is eradicated from the landscape, but thanks to efforts like Google Panda and the learning curve of the web population, SEO in 2012 looks to be less about fooling people into reading your web page, and more about engaging them along the way.

With that premise in mind, we present you with some key SEO strategies for 2012:

Simplify code: “KISS” is an acronym that definitely applies to the web development community. By keeping code simple, you’re keeping it honest. And the new age of SEO is all about honesty. By following best practices and getting as close to validated markup as possible, you can make it easier for spiders to crawl your site – and by validating HTML and CSS, you can minimize crawl errors. By naming your header div “header” (what a concept!), you can make it easier on Google, Yahoo! and Bing to locate it when a user searches for keywords in your header title. The natural result of these steps is a more authoritative site in the eyes of the search engines.

Streamline web design: Right now, there’s more reverence than ever for Apple products – and not just for the obvious reason. Some of us are truly in awe at the efficient simplicity of their design, navigation and functions. If there’s one takeaway there, it’s that technology should never be too complex for the end user. Websites should have clean, vertical internal linking, menus should be easily navigable (two clicks maximum for any page destination), and unnecessary categories should be eliminated (content from those pages can always be moved to a similar category). That brings us to the next element of your SEO strategy – content.

Boost content effectiveness: This is done by encouraging engagement and adding value, with goals that include (for example) community building. How is website authority built these days? The most effective SEO companies do it with traffic and good link building, yes – but more importantly, they are now also doing it by writing content that lends itself to social media sharing. The goal should be to build a sense of community when writing your content, by earning trust and fostering relationships with users. Forget sales for awhile, and focus on a more user-centric goal when writing content. Who was it that said “friendship first”?

As a California SEO company that prides itself on building relationships with clients, Crest Media understands that our clients’ websites have to earn the trust of consumers. That’s why we not only recommend, but follow these SEO strategies for 2012 when we develop outstanding websites for our valued clientele.