I find so often people ask questions related to how they can quickly “optimize” their site to rank highly. And what is also very common is people get so involved in ranking quickly that they make mistakes that actually lead to a lower ranking.
In the answers I see to people’s posts, the recommendations usually include:
- The normal on site stuff like good page titles, meta tags, proper use of alt text, on site link structure, etc.
- Adding quality content
- Gaining quality links
In #1 above I have found that search engines do a pretty good job ranking sites EVEN when mistakes have been made.
For #2 and #3, it is quite common for people to make some very serious mistakes such as producing dynamically generated content that helps nobody, or buying into link schemes that bring about low quality external links.
So I thought I would write a post about patience. I really think it is needed in today’s environment. Speed of ranking and quality of links and content do not usually go hand in hand. It takes time, and there needs to be a plan for building quality first and foremost.