Search Engine Optimization is crazy. Learning about SEO can be overwhelming. Even if you’re only looking for a good SEO consultant, you need to know the basics. Optimization involves making lots and lots of small changes. It’s like being the general of your own, personal army of Oompa Loompas.

First of all, there are no mighty Oompa Loompa warriors. You won’t be able to make a few changes to the site and be done with it. You need to make lots of small changes all the time. However, if your site’s in bad shape now, you’ll need a throng of Oompa Loompas to fix the problems and create a strong foundation for you to build on.

But you can’t let your Oompa Loompas run rampant. Think of the chaos. No, your Oompa Loompa Army needs to be organized into platoons:

• keyword phrase research;
• content development using the identified keyword phrases;
• developing abundant links on other, relevant sites to your site;
• good, clean code;
• good site architecture.

Keyword Phrase Research: This is your Oompa Loompa Army Intelligence Department. Their mission is to find the keyword phrases that people actually use when searching. In the pre-internet days, your marketing would bring the people to you. Nowadays, you have to meet the people where they are. Keyword Phrase Research tells you where to go, so to speak.

Content Development: This is your Oompa Loompa Infantry. Optimization doesn’t happen until you get the keyword phrases worked into the pages. By the way, you need more pages. Each page is like an additional Oompa Loompa for your Infantry.

External Links: This is your Oompa Loompa Artillery. Search engines want to display the best results possible for each search. The number of sites that link to your site qualifies you as having some value, especially when the sites linking to you involve the same subject matter as your site.

Clean Code: Ironically, this is the Mess Hall for your Oompa Loompa Army. Soldiers need to eat good, healthy food for peak performance. Likewise, optimized pages need good, clean code for maximum benefit.

Good Architecture: This represents your Oompa Loompa Engineers. Army engineers build bridges and roads. Your site needs a stable infrastructure. URLs should be free of extended query strings (everything after the question mark in the URL). Navigating through the site should not require the use of javascript or submitting forms. Important pages need to be “top level� pages (i.e., linked off the home page).

Oompa Loompa and SEO success is achieved by an overwhelming volume of small victories.

Why Oompa Loompas? Because they are small, plentiful, and they take the moral high ground on every occasion. It’s easy to find yourself in a gray area with SEO. The last thing any of us needs is to have a bunch of Oompa Loompas singing about some faux pas we’ve made. Oompa Loompas are here to keep you on the straight and narrow. SEO is here to get you more and better qualified leads.

A special note to our current and prospective clients: although we provide many search engine optimization services, including SEO copy writing, I am not one of our writers. You may see my work in parts of your search engine optimization audit, but rest assured that your audit and all of the copy we write and optimize will be 100% Oompa Loompa free. That is my personal guarantee to you.