There has been quite a bit talk going around SEO blogs lately about whether Search Engine Optimization is dying or is already dead. I don’t believe that’s true.
One of the main reasons for this argument is that SEO is really pretty simple and anyone can do it for themselves.
1) Have good navigation that search engines can read and follow. No Javascript or Flash navigation which programs (bots) cannot read very well.
2) Have good content in plain text and regularly keep adding more. You need to write good content using your keywords. Not too many keywords, though as you will get penalized for spam. Read it out loud, if it sounds like spam it probably is.
3) Getting a higher page rank is something you have less control over. To have your site rank higher you need to have high ranking sites link to you.
You can buy or trade links, but the best way to do this is to provide the other sites with great content so they will want to link to you.
As for whether SEO as a business is going away, I believe that this is simple enough that anyone can do it, but I also believe that some people will be willing to pay someone else to do it. Just because an idea is very simple doesn’t mean that you can’t sell it. All that you need to do to verify this is to look around at all of the sites that ignore these simple truths. Unfortunately, these will also be snake-oil salesmen promising the moon and only interested in muddying up what should be crystal clear water just to keep themselves in a job.
The short answer is, of course you can.
Many website owners don’t have the resources to hire someone for Search Engine Optimization and with a little common sense it’s not that hard to do, but there are so many ideas floating around about what makes good SEO and what doesn’t. These days search pretty much starts with Google and here’s what they say.
I use their suggestions as a guide for all of the other resources that I use. The internet is like the rest of life there is good information out there and there is bad. You need to be able to decide for yourself what is true and what is not. Donald Nelson has written an article called ” Do it Yourself SEO: Ten Search Engine Optimization Tips” and they are good advise for anyone trying to do it themself.
September 19 has been declared “International Talk Like A Pirate Day”. How do I know that? I read it on Matt Cutts blog.
If you don’t know who Matt Cutts is, he is one of the first employees at Google. He also writes a blog that for us in the Search Engine Optimization business makes him the face (and the unofficial word) of Google. You can see his blog Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO, here. Matt’s blog is read by a huge number of web designers and search engine optimization enthusiasts. He wrote about “International Talk Like a Pirate Day” as a joke, but I don’t think of it as a joke. I think it’s a brilliant promotion move, even if it didn’t start out that way.
With Search Engine Optimization (SEO) nothing is ever guaranteed, so my first rule of thumb is to be skeptical of anyone who does guarantee you specific results. That doesn’t necessarily mean they can’t do it, but they may just be talking about a specific search for your name or some other obscure search term that you could probably get yourself without much effort. The search engines are continually changing their algorithms which constantly changes their results, so even being number one in the rankings today doesn’t necessarily mean that you will be tomorrow.
I try to explain to my clients that whenever I design a website I do it with the visitors in mind first and the search engines second. I believe that if you can design a site that provides good quality content and easy to follow navigation that the rankings will come and remain fairly consistent.
On occasion I have had a client ask me about optimizing their site for a specific keyword(s) and how much would I charge for that. Often the client believes that to get their site to number one at all the major search engines all that needs done is to stuff their content with key words and to add a few meta tags. Unfortunately, due to abuse, most search engines give little or no weight to meta tags for rankings anymore and “keyword stuffing” can be seen as Spam and get your site banned completely.
Many times in order to do the job right it involves completely changing the way a website is structured and that involves more time, resources and money than is possible. The question remains how and how much do I charge for this? Here is an interesting discussion on the CSS Beauty site about this issue.
There are way too many tools here to mention them all, but this SEO Tools page has links to the best SEO Tools on the internet and these tools will help you to optimize your website and move your search engine position higher.
Tools include:
- Alexa Tools
- Backlink Tools
- Code Validation
- Keyword Suggestion Tools
- Search Engine Ranking Tools
- Exchange Link SEO Tools
StepForth Placement has some very good articles on their site about search engine optimization. This recent article By Jim Hedger, StepForth News Editor, StepForth Placement Inc. talks about how you can rank well on all of the major search engines, Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask.
They give you a thumbnail breakdown on all of them individually and a simple easy to understand way to help improve you rankings on all of them. Though there have been wide sweeping changes in the organic search engine landscape over the past six months, the fundamental ways search engines operate remains the same.
Organic SEO is a simple technique that anyone can do to improve their rankings in the search engines. The search engines will reward you by sending you traffic and when it comes to business on the Internet traffic is everything.
Titus Hoskins has written an article that explains very well what it’s all about.
Explained simply, it’s where all your linking structures originate from the content up – in other words, you let all your content created for your sites, blogs and articles do your link building for you.
A great free guide to Search Engine Optimization that anyone can use.
This guide provides a complete overview of many of the processes, techniques and strategies used by professional search engine optimization specialists.
