10 SEO Tips Everyone With A Website Should Know

I’m going to start with the basics here. The following are ten things everyone with a website should know to gain online visibility in search engines. These are the basics of the basic and when applied will give you a firm basis to start a long term Search Engine Optimisation campaign. The structure of your website is important, just as much as the structure of your link building campaign. I know these may seem rehashed, but they are the building blocks for a good SEO campaign.

1) A Keyword Rich Domain. While not always possible, when setting up a new website, consider setting it up on a domain that contains the sites main keywords. Search Engines give considerable weight to a website with keywords in the URL. Never use a keyword stuffed domain (ie. www.your-key-word-here-and-another.com)

2) Title Tag.

The title tag on your page is the most powerful on page factor you can control as a webmaster. Use it wisely. Carefully choose which keywords are going to go in here and remember that it will be read by humans as well as search engines. Never stuff keywords into your title. It only devalues its weight and makes you look spammy.

3) Heading Tags.

The second most important on page factor you can control is the heading tags. Not only are they useful for search engines to determine the context of your document, it is semantically sound HTML practice.

4) Bold, Strong and Emphasis Tags.

While there is no set answer to which carries more weight, assume that both are the same. Emphasize keywords in bold using the BOLD or STRONG tags. Search engines give more weight to keywords if they are emphasized.

5) Keyword Rich Text.

It is always possible to rank for search terms when they are not on your page but using them sparingly will only help increase your search engine visibility for these keywords and

6) Structured Navigation And Correct Internal Navigation.

Make it easy for search engines to index your entire site. Use a text link navigation. I this is not possible, use a sitemap or second text navigation in the footer of your site.

7) Keyword Rich Internal Links.

Use your sites main keywords in the anchor text when linking to pages within your site. This not only describes the link to your visitors, it also lets the search engines know what content is on the page being linked to.

8) Avoid Flash.

While some search engines claim that they can index some flash content, it is still in its infancy. An entire website does not need to be built in flash. Use it wisely and make sure any text that is output by flash is rendered as HTML text so search engines can see it. If possible, avoid flash completely.

9) Avoid Duplicate content.

Search Engines do not like duplicate content. Make sure all the content on your website is different on all pages. Many navigation elements, headers, footers etc. is the same, but make sure that each page has marginally more unique content. Some search engines give a penalty for duplicate content, while others just ignore it. Just make your content unique. If anything else, it benefits your site visitors.

10) Keyword Rich, Relevant Inbound Links.

A relevant, keyword rich inbound link is the holy grail of online marketing. There are many ways to get quality inbound links to your website. Directory Submissions, Article writing/marketing, Press Releases, Posting in forums and blogs, Link Exchanges. Obtaining inbound links is the undisputed king of SEO tactics.

We will be going into more detail on each of the above methods over the coming weeks. Am I missing any? What other basic SEO tips are essential to today’s SEO?

Source : http://www.redflymarketing.com

SEO - Search Engine Optimizer / Search Engine Optimization

Obviously, SEO is one of the greatest business around this virtual community. Internet means you have to know something about SEO if you really want to achieve something online.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimizer - a person or company doing some techniques to make a website appear on the search engine with a good location in search engine result pages. This is probably in the first page of every SERP.

SEO also is an acronym for Search Engine Optimization - this is the task done by the optimizer. A website should be fully SEOed so that it will reach number 1 or at least listed on the top 10. Being indexed is not enough, though it is the first step to be discovered, your website may it be old or new should have continuous promotional works so as maintain its rank on the search engine.

Maintaining the position of a website is one of the hardest thing to do. Everyone or the website owner especially your competitor is working on it too. Thus, you need not to stop doing promotional works to topple them all.

This makes SEO one of the profitable business online. Webmasters, company and even personal site owners are hiring SEO just to reach the desired position in the search engine in a short span of time, thus, gain the desired traffic that would generate income for them.

You are already doing some works of the SEO, but if you really are serious businessman and you’re spending lots time and money with your websites or your are already maintaining a good standing, you need to avail one of these SEOs.

Source : http://seologfile.com/

Link Building and Link Exchange

Link Building and Link Exchange are powerful strategies to improve your backlink. Link building is developing your link by such promotional works like submitting your website(s) to web directories, social bookmarking sites and article submissions in particular.

Link exchange on the other hand, is exchanging link (text or banner type) to another site with close relation with your website. Though this type of link building was punished by Google, but to other search engines like yahoo, msn and others still working fine. You cam check your links in yahoo by typing in the search box ‘link:www.yourdomain.com’ , you can also remove the www if you like to see if there are differences on both search.

Submitting your websites to web directories is still the best SEO task that is being done. In fact, web masters have created a software that offers semi-automatic and automatic website submitter and there are already lots of this type of SEO tool in the market. Obviously, the submission process is more faster than manual submission. There are tools of this kind that offers only 60% successful submissions and we all know that your website will not be 100% accepted and approved to all the web directories you submitted into.

Manual submission of course, has bigger percent on the approval ratings, but this is too time consuming, not to mention that this task is also boring. But do you have a choice? Yes, you can pay someone to do the submission services for you. If you can afford it, why not?

Under link exchange, you have to look for a website(s) for you to exchange link with. Your prospect website should be closely related with yours. You can find people looking to exchange links with to most of the forum sites. Digitalforums.com in particular is good forum site for you to look for prospects. Of course, both parties should agree on the location of each link. There is no requirement needed here except that you should be honest enough to state all the details your website and the same with the other party.

Source : http://seologfile.com/

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Google

Google's view of search engine optimization (SEO)

With the addition of this document to their website, the people at Google appear to be trying to frighten people away from search engine optimization altogether. Although they say that "Many SEOs provide useful services for website owners", they finish the sentence by describing the range of what those useful services are:- "from writing copy to giving advice on site architecture and helping to find relevant directories to which a site can be submitted".

They say that an SEO's useful services include:- writing copy, giving advice on site architecture and helping to find relevant directories.... These can be part of search engine optimization, of course, but they are not what is widely understood by the term search engine optimization; i.e. optimizing pages to rank highly. Even writing copy doesn't suggest anything to do with seo copywriting, and giving advice on site architecture is to do with website design and not search engine optimization, although an SEO can advise on it with respect to crawling.

It is quite clear what sort of things Google considers to be SEO, and it isn't anything to do with optimizing or, if it is, it's only on the fringe of optimizing.

The document goes on to say, "there are a few unethical SEOs who have given the industry a black eye through their overly aggressive marketing efforts and their attempts to unfairly manipulate search engine results". The implication is that search engine optimizers who go further than the sort of things that Google mentions, and actually optimize pages to improve rankings (manipulate search results), are unethical. Google clearly views any sort of optimizing to improve rankings as unethical.

Later in the document, Google lists a number 'credentials' that reputable search engine optimizers should have. In Google's view, a search engine optimization company should employ a reasonable number of staff (individual SEOs are not reputable), they should offer "a full and unconditional money-back guarantee", they should report "every spam abuse that it finds to Google", and more, and they warn people against those who don't measure up. But there isn't a search engine optimizer in the world, individual or company, who doesn't fall foul of Google's 'credentials'. There are people who can write copy (not seo copy), advise on site structure and even find directories to submit to, but they aren't search engine optimizers and, in terms of rankings, they are of limited value.

The purpose of search engine optimization is to improve a website's rankings. Google see that as manipulating the search results, and they don't approve. The impression given by their document is that they are trying hard to scare website owners into not employing search engine optimization services to improve their website's rankings. That, in my opinion, is unethical.

"Ethical" Search Engine Optimization Exposed!

Some seo forums are dominated by people who claim that their search engine optimization methods are ethical, and that the methods of which they disapprove are unethical. Some of them are thought of as top search engine optimization experts, but are they right? In this article, I will explain:-

* what they mean by "ethical" seo
* why they think the way they do
* why their thinking is wrong
* when to use 'ethical' search engine optimization
* which SEO forums are worthwhile and which are best avoided

and I will provide an eye-opening example of the failure of so-called "ethical" search engine optimization by one of its most prominent advocates.

But first I want to make something clear. Just because these people have chosen to use the word "ethical" to describe their methods, with the implication and statements that doing what they don't approve of is unethical, does not mean that it is true. They simply misuse the word "ethical" in an apparent attempt to denegrate people who use methods that they don't approve of, even though all of what most SEOs do is perfectly ethical.
What do they mean by "ethical" seo?

Search engine optimization means doing things to and for a website and its pages in an attempt to gain higher rankings for the site than it would otherwise have. Part of it is modifying a site's existing web pages so that they more closely match a search engine's ranking algorithm, and other parts include creating additional domains and special pages (doorway pages) that are designed to rank highly. Information on some of the methods can be found here.

Self-styled "ethical" search engine optimizers accept certain methods but not others. Those that they accept, they call "ethical"; those that they reject they call "unethical". Basically, they say that a site's genuine content pages are the only pages to perform search engine optimization on in an ethical way, and that it is unethical to create new pages for optimization purposes if those new pages are not incorporated into the site as genuine content pages. Also, they differentiate between the different things that can be done on the content pages so that some methods, such as hidden text, are unethical, whereas some other methods are not.

Their rule of thumb is:- if it can seen by site visitors as a genuine, integral part of the website, then it is ethical; if it is hidden from site visitors, or is seen but not as a genuine, integral part of the website, then it is unethical.


Why do they think the way they do?
For reasons best known to themselves, they simply do the search engines' wishes. There are some search engine optimization methods that the engines don't want to be used; e.g. hidden text, cloaking, doorway pages, etc. Even though the engines care nothing for any website or for any search engine optimizer, these people do the engines' bidding - and they preach it to anyone who will listen. Some of them probably adopted the attitude from others who frequent the smaller forums and, without thinking it through for themselves, they presumably accept that it's the only right way of doing things.

Most of these people won't discuss or debate any of the so-called unethical methods; they simply state that they are unethical, and that's that. When the occassional discussion does get started, they soon find that they have no answers to the opposing points, and they usually either disappear (stop posting) or resort to insults. Their reluctance to discuss the issues is understandable, because they don't have any rational or common sense arguments in their favour, except that it's against the engines' wishes. It's ok for them to follow the engines' wishes but it doesn't explain why they brand some things as 'unethical'. Unethical = wrong in a moral sense.

It is my considered opinion that the self-styled ethical SEOs insist that their views are the only right ones because they are simply incapable of doing real search engine optimization. They are capable of making websites and pages search engine friendly - something that can be learned in 30 minutes - but they have no abilities beyond that (see this example). Therefore, it would be in their best interests if all optimizers came down to their level so that they have a chance of competing.


Why their thinking is wrong

I can't say that their idea of search engine optimization is wrong. If it suits them, that's fine. What I can say is wrong is the way they openly declare that certain search engine optimization methods, of which they disapprove, are unethical. To be unethical is to be immoral, or to be wrong in a moral sense. Even though they cannot explain what is morally wrong with any of the 'unethical' methods, they still make the claims, and they do their best to tarnish people who use them by declaring them to be unethical. That's unethical!

Because the engines disapprove of some search engine optimization methods, people who use them run a slight risk of having the website or page penalised. It would be unethical for a search engine optimizer to use the methods on clients' sites without the client knowing and accepting the risk. 'Ethical' SEOs agree with that, but they don't stop there. To them, any use of the methods is unethical - even if done with full knowledge of the risks involved. To them, it's a matter of principle - the methods that they disapprove of are unethical, and that's that.

An eye-opening example

I call this an "eye-opening" example (of the failure of 'ethical' seo) because of who it is that failed. I'm not going to divulge the person's name, so I will refer to him/her as male, which may or may not indicate the person's actual gender.


He is one of the most prominent of the self-styled 'ethical' SEOs, if not the most prominent. His prominence is due to several things:- (1) he is frequently paid to speak as a search engine optimization expert at seo conferences, (2) he is very active and visible in more than one SEO forum, (3) he produces a regular SEO newsletter which is read by thousands of people.

In each of those platforms he advises the same thing over and over again; i.e. there is really no need to use 'unethical' methods; do it the way that I do it (ethical seo) and the high rankings will follow. Also in those platforms, he is known to use such insulting words as "scummy" and "scumbucket" to describe what he thinks of as 'unethical' SEOs and methods. This person is a shining beacon for the self-styled 'ethical' SEOs, and his advice is continually listened to, and swallowed, by many thousands of people. So it was a great pleasure to me when I received one particular email from him.

In the email, he wrote, "I have one client right now who wants some highly competitive words, which when I took the job, I didn't realize were quite so competitive." and "I can't stand failing with this site, but as it stands now, I've done everything I can do for it." His problem was that his efforts had failed. His 'ethical' seo didn't work - hence the email to me. He was looking for other methods that he might use and, to be fair, he was only looking for methods that would stay within the search engines' guidelines.

The point is that so-called "ethical" search engine optimization can't compete. It only works when there is little or no competition.

My guess is that the search terms that he failed with can't have been all that competitive if a person with his experience didn't realise how competitive they were from the start. When pushed, he has been known to admit that the "ethical" seo methods can't compete when the search terms are competitive, and yet he continues to advise people that there is no need to use 'unethical' methods, etc. in the forums, in his newsletter, and when he speaks at conferences. I've never seen him voluntarily add the proviso that what he says works if the search terms are not very competitive. Instead he continues to advise people to do it his way and the rankings will follow. In my view, he intentionally misleads people - either that or he is so dumb that he hasn't learned from his own failures.

A less prominent example (it was this one that prompted this article)
I received an email a few days ago from a search engine optimizer (a stranger to me). He asked for prices for my search engine optimization services for a few particular search terms for one of his clients. Looking at his website, I found an article which contained a few paragraphs about why not to use spam methods of seo. ("Spam" is what the 'ethical' SEOs call any method that they disapprove of). I don't know if this person is an active 'ethical' seo or not, but the email clearly shows that this person had failed with the search terms and that, once again, so-called 'ethical' seo methods cannot compete.

When to use 'ethical' search engine optimization

The 'ethical' search engine optimization method is sound, and can be effective when the search terms are not competitive. This article describes it - Search Engine Optimization - the basics. It's the first step in optimizing a website and it's pages for the search engines, but that's all it is - the first step. Most search engine optimizers perform this first step on their clients' websites but, whereas most optimizers continue with further optimization, 'ethical' search engine optimizers stop. If it doesn't work, there's nothing more they can do.

The SEO Forums

Ordinarily, the self-styled 'ethical' SEOs could be laughed off as cranks, but the Internet is a small world and there aren't many places where people can go for search engine optimization advice. It doesn't take many 'cranks' on a crusade to dominate those places to the extent that seo novices and webmasters can be easily misled into thinking that their views are shared by the majority of search engine optimizers and their methods are the 'normal' or 'proper' way of doing search engine optimization - none of which is true.

The recommendations for and against the following forums are based solely on each forum's tolerance of 'unethical' views. Whether or not a person is likely to find information on both sides of the debate is stated in each forum's description.

Webmaster World - recommended
The biggest by a long way. It has a massive active membership and is not dominated by people of any particular seo persuasion. The only thing wrong with it is that it's too big, and useful information isn't always easy to find without starting your own threads or wading through some very large ones.

Search Engine Forums - recommended
Used to be the biggest forum around but, as Webmaster World grew, Search Engine Forums shrank into a smaller, more useful forum.

SEO Chat - recommended
A forum where views of all shades are both tolerated and encouraged. The forum is growing but is still small enough for discussions to maintain a 'personal' feel.

Cre8asiteforums - recommended (sort of)
A small forum where views of all shades are acceptable but, due to the general inclination of the moderators, the overall tendancy is to the so-called 'ethical' side.

Ihelpyou - best avoided
Small forum, owned and completely dominated by an 'ethical'. The carefully selected Moderators naturally share his views. Anyone expressing views that don't agree with theirs are likely to be verbally savaged, insulted and effectively driven out. They don't delete posts that express views with which they disagree, but there is no attempt at genuine discussion - only at dominating, savaging and insulting. Since most posts are written by the Moderators, it is virtually impossible to gather the information required to form your own opinions.

Finally and ironically...

For all that the 'ethicals' strive to stay within the search engines' rules and guidelines, and for all their efforts to spread their 'gospel' all over the Internet world, the search engines themselves don't approve of the seo methods that the 'ethicals' accept! For instance, Google is against search engine optimization of any kind (see Search Engine Optimization and Google), and that includes what the 'ethical' search engine optimizers do.

Source : http://www.webworkshop.net/ethical-search-engine-optimization.html