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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I realize that the title may have a negative connotation for keywords and everything related to it but please do not get me wrong.  Keywords are an inherent part of SEO and will always be important.  Yet is it right to merely throw all your energy in keywords when it comes to your SEO strategy?  I think not.  There is more to SEO than smattering your pages with keywords.

The reason I am going back to this basic concept is this guy I interviewed the other.  I have a day job which is totally unrelated to SEO and web writing but when I went over this guy’s resume, one of the bullet points in the work experience section said “SEO specialist.”  Of course, I could not help but delve deeper into this.

So there I was, checking his command of the English language when I asked him, what exactly is SEO?  He hesitated and said “search engine optimization.”  Okay…and?  It was actually painful really.  I am not sure if he was not sure how to explain it in simple terms but what happened was that he kept on repeating the idea that you have to have a high density of certain keywords in your web pages.  This alone, according to him, would put you at the top of the SERPs.

If all SEO specialists think like this guy does, then we are doomed.  Look through other SEO blogs.  Look through this blog’s archives.  We need more than keywords, don’t we?

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When it comes to SEO, there is one thing that we can never overlook. That is, content writing. I am a strong believe in SEO techniques and other strategies that help you get on the top of SERPs. However, I also believe that the bottom line is having great content. You can employ all the best SEO tactics there are but if your content is not worth it, then all your best efforts will simply go to the dogs. As such in the next few posts, we will probably be focusing on content writing.

In this post, I want to answer two questions that have been bugging me lately. How often should one post? More so, is it alright to change posting frequency? I think that there is no simply answer to the first question. How often you post really depends on what you have to post. If you have no new (and worthwhile) content, why post at all? Then again, if you want to keep your readers coming back, then you have to have new content up and running as often as you can. I think that a good frequency would be at least a couple of times a week. If you have the time and the content, once a day would be great.

On the second question, what if you wanted to increase or decrease your frequency? Would it matter? I think so. If you post too much – say 3 times a day, it might bug your readers, making it hard for them to catch up. On the other hand, if you post rarely, your readers might get bored waiting for new content. The idea is to be able to maintain a good balance. And remember the bottom line – post when you have something worthwhile to write about.

Photo courtesy of Leo Reynolds

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In the last post we took a look at some of the things that you should consider when making your web site accessible. Yet we did not really delve into the reasons you should make your web site accessible. Why is it important?

Search engines prefer accessible web sites.
It’s a simple fact. Search engines place a higher premium on accessible web sites over inaccessible web sites. How so? Spiders – or search engine crawlers – browse web sites much like people would. The easier access you provide, the easier it is for search engine spiders. This means that the fewer hindrances you have in your web site for browsing, the better the search engines can index your web site. This includes the proper use of tags and the like.

Accessible web sites makes for stronger branding.
One of the things that you want to do for your blog is to create a strong brand. It is much like that principle that business men employ in marketing their brand. The idea is to create an impact in the minds of their target clients and to maintain that impact. So how does making your web site accessible create a stronger branding?

I suppose the idea is to cater to your audience. Having an accessible web site, of course, gives you the image of wanting to deliver what your audience needs. you offer the image of making it easier for them. That makes for stronger and longer recall.

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I recently set up a new site for my own pleasure – just something I can play around with and use as a personal outlet when I need to vent. Just because it is mainly for my own pleasure does not mean that I don’t want to work on promoting it as well. That’s when I realized that I have to go back to the beginning and start building up the site’s PR from 0 to as high as I can get it to be.

As of now, I am not getting far – it has only been a week or so anyway. I think the hardest part is being patient. I am doing a lot of things but results do not come overnight. For now, I am focusing on getting the PR up. For starters, PR0 to PR2 would not be bad in several months. So how do I plan on going about this?

We all know that Google has not disclosed – and probably never will – how it calculates PR exactly. We do have a general sense of what they are doing, however, so we can try to work with this idea in mind.

The number of links that point to your site seems to be the major consideration when it comes to Google PR. So obviously, this is what you need to work on if you want to increase PR. So my site has PR0 right now – maybe a couple of external sites link back to it. How many do I need to get PR1 or PR2? I don’t have exact figures here (only Google knows) but Mark Walters suggests more than 50.

How do you get these many links? Let’s look at that in the next post.

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Some people do not do well when it comes to long-term planning.  I have to admit that I can be one of them.  There are times when I can barely plan my activities a month from now.  Then again, I do know the importance of planning for the long run and I do my best to do that.

When it comes to SEO, long-term thinking may be the best way to go.  Anyone who has had any experience with SEO and all its intricacies would know that sometimes, short cuts just don’t work.  Oh, they may get short-term results, that’s for sure.  But in the long run, what a web site owner wants is to build a lasting impression online.

Think about it, why are you maintaining that web site or blog?  Do you merely want to reap the benefits within a few months time?  Perhaps for some specific purposes, that would be enough.  But for many, the idea is to keep the blog or web site up and running for as long as it could.  More than that, you would want to keep that site popular and alive for years to come.

The only really clean way to do this would be to plan for the future.  This is where white hat SEO has the most advantage over black hat and gray hat SEO, I believe.  The latter two activities may bring about quicker results but in the long run, they may also be the downfall of the site.  Believe it or not, Google would probably catch up on these shady activities and bring the hammer down on the site.  What happens to the long-term growth then?

If I were you, I’d look into long-term results before deciding on any SEO practice.

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In the previous post, we took a look at gray hat SEO techniques in general. This time, let us take a closer look at these practices and be a bit more specific.

Cloaking
Cloaking is the practice wherein the web site owner provides information to the search engines which is different from what the site actually contains. Obviously, this is a practice that reeks of deception. However, there are certain cases when this practice can be deemed acceptable. For example, if the web site has content that is available only to members then it could be acceptable. Then again, this practice can very well be abused. That is the main reason cloaking is considered gray hat SEO.

Paid links
We all know how important links are for SEO. That is why it is quite understandable that the practice of buying links can become questionable. Purchasing links for advertising purposes is fine. However, if you purchase links solely because you want in link-popularity, then it could be considered shady. In fact, the suggestion is that you work on links to increase your traffic and just consider the increase in link-popularity as icing on top of the cake.

Duplicate content
Duplicate content can be considered legitimate in certain cases but rarely. For example, indexing and abstracting web sites may have duplicate content. In most cases, though, duplicate content is considered unacceptable.

Bottom line: when in doubt, be on the safe side.

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I’ve heard about black hat SEO and white hat SEO but have you ever encountered gray hat SEO? If you think about it, it does not really take a rocket scientist to figure out what gray hat SEO is all about. As in the real world, things are not always black and white, there will always be gray areas – those activities and ideologies which do not clearly conform to either extreme.

When it comes to SEO, the gray areas abound. However, in my point of view – as well as many others, I believe – gray hat SEO leans towards black hat more than white hat. This is because gray hat SEO simply employs techniques that are quite akin to spamming but not quite labeled by Google (and other authorities in the field) as black hat – as of yet.

Practicing gray hat SEO is much like trying to fly below the radar, trying not to get the attention of those who are in the lookout. However, the fact that you feel that you need to fly under the radar means that you are engaging in illegitimate activities or, at the very least, activities bordering on the illegitimate.

Why would anyone want to engage in gray hat SEO? If you are asking that question, then you may very well ask, “Why would anyone want to engage in black hat SEO?” The bottom line is the same – they want to achieve good search engine rankings the “easy” way. Somewhere along the road though, Google will catch up on these practitioners and penalize them – then, regret will be felt.

In the next post, let’s look at some gray hat SEO tactics.

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In the previous post, we took a look at why you should not outsource your SEO.  In this post, let us give the other side a look.  At the end of this post, I leave it up to you to decide which option is best for your company.

Why has outsourcing become popular?  I think the main reason lies in the difference between core activities and non-core activities.  In fact, outsourcing arose from this difference.  The whole idea of outsourcing is to delegate non-core activities to another entity so that you can focus on your core activities.  This frees up your time to focus on the most essential elements of your business.

Another point is that if you are not really that knowledgeable when it comes to SEO practices. It is true that the basic principles of SEO have not changed all that much.  Of course, there have been developments but anyone can learn the basics of SEO.  However, we cannot deny the fact that there are SEO experts who can do the job much better than you can.  If you do not feel comfortable working on your own SEO, then it is best to outsource it as you will get better results.

Last, but not the least, there are many SEO experts offshore.  They can bring about good results for much lower costs than if you work on SEO in-house.  Not only will you be freeing up those employees of yours for more essential tasks, but you will be saving up on expenses as well.

So what’s it going to be?

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Outsourcing is a major trend in many businesses today. From accounting to customer service to web design, many companies prefer to outsource these departments. When it comes to SEO, does outsourcing make sense as well? I suppose that the answer cannot be clear cut. There are pros and cons to outsourcing your SEO activities.

Take this line of thought from Leigh Hunt:

I’d even go so far as to say that SEO companies are detrimental for your online business.
And here’s why:

As any good online marketer will tell you, attracting targeted traffic to your website is the most important aspect of creating success in your online business.

It’s this knowledge to attract and convert traffic that will really empower you in your online business.

It’s this knowledge, or lack thereof, that will determine how successful you will be in the long term.

Do you really want to give this power to somebody else?

Do you want to put the knowledge of how to build your online business in the hands of someone who does not have any interest in your long term success beyond the fee you pay them month after month?

She does have a point, doesn’t she? Yet she herself admits that she got “royally screwed” by an SEO company in the past. Perhaps her bias is showing. Then again, I believe that you should empower yourself in order to be successful in anything. As she points out, with knowledge of SEO, you have full control over the success or failure of your business.

Let’s look at the other side of the coin in the next post.

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