21 considerations when performing SEO

The following are some answers to questions I see on a regular basis. Many are along the same lines, but I believe have singular valid points. Seeing that the people who need these answers most probably won’t read this is disheartening to me. But, maybe a few of you will read this before asking, “How do I rank Good in the Google search thingy?”

SEO doesn’t come over night. Choose a subject that you have a passion for. If you do it correctly, you’ll be doing it forever!

When ranking goes to hell, don't panic. Wait it out before making hasty uneducated corrections. With the millions of factors that may have caused your change, you most likely won’t be able to point it out anyway without controlled testing. Most likely it’s a datacenter issue, or you’re logged into Google.

If your site is less than 6 months old, expect fluctuations and concentrate on solidifying your niche instead of watching every keyword movement.

Over-analyzation, hesitation, and procrastination are a SEO's worst enemy. Take action and record the results.

Time and efficient productivity are a SEO's best friends.

Short cuts offer short-term results.

The best way to gain ranking in Google's Organic search results: Write intriguing, insightful, unique, quality content and then promote that material to induce natural linking from relevant quality websites.

There are many ways to skin a cat. Don't forget the longtail! You can get just as much traffic from 100 noncompetitive keywords as you can some single highly competitive keywords. (Googler: your wedding invitation is in the mail.)

Don't be afraid to link to a quality website that relates to yours. This is what makes the Internet what it is. The link will only create more value in your page by offering relevant options. The loss in traffic will be compensated by the rank adjustment caused by the increased value in your webpage.

Make it simple enough for a 6 year old to navigate through. They’re your primary audience.

If your English is poor, build in your own language. At the very least, have your content written by someone fluent in the given language. Also, anyone writing copy needs to spell check and proof-read for grammar. Nothing turns a webpage from quality to garbage faster.

Before releasing your unique brilliant findings about Google, do some research and save yourself some embarrassment, and save us a waste of time and energy. (Listen up, Dino.)

Profile your target visitors, and track their entrance. Make that door a little bit wider.

Don’t waste time on black hat techniques or anything that produces short-term positive changes. Work on the long term and residual positive effects.

Fighting for #1 often unwittingly wins you other prizes along the way.

Keywords in your domain help in your ranking, but minutely in respect to what will keep you up top. Building a Brand is far more important in the long run.

Stick to Google guidelines. Most search engines follow similar rules. Buying links for the sole purpose of increasing organic rank is a risk not worth losing your honest work over.

Stop spamming for link juice. Blog comments, forum signatures, etc… Even if it’s worth something, it’s not worth the time and effort that could just as easily be put into something positive like contributing valuable content and making the internet richer.

Ignore the Google pagerank bar, Alexa stats as well as trying to find backlinks through Google. None of these things are truly accurate. They are either samplings or out of date at best.

Don’t expect everything to be given to you. If you enter a popular and well-maintained forum with a general question answered 3 times already that day, quit right now. Anyone not willing to do simple research on their own will not survive a career in SEO. Besides, if you don’t know how to use the search tool, how do you expect to conquer it?

On the other hand, everything you need is right in front of you. We are in an age where even the most elusive tasks have been spelled out for us somewhere on the web. Begin to read (with a grain of salt.)

Being still the infancy of the Internet, no search term is out of reach. Chances are very good that the site which holds #1 with your target keyword is run by a single guy sitting in his underwear in his mom’s basement. With a little creativity and some hard work, you can beat him while he’s playing D n’ D.

I’ve been designing websites for over 10 years, reading about SEO for as long as it’s been a term, and only really begun to take advantage of the possibilities in the last 5 years. It doesn’t come overnight, but is not impossible. Thinking big has always been my weakness. Because of this, I’ve developed a stronghold on an uber-niche, and in turn enjoy smaller earnings. I could have just as easily built a less strong presence for a very profitable term. There are many routes to take, you need to find your own path to success.

Please feel free to add more thoughts.

Nice post, but I disagree about blog comments and forum siggys.

If they are in a relevant topic, they clearly pass anchor text (and PR) to your site.

Another option (not mentioned) is to become a Directory editor in a PR 7 directory.

Guilty...



I like this approach. With people trying to sell e-books online now, I am with you 100% that we should give away top-notch ebooks and tools in our niche to "induce natural linking from relevent quality websites" as well as build reputation and sales.



Amen to that.



I couldn't agree more as long as the person sticks to what you said about fighting with white hat techniques. I guess black hat could work too for temporary sites.




I agree with this, but I don't want to agree with it. I believe you are a hundred percent right because 99% of people use this tactic and while it does work, you would build more weight by spending a few hours on a specific topic in your niche and really drilling out the content to get in front of some authoritative sites.



I can't say that I've never done that!


****Keep em coming Berg! I would have to say that THAT is quality content!

Great Post. I love it when you say "if you don’t know how to use the search tool, how do you expect to conquer it?"

Got a good laugh out of that one!

"everything you need is right in front of you. We are in an age where even the most elusive tasks have been spelled out for us somewhere on the web. Begin to read "

how many time did i say that to myself ...

Thanks everyone for the positive feed back. Almost everything written above is probably available in one post or another on this forum by one of you.

Just as I expected, all of the comments so far have been given by those that regularly participate in the forum, and are true SEO professionals who most likely already know all of this. My initial intension was to help enlighten those that are new and ask the same questions over and over. After more thought, I'm not disheartened anymore. It just means there's less viable competition out there.

I'm certain the top players on this forum are the best in the industry because you're all READING as well as contributing.

Thank you everyone here for teaching me 70% of what I know about SEO. In ten years, we should all get together for a group retirement party in the Bahamas on Egol's yaght... oh wait, can an SEO ever retire?? Let's find out.

Great post, how I wish I joined this forum earlier.

Thanks for sharing and yes I am READING Now. Learned my lesson the hard way.

VampireXxX

Awesome post Berg!

[QUOTE=THE BERG]

The best way to gain ranking in Google's Organic search results: Write intriguing, insightful, unique, quality content and then promote that material to induce natural linking from relevant quality websites.
QUOTE]

I just went over your post again and plan on doing it every couple of months til it hits habit. When you say "promote that material" how exactly are you promoting it? Do you mean optimizing that page? Advertising? any suggestions would be helpful because I just started adding content to my site every day about 3 weeks ago and I have gone form #69 to #37. I haven't gained a link at all since then. I think it may just be that Google is favoring my new and improved content. How can I get the name out there (promote it) to build links besides SEO or advertising?

Some methods of promotion.

1) Use social bookmarking sites
2) Sending well worded emails to relevant webmasters
3) Blogging
4) Commenting on relevant blogs/ building relationships with relevant bloggers
5) Signatures on relevant forums (These two 4 & 5 are only really any use for direct traffic not the link juice they bring but the people they bring).
6) Listing in localized/industry specific directoires
7) Using viral techniques - ie great new unique idea
8) Advertise on places other than internet
9) Get newspapers/magazines to write about your site
10) PPC

Good luck