Content Optimization only?

Question

There are tons of discussions around tips&tricks to improve Search Engines "ranking" and SEOs.

If I concentrate only on the content* of the website will there be consequences on the pages' rank by letting down search engine optimizations... Or third party SEOs are a "must have" required by search-engines in order to be competitive regarding the other websites in the same category?

(*) The Focus is 100% set on the quality of the content with precise keywords in meta tags, clean design, regular articles updates, clean URLs and highly filtered external links leading to pages on websites dealing on the same,or related subjects.

Answer 1

clean design, regular articles updates, clean URLs and highly filtered external links

This is all very important and encourages visitors to come back to your site and link to it. A well structured site will be more easily and more accurately indexed by the search engines.

does Search Engines count on us to help them find us

I don't think the search engines necessarily need too much help in order to find sites. Google, for instance, is able to find and index even the smallest sites without any apparent inbound links.

But what the search engines do rely on from us and external SEO is in determining why Site-A should rank higher than the 1,001 other sites on a similar subject that all have nicely optimised sites. In some categories it is hellishly competitive.

If your site is truely unique on a unique subject matter, then you can perhaps worry less about external SEO. Search for [some unique phrase] and your unique content is likely to be floating high in the SERPs.

Answer 2

Traditionally, 'off-page' is considered more potent than 'on-page' SEO. But the times they are a changin' (ok, I might be exaggerating slightly). SEO--and I say this as an SEO practitioner--has gotten a bad rap because search engines have been easy to manipulate...if 10,000 sites all link to each other, that must mean 10k inbound links!..etc. ad nauseum.

I live in the U.S. where Google is 70% of the search market, read their intro to SEO pdf, watch their YouTube videos (which can be a bit nebulous).

What you mention is what they recommend: create valuable content. In 2011, Google made over 500 changes to their algorithm, it is impossible to keep up with every little tweak. Focus on the user (and all potential users...i.e. alt text for images and such); create content that is valuable, original, and well-organized (in terms of site navigation, etc.). Use meta tags, sitemaps, keywords/phrases, and at least a modicum of social media.

I use Google Insights for Search to get keyword ideas about my topic before writing, but I also try not to just create (borderline spammy) content based on what is trending. It is a balance and on-page SEO is, in my eyes, a process of hinting--repeatedly--what your site is about, be it with microformats, navigation, keywords, or anything else...but for the love of god, don't forget things like load time and bounce rate.

If you understand, without looking up, all of what I just wrote, you will probably be disappointed with most any 3rd party SEO you hire, which is to say they are in no way required and if they make poor choices can actually negatively impact you. And if you didn't understand it all, you should look into it; you are clearly knowledgable and I come across shady practitioners all the time...there is no substitute for heart, soul, and passion.