If your answer is an adamant NO, then you might not be ready to take on SEO.  Well, at least according to Chris Bloggs, who wrote something about SEO being a lifelong engagement.  According to him, getting on the good side of Google is more than a one-time fix.

I have always thought the same thing and it is nice to read about experts saying the same things.  Even though this idea has been repeated time and again, it is still a good thing to be reminded of the effort and patience that is needed to get results from SEO practices.

All too often, we see and hear of new bloggers or new web site owners who want to make it big overnight.  They have this great concept for their web site and they think that it is so great that they should see results almost at once.  Of course, we know that this is all but impossible.  Even the best SEO practitioners will not guarantee such results within such a short period of time.

SEO is more than giving it your best shot once, twice, or even thrice.  SEO is all about having an overall plan and identifying specific goals.  SEO is all about having definitive steps as to how to reach these goals.  SEO is all about working regularly to achieve results over a period of time.

Indeed, SEO is all about the long, a lifelong engagement. Your thoughts?

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I just learned something new today.  After writing the post on long tail keywords, I tried to do more reading on keywords in general.  What I discovered was quite surprising, though.  I have always been a Google fan.  Despite the fact that they are way too harsh on paid posts (at least in my opinion) I think that they still deliver pretty good products.  So I thought that the Google Keyword Tool would be really good and useful.

According to Smackdown, though, it is not really that useful.  How so?  Here is an excerpt from the post:

Recently there was a bit of a hubbub surrounding Google’s Keyword Tool External (the keyword suggestion portion of AdWords that was made public a couple of years back). It started when a few people, like Barry Schwartz from SERoundtable, noticed that the tool was showing specific numbers for search terms instead of just green bars. Even though at first the numbers only appeared intermittently for people, the official Inside AdWords blog reported the change as a permanent one later that night.

The problem is, however, that those numbers are meant for people doing research into PPC traffic. The numbers shown have very little to do with what people actually search on using Google.com. I learned this the hard way about a year and a half ago, when I decided to try and use AdWords (the internal tool, the one that would actually show me estimated clicks based on position) to pick keywords that I might want to try and optimize for. I identified 3 phrases that I figured would be fairly easy to rank for (which they turned out to be). According to Google, being in the top 3 ad spots (which is as narrow as Google will estimate) I would get an estimated 141 to 180 clicks per day from all three phrases combined. Since natural serps get a slightly better CTR than ads usually do, I figured I would be golden if I could SEO my site to the top for those phrases. Not a ton of traffic, but with the conversion ratios I had on that site for targeted traffic, it would be more than worth it to spend the effort required to get those three phrases to the top.

What does this mean for us?  Perhaps we shouldn’t rely too much on this tool then.  Maybe Word Tracker is better?  Share your thoughts on this?

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We all know how important keywords are to SEO.  Even though they may tend to be abused and overrated, they still hold a crucial place in the world of search engines.  What most of us are familiar with, however, are short tail keywords.  At least, I am speaking for those of us who are not “experts” in the field.

So what is the difference between short tail and long tail keywords anyway?

Basically, short tail keywords are those words which are the most popular.  They are the ones which are highly competitive.  So for example, if you use one of those SEO tools to determine which keywords are the most used for your niche, you will find the short tail keywords.

On the other hand, long tail keywords are those which are less popular.  Another thing about long tail keywords is that they are normally 3 to 6 words in length, as opposed to short tail keywords which are usually 1 to 2 words.

You might be asking, why should anyone interested in SEO practices waste their time on keywords which are not popular?  Isn’t that quite the opposite of what we are trying to achieve anyway?

The fact is that though long tail keywords are not that popular, they are still being used by a good number of users all around the world.  This fact is what SEO practitioners should focus on.  The fact that long tail keywords are not as popular means that not too many web sites are trying to target them.  This means that using this long tail keywords can help you rise to the top of SERPs in this regard.

Photo courtesy of SoloSEO

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It is known to many that there are a lot of tools that one can use in order to get that much needed boost for a web site. The trick, I suppose, is in knowing about these tools and determining which tools in particular could be useful. In a recent post, we took a look at Google Alerts and how this Google product can become a useful tool for you.

How about Google Web Site Optimizer? Have you heard of this Google product? Probably. To be honest, I have heard of the Google Optimizer for quite some time now. However, I have not really dabbled with it. I have focused more on Google Analytics.

Upon reading an entry over at No Doubt Marketing, however, I think I shall give this a try. They describe their experience with the Optimizer:

By far, this tool is one of the most powerful and it is free to use. You will need to set up a Google account to access it, but it is well worth it. You can use this tool to test out various configurations, layouts and page content to determine how effective they will be. Set up a test page, run the optimizer and it will provide you with the tips you need to perfect that page. With multiple test pages, you can easily see which one will have the best projected ROI.

Yup, as with many Google applications, this is for free. More so, the chances are that you already have your Google account, so there is no need to create a new one. I can’t wait to play with this tool!

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I have a disclaimer before I say anything else – I am not that knowledgeable when it comes to Google Alerts. Oh, I have used this feature every now and then but I have not really played around with it much. I think that it is my loss – especially after reading about how Google Alerts can help you a lot when it comes to SEO.

So what is Google Alerts anyway? Google says:

Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic.

Some handy uses of Google Alerts include:
• monitoring a developing news story
• keeping current on a competitor or industry
• getting the latest on a celebrity or event
• keeping tabs on your favorite sports teams

Basically, you will automatically be updated on the areas of interest that you indicate when you create your account. At this point, you should already be seeing the potential that Google Alerts brings from an SEO standpoint.

Let’s say you want to monitor the web sites that mention your own web site, blog, or product. You can do so by using specific key words and letting Google Alerts do the job. For your web site, for example, simply indicate in your search term your URL or domain.

Another aspect would be monitoring your competitor. If your web site or blog is about your business, then you can find out what they are up to using Google Alerts.

Based on the data that you receive, you can then work out your SEO plan even more efficiently.

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I talked about buying links in the previous post. If that was not enough to convince you that buying links may not be the best option when it comes to improving your PageRank and attracting traffic, here is a list that was written by Brian Chappell. I think, myself, that it sums up the argument against buying links quite neatly.

1. You are buying links through a network
2. You are buying links in chunks, 3-5 at a time on one page.
3. You are buying all your links on sidebar, footer locations.
4. Your entire niche buys links.
5. Your site sucks, as in no one in there right mind would naturally link to you.
6. All of your links have perfectly, articulated anchor text that simply looks fake.
7. You are not a 300+ Million dollar brand name.
8. You are doing really, really well in the SERPS, and rank in the top spot for a majority of the money terms.
9. 70+ % of your sites traffic comes from Google organic results

Furthermore, according to Brian:

The bottom line is if you are buying links you really have to be under the radar. I know this has been said for a while but more so then ever. If your entire niche is buying links then there is a much greater chance your site is going to get checked out in my opinion.

Don’t go overboard, actually buy links that will get you traffic and conversions.

PS. If your link profile is made up of 1/2 to 3/4 paid links you might as well stop now, and start building defensible traffic.

Photo courtesy of amalthya

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In my quest to learn more about optimizing blogs and web sites, I have noticed many recurring patterns.  One of them is the idea of buying links.  I have received lots of advertisements offering thousands of links for less than a hundred dollars.

On the surface, the idea seems to be a very good one.  You only need to shell out a relatively small amount of money and you will get a lot of links just like that.  You do not have to surf, you do not have to network.  Then again, if something seems too good to be true, it probably is, right?

In this case, the “too good to be true” part is highlighted mainly because of how Google treats paid links:

This is in violation of Google’s webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact your site’s ranking in search results.

Examples of link schemes can include:
•    Links intended to manipulate PageRank
•    Links to web spammers or bad neighborhoods on the web
•    Excessive reciprocal links or excessive link exchanging (”Link to me and I’ll link to you.”)
•    Buying or selling links that pass PageRank

Take note of that last point.  Google does frown upon this practice.  More so, Google looks not only on the quantity of links but on the quality as well.

Have you been tempted to purchase one of those link schemes where they guarantee a thousand links for $50?  If so, then you might want to think about it.  It might not be worth it in the end – especially if Google finds out and penalizes your site.

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There are a lot of myths in the modern world and SEO is not exempt from this. I was reading a very interesting article by Joey de Villa wherein he detailed his notes from Search Engine Strategies 2008 Toronto. Take a look at some of them and see if you believe them OR if you can be a myth buster.

You have to submit URLs to search engines. Search engines will find you if people link to you. If people are linking to your site, you don’t have to go around submitting its URL to Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and so on.

I used to believe this – like eons ago. That was even before I started blogging. I guess I didn’t know anything after all.

You need to provide a Google site map. It’s nice, but it’s not really going to help. “Most sites are spiderable the way they are.” If you have a site with millions of pages that changes often and your system can auto-generate a map, then mmmmaybe…

I still see some blogs and articles which encourage site maps. What’s your take on this?

Frequent spidering helps rankings. If it’s already indexed, getting it spidered again isn’t going to do much.

This makes a lot of sense. Once a site is indexed, it probably wouldn’t really make much of a difference if it is spidered another time, within a short period of time, would it?

PPC ads will help organic rankings! PPC ads will hurt organic rankings. Google keeps its search engine and Adwords divisions separate and it appears that your ranking are not affected by whethe ror not you’ve bought pay per click ads.

Photo courtesy of manfry

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