We hear a lot about how fast SEO changes, and how hard it is to keep up with all the changes when working on SEO in Livermore for businesses. The aspects of SEO that tend to change a lot are the tactics needed to circumvent the safeguards Google (and other search engines) put into place to help ensure that the top results are the best quality.

There are, however, certain aspects of SEO that are the simple basics that do not change over time but have stayed quite firmly placed. They are foundational basics that have been useful and accurate since the beginning of SEO. These are the things that will positively affect your SEO efforts if you follow them regardless what else you do.

1. Be Seen – The first thing your business website needs is to be seen by the search engines. It cannot be indexed if the search engine cannot view the content. This means that the site must not require a password to access it, it must have a navigation system that allows all pages to be accessed, it must not have a “no follow” statement in the head tag, and it must not be completely made of Flash or images. While humans can view the images through their web browsers, the search engines see only the text and code that are in the file.
2. Image Usage – A site that is composed primarily of images out of necessity can still be viewable and indexable by making use of the alt text inside the image tags. Placing relevant text – including keywords – in the alt text area will improve the overall SEO of your site even if you use images more sparingly, but it is essential if the site is mostly images.
3. Keyword Usage – Keywords, which have always been hailed as the cornerstone of SEO in Livermore or wherever, are important, but they must be used naturally in order to work in your favor. Making long lists of keywords in an attempt to rank on more of them will be detrimental to your ranking rather than helping. Most major search engines have adjusted their algorithms to reduce the ranking of sites that appear to be just trying to rank, without any real usability for a viewer.
4. Inbound Linking – Links from other sites – especially those that are in categories similar to your own – will increase the credibility and authority of your site in the view of the search engines. There is no benefit to having your site linked from a “link farm” (a site that only links to other sites with no real content). Social media links can be helpful, though not to the same degree as links from established businesses.
5. Fresh Content – Overall, the most important thing that a site needs to be ranked nearer the top of the results is great content. This is the one thing that has never changed. The more useful and credible your content is, the more organic traffic you will get, the more natural links to your site, and the higher your ranking will be.

All of the previous tips are important to understand and use properly. They are, however, useless to your SEO, Livermore business, if you do not have good quality, fresh content on your site.