SEO

[welshdean]

Hi everyone,
I need to learn about Search Engine Optimisation, I've had a tip from a friend directing me to seomoz which was decent but it assumes an existing level of knowledge. Can anyone out there point me to a beginners guide or a '... for dummies' level?

Any hints or tips posted here would be very well received too.

 

[geni]

Can anyone out there point me to a beginners guide or a '... for dummies' level?

1)Create content that people want to link to.
2)thats pretty much it

Beyond that you rapaidly get to the reason why SEOers are generaly viewed as scum by reasonable people.

 

[sophia8]

1)Create content that people want to link to.
2)thats pretty much it

That's very true - the first rule of SEO is "write stuff that people want to read". But there's a little more to it than that. For instance, Google likes properly-built sites that use correctly-formatted code that helps to identify pieces of content. And good links from other sites are important, especially links from Facebook, Twitter and other social media. Don't fall for any of those spam emails from "SEO companies" that promise to get your site into the top search results; at best, they'll do nothing, at worst they'll get your site blacklisted by the search engines.
If you want something to read, Google has a pretty good guide to what you should and shouldn't do in SEO.

 

[welshdean]

1)Create content that people want to link to.
2)thats pretty much it

Beyond that you rapaidly get to the reason why SEOers are generaly viewed as scum by reasonable people.

I'm really busy at the moment, but I'd love to know the reasons for your 'scum' comments. I'm really new to this so I know nowt about the history or nuance of SEO Co's and their ilk.

That's very true - the first rule of SEO is "write stuff that people want to read". But there's a little more to it than that. For instance, Google likes properly-built sites that use correctly-formatted code that helps to identify pieces of content. And good links from other sites are important, especially links from Facebook, Twitter and other social media. Don't fall for any of those spam emails from "SEO companies" that promise to get your site into the top search results; at best, they'll do nothing, at worst they'll get your site blacklisted by the search engines.
If you want something to read, Google has a pretty good guide to what you should and shouldn't do in SEO.

Thanks for that, I'll have a good look over the weekend. I appreciate I'm at risk of being incumbent on peoples time here but any more tips, pointers would be really appreciated.

 

[Wudang]

If you want an amusing read try George Takei's "Oh my there goes the internet" book. A lot of musing on various subjects with some tips on how he became so popular on the internet, largely by doing what Geni said. Since you're UK you can always just get it from the library.

And most SEOs are scum because they pimp unrelated crap at the expense of the stuff people are actually looking for.

 

[welshdean]

If you want an amusing read try George Takei's "Oh my there goes the internet" book. A lot of musing on various subjects with some tips on how he became so popular on the internet, largely by doing what Geni said. Since you're UK you can always just get it from the library.

And most SEOs are scum because they pimp unrelated crap at the expense of the stuff people are actually looking for.

Thanks for the tip, kindle edition for only $10.33 (about £6.50 in real money) just ordered.

 

[Eddie Dane]

I just met with one of those companies.
They explained their method as follows:

They do some research into effective keywords using Google Keyword planner (I haven't used this, but you can access it)
Then the optimise your website by making landing pages under your domain.

So, let's say that you have a site about knitting, called knittingworld.com
And research shows that many people in your taget group search Google for:
-kntting tricks
-knitting patterns
-how to knit
-learn knitting
-etc.

They make pages like: www.knittingworld.com/learn-knitting.
That page actually has relevant information about learning knitting and uses the keywords a number of times, has jpg's named learn-knitting1.jpg etc
You now have a page with a relevant name and content people actually want to read.
The next step is link building. Have yourself mentioned in relevant forums etc.



They charge € 2000 per year for 10 keywords.

I think I might try to do it myself. I'm a decent copywriter and making pages in Wordpress isn't exactly rocket surgery either.

There doesn't seem to be a secret ingredient apart from the fact that they have a department that keeps a close eye on Google's requirements for indexation.

Oh hang on, there was something about getting Google to index the site quickly, so they know how to fire up those Google bots and have them come by at regular intervals, rather than just waiting for that to happen. (Does anybody here know how to do that?)

I came a way with the following feeling:
-the site must be well constructed and readable by Google. There is a site that shows you your site through the eyes of the Google bot. (Anyone, anyone? Bueller.)
-Google wants relevant results, tricks work only temporarily and could backfire. Providing good content is the way to go.

And you can install a pagerank plugin that gisves you an insight to your website's performance. (Is this a Firefox plugin?)

I haven't tried any of these things yet. All fresh info I got from a talk with a SEO company.

ETA:

LOL, just clicked on my own nonsense example link and of course, knitting world actually exists.

 

[paulhutch]

IIRC, most of the tools you're looking for are part of the Google Webmaster Tools site.

 

[Wowbagger]

In my experience, SEO means two different things to two different groups of people. And, I always advise people to get that difference sorted out, first.

If, by SEO, you mean: "Get as high on the list of search results as possible!", which is the most common usage: The most legitimate way to do that is to write content people would want to link to.
There are evil ways to cheat the system. But, they only work until the search engines catch up, and until then you're just making people feel like they are wasting their time.

If, by SEO, you mean: "Allow search engine spiders to categorize and list my site as accurately as possible", that is actually a surprisingly different beast. Though, in the long run, good "accuracy" will ultimately lead to good "height on the list", anyway. Assuming you have content worth linking to.

That second definition has certain rules, many of which are comically considered "outdated" by people who like to ignore these sorts of things, then they often pay the price for bad listings in search engines, and wonder why. These rules include stuff such as:

* Use only a single h1 tag as the top heading. And use h2, h3, etc. tags appropriately for section headers.

* Make sure all html tags are properly closed. (Use <br /> instead of <br>, and make sure every <p> has a </p>. Etc.) And, make sure they are nested properly. (Avoid: <p><i></p></i>. Make sure it's: <p><i></i></p>.)

* Do not place important text in images. Using alt properties is no excuse. Though, company logos can be an exception (with an alt property on it, and the name in plain HTML somewhere on the bottom of the page).

* Using keyword and description meta tags are recommended, for the sake of site listing. But, do NOT expect that content to get you higher placement on search engines, on their own. Loading up unnecessary keywords will only do you more harm than good.

* Every page should have a unique title to describe that page. (I tend to be lazy with this one, myself, unfortunately.)

* Etc.

Here is what Microsoft's SEO tools check for, to start you off:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff724016(v=expression.40).aspx

Google's site is good, too.

 

[craziest]

There is on-page seo and off-page seo.

The on-page refers to how well the structure of your site is set-up for the engines to be able to properly read it..ie. h1 tags, meta descriptions, keywords and such.

The off-page seo refers to how many people are linking to your content from different sites. More often than not, this is achieved by merely having great content that people are interested in reading or viewing. A little bit of social media marketing can go along way also.

 

[PixyMisa]

The Google guide is a good one.

The basic problem is that about 270% of what is offered as "SEO" is fraud. That's because (a) it's supposed to work by cheating the search engines; (b) it's sold as a legitimate technique; and (c) it's sold as a technique that actually works, when it doesn't.

It's an ongoing war between the search engines and the black-hat SEO people. All the spam you see on blogs and forums is collateral damage.

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

I had a guy at work phone up and try to sell us SEO for our company's website. He said he could get us at number 1 in the google search listings for if people searched for sound, lighting or staging companies in our county. I did so, and we turned up at number one. Unimpressed with this he said that it was dynamic (well, duh), and that there were over 10,000 searches per day for sound companies in the town in which we're based which we were currently missing. I pointed out that the town in which we're based is way too small for 10,000 a month to be a credible figure, let alone 10,000 a day, and that we're one of only 2 sound and lighting companies in that town so I didn't think the risk was too great. Especially as we turned up at number 1 on google anyway.

And, yet, still he seemed surprised that I didn't put him through to the boss, just in case.

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

Of course, the funny thing is that we do better than the other company, yet the other company has something in excess of 300 domain names and spends a fortune on SEO. They used to have a system whereby they would appear high in search engine listings, and they would pay a small fee every time someone clicked on the link. I say used to because they treat their employees terribly and one disgruntled ex-employee spent a couple of days after being sacked visiting their website from that link, hitting the back button, clicking on the link again...

...or, at least, that's the story.