What You Do not Know About Seo


HERE’S THE One Thing THAT FORCES GOOGLE TO Give you Top PRIORITY AND BYPASS YOUR COPETITORS: contextual link building
Search engine optimization--the canny use of keywords and other techniques created to shoot a website to the top of a search--is the make-or-break factor for many new companies.

It is also the web's unfolding, and unregulated, frontier. There are countless Seo strategists, consultants and self-professed experts who will claim they can beam your website up into Google's top 10 search results--for a price, obviously. Consultants commonly charge upward of $200 an hour, and most will pressure you to sign a contract that keeps them on retainer for months--at costs as steep as $12,000 a month. Unscrupulous Search engine optimization firms not only make promises they can't keep, the worst of them also use shady practices that might produce no traffic, deliver the wrong visitors or even get you banned from planet Google.

First, experts usually agree that Search engine optimization firms are most worthwhile at the development stage of a website. For example, for $225 an hour, Kent will take a spin around your site, looking for the elements that will get you to the leading of a search--clean URLs, website maps, heading tags, page titles. Ideally, he says, someone like him helps lay a solid, searchable foundation for a site as it is becoming constructed. Beyond that, Kent and other experts don't see much value in contracting with an Seo firm. "Once you optimize the website and everyone on the team understands what needs to be carried out, there should be no cost moving forward," he says.

Seo firms that ask for a lump sum payment also as a monthly retainer--or worse, a long-term contract--are suspect. Yet such offers are common.

Executives at Optimal Fusion, a Los Angeles-based marketing agency, found that out the hard way. The company hired and fired roughly 20 Seo firms in the years following opening its doors in 2005. It paid as a lot as $12,000 a month for what Optimal president Joel Bess calls, bluntly, "bullshit."

"They weren't getting us ranked anyplace," Bess says. "They would send us reports and say we had been ranked. But we were ranked No. 44 [on Google] for the search term 'Internet advertising in America.' When was the last time somebody actually searched for the words 'Internet advertising in America?' " Frustration finally led Bess to learn the Seo game for himself. He hired an ex-Google engineer to teach Optimal's team members in a half day what Search engine optimization firms said would take at least six months of contracted function to accomplish. That not only helped their business, it also gave them expertise to share with clients, which consist of as-seen-on-TV products such as the Snuggie blanket and Sham Wow, the super-sucking sponge. "If you're trying to rank the word 'Ab Circle Pro,' do not write on the title 'exercising is fun,' " Bess says.

Google, of course, is the web-search alpha dog. But all the others--Bing, Yahoo, Ask.com, Lycos--are sniffing out exactly the same stuff.

What gets their attention? Good, fresh, focused content. Adding a blog is among the easiest and most straightforward ways to bulk up on content. If you sell hair-removal devices, for instance, begin a weblog that explores all aspects of waxing, plucking, threading, electrolysis and so on. More than time, your site will accrue searchable heft.

The trick would be to be hyper-conscious of your keywords. For example, if you want internet surfers on the prowl for "eyebrow waxing" to find your website in search engine outcomes, organically function the exact phrase "eyebrow waxing" into each weblog post (maybe multiple times), and use it on all static pages related to eyebrow waxing. Lather, rinse and repeat with each and every term and phrase you would like to rank for.

Before you start writing content, though, study and plan your keyword attack. Is geography important to finding your customers? Then maybe "California eyebrow waxing" is the phrase you want to house in on.

How do you size up keyword quality? One method would be to use Google's AdWords Keyword Tool , which reveals how many monthly searches are conducted for a word or phrase. If a search term produces more than 50,000 searches in a month, it'll be difficult for your site to compete for Google's attention using that word or phrase.

But you can also use AdWords like a thesaurus: It handily delivers a list of alternatives for you to sift through to find lower-volume, but more focused, keyword phrases. Using those, you'll have a better opportunity of rising up the ranks. Google also has a search-keyword tool which will scan your existing site and recommend keywords.

So when you have your list of key phrases, where else do you use them (besides your hair-removal weblog)? The obvious spot will be the keyword field, component of the hidden meta data that is attached to every internet page. But last fall, Matt Cutts, Google's head of Webspam, wrote on his personal blog that the search engine behemoth ignores keyword meta tags when ranking web sites. The revelation caused very a stir in the web search world. It confirmed what numerous experts suspected: Google was combating professional spammers who practiced "keyword stuffing" to achieve higher rankings.

So now it is page titles--the line of text that appears in the top of your web browser--that are believed to be the most important few words in the Seo universe. (The title is also what shows up on Google's search result.) A page title tag field is standard on most blog programs, such as TypePad and WordPress ; any web programmer should be able to customize one for sites built on Drupal or Joomla , two popular content management systems. Another place to plant keywords is every page's description field. Customize the description for each page of your site, and write them with some care, simply because the very first 120 characters show up on Google, tucked in between the page title and address.

Plugging key phrases into all these crucial spots is time-consuming--but it is not rocket science. Obtaining it done, even if you have to update existing pages, shouldn't be expensive.

Getting the Links
So what may be a good use of your Seo dollars? One word: Links.

Google uses about 200 information points when sizing up your website. But one of them is whether you're popular with the in crowd. If reputable websites link to your content, the Google gods smile upon you.

Obtaining these coveted links is labor intensive, however, and includes hours of groveling, cold e-mailing and link-swapping with bloggers. "It's the hardest part of Seo," says David Brown, a partner in the L.A.-based upstart social media marketing business Pure Ground. It is not impossible to achieve, he says, but many entrepreneurs don't have the hours to spare. An Seo firm that specializes in getting links might be worth the investment.

To do link outreach yourself, Kent, the Seo for Dummies author, suggests this technique. Scour the internet for blogs that correspond to your item or service. Create a simple spreadsheet of contact e-mail addresses for all of them. Craft a polite introductory letter describing your website, and simply ask to be included in any list of links on its site. Offering a reciprocal link, a coupon or some type of promotion can help.

When you have a subject for readers; help search engines discover it. Keyword Density is the number of times a keyword appears in a page compared to the total number of words. You want to make sure your key phrases are included in the crucial areas:


Most people aim for a keyword density of 2% (i.e. use the keyword 2 times for every 100 words). But what if your keyword phrase is “SEO for Internet Designers and Internet Developers” how many times can you repeat that before it sounds just plain unnatural? Write for your readers not for search engines. In the event you follow the suggestions in this write-up you’ll be writing naturally for your readers; which works for the search engines too.

Warning: Do not over fill your page using the same key phrases or you might be penalized by search engines for keyword stuffing.

Do you would like the search engine to see every page on your website? Assist the search engine spider do its job. There should be a page (like a sitemap or blog archives) that links to all the pages on your website.

Tip: You can promote the more important pages by inserting text links within body content. Make certain you use relevant linking text and avoid using "click here" (as mentioned earlier).