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SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a buzz term that floats around a lot. But, it’s not always clear which actions benefit your SEO ranking, which are outdated, and which ones are just a waste of time. If you’re looking to drive more traffic to your website, here are five things to keep in mind before you begin your SEO campaign.

• Content Is King. Search engines like fresh, relevant content. Every page on your website is like a net you set up to catch traffic. The more pages of relevant content, the more likely you are to catch your fair share of traffic. Developing and executing an ongoing content development strategy is the best way to make sure you’re getting your share of organic (unpaid) search traffic. Because they are easy to manage, and, if used correctly, their tagging system supports SEO, consider adding a blog to your website. Add targeted, relevant content, and watch your traffic grow.
• Link It Up. Links from third party sites to yours are the search engine equivalent of votes of confidence. Focus on getting links from high quality sites (i.e. sites that are considered authority sites and sites that have similar content to yours).
• Remember the Long Tail. If you look at your web analytics, you’ll see most of your traffic is coming from long tail keyword phrases that are generating just one or two visits per month. Don’t just optimize pages for keyword phrases people type in thousands of times a month. Look for long tail opportunities (i.e. phrases to optimize for that are still highly relevant but might be typed in less frequently.) For instance, a property management company with communities in Baltimore might optimize for “Baltimore apartments”, but would also want to optimize for searches in the neighborhoods where the communities are located, as well as for search with modifiers that describe the community, such as “affordable, luxury, apartment rentals”.
• Create Video Content. Search engines favor video content. Especially when placed on the homepage, videos are a great way to keep visitors on your site longer, which is a key factor that search engines measure. Plus, posting your video on YouTube or other video sites also gives your video a second opportunity to generate exposure for you.
• Don’t Trust Everything You Read. Search engine algorithms change all the time, and much of what’s online is inaccurate or out-dated information. Don’t trust everything you see or hear. The best way to evaluate any SEO information is to test the results for yourself!