How to Optimize Your Website For Both the Search Engines and Human Readers

Keeping up with the search engines is something which every marketer tries to do, and many are very frustrated by their apparent failure. There is no doubt that search engine algorithms keep changing, and that sites which were once favorites you could rely on, have now become obsolete and wonders of the past.All of the search engines algorithms don't change the fact that web pages need to be designed first and foremost for human beings. All of the outdated search engine optimization (SEO) tactics such as meta tags may as well be followed, for the simple reason that there is no point in not following them, but stuffing web pages themselves with keywords will not achieve anything, except possibly attract the attention of the part of the algorithm which demotes sites for keyword stuffing.No matter what the content on your site is, you can use a link building campaign to enhance your SEO. This needs to be done extremely carefully, as the search engines do not like websites to have too many links too quickly. The most important factor of all is not to try and game the system, and buy links from bad neighborhoods. This can have an absolutely disastrous effect, confining your site to oblivion effectively forever.As a marketer, your primary target has to be humans. It is humans which get out their credit cards and buy your products. It is humans who log in to their PayPal accounts and buy your books, audio products and videos. Humans click on your contextual advertising. This is not to say that trying to please the engines is not an eminently sensible thing to do, it just has to be done in moderation. The good news is that the vast majority of search engine optimization is actually good for humans as well, as it involves supplying fresh relevant content to the web pages.The primary consideration when trying to rank in the search engines is the competition. How competitive are the keywords you are targeting? How well optimized is the site? How many backlinks do they have? All of these need to be considered when you are analyzing the possibility of attaining a top ranking on search engines.