Remember in high school how everybody wanted to be popular? The “cool” or popular kids seemed to look and act in a way that the “uncool” or unpopular kids didn’t. Guess what- when it comes to search engine optimization, the same popularity rules still apply.
In school, the popular kids seemed to dress a little nicer, stay in better shape, and have a more outgoing personality.
In SEO terms, this is the same as your website’s on-site optimization. If your site looks good, has the proper keywords, title tags, and quality content, it’s more likely to attract visitors to it, the same as those kids in school who always had lots of friends hanging around them.
Doing this puts your site in the best position to attract others to it, just as the cool kids did back in the day.
The popular kids made themselves more appealing to others: by their personalities, the way they looked, dressed, talked, and acted.
Website Popularity Contest
Is your website making itself attractive to other sites and visitors? If your site or blog content is unattractive and boring, people are less likely to read it, and other sites won’t link to it.
This is part of the off-site optimization. The more websites that link to you and the more people are talking about your business on social media, the higher your search engine ranking. In other words, the higher your popularity.
Many business owners blame the search engines for not ranking their site higher, just as the unpopular kids blamed everyone else for their lack of social status.
Think about it: when deciding what to include in your list of daily online reads, what is fueling your decision? Probably either spectacular information about your topic of interest, or site design and attractiveness.
Are these not the same qualities that the popular crowd possessed in school? Either they had a personality that attracted others to them, or they were incredibly attractive, which also served to increase their social rank.
So, how does your business and online presence stack up? Are you gaining in popularity by increasing your attractiveness and personality? Or, are you unconsciously sabotaging yourself through the same mistakes the unpopular kids made back in school?
Alright, your turn: Leave a comment below letting us know what you think about popularity and search engine optimization.
I agree with you Seth. It’s always been a popularity contest in SEO and it’s the same with social too. With “likes” on FB, +1s on Google., followers on Twitter. People are drawn to people that are liked, attractive, and popular. Same goes for websites. Killer design, content, and brands draw in more attention naturally.
Thanks for weighing in, T.J.
With Google+ gaining so many new users, it’s importance in the “popularity contest” is going to be interesting to watch and learn from.
No problem Seth. Yeah I think Google+ is going to another part of the algo. I noticed companies already popping up selling Google+s