I received an email last night from a reader who’s interested in having some SEO work done. I won’t go into too much detail but the reader asked a typical question that SEO’ers probably hear everyday, I’m paraphrasing here but it was something like this:

Can you get me on the front page of Google?

I replied that that was a pretty dangerous question to ask and that sure I could get them on Google’s front page, and I could do it today! How? Why, Google Adwords of course.

Now, I realize that’s not what the visitor was asking for, but it reminded me of just how easy it is for unscrupulous would-be SEO’s to scam someone who’s just getting started.

Just for the record, I’m not knocking legitimate SEO’s. A good SEO absolutely has an edge over the rest of us when it comes to organic search engine placement. And, assuming the clients site is in order (sales process, landing pages etc) – an SEO can be well worth the expense.

The point is NOT everyone is honest and above board. Here’s a few things to watch out for it you’re in the market for an SEO:

Guarantees! No one, I Repeat, No One can guarantee organic search engine placement. The search engines (especially Google) are constantly looking for and hiring the best and the brightest minds in the world whose sole purpose is to find ways to serve up only the most relevant SERPs possible. —That $19.95 special …”Ain’t gonna get you top placement in anything”

Vanity SERPs – Too many businesses feel that their company name needs to come up first in the engines. So they plunk down their money and tell their “SEO”, I want to rank for “The XYZ Sucker Company”. Now there is really nothing wrong with ranking for your company name – the problem is unless your company name is also a competitive money keyword, it’s probably pretty easy to rank well for. Heck, they may even be ranking for it already. SEO’s know this and the good ones will point that out for you.

Website Submission is NOT SEO. This is something that should have died a long time ago but it’s still lingering on. I’m talking about “SEO’s” that promise to submit your site to 99 search engines and directories. First off, there are really only two or three engines that matter – so the other 96 “engines” are really just irrelevant and most are probably spam. Use common sense, when you’re searching the web you’re probably using Google – your friends are probably all using Google also right? So, if everyone uses Google, why pay someone to submit your site to FredsSearchEngine.com? Anyway, the point is – your SEO needs to be paying attention to optimizing your website, if he or she starts talking about how they’re going to be submitting your site to engines for an additional charge (or even if they’re throwing it in for free for that matter) – walk away!

This list could go on but the point is before you hire an SEO, you ought to have an understanding of what’s it all about. SEO is NOT some magical black art that can only be practiced by enlightened gurus. SEO is work, it’s a systematic process and it takes time and money to get good rankings for competitive keywords. And what most people don’t even realize is that the most important part of the whole process is NOT the optimization it’s the keyword research. If you’re optimizing for the wrong keywords top placement on Google won’t make a bit of difference.

Anyway if you’re still here and want to learn more I recommend you download Aaron Wall’s SEO Book. It’s a $67 download and it’s well worth ten times the price —it’s the Bible of the SEO world and it’s the #1 Ranked SEO Book available. You’ll not only learn everything you’ll ever need to know about organic optimization techniques, you’ll also learn about PPC optimization. There’s even a chapter on hiring an SEO. Have a Look!

Posted by David Olsen - Owner/Editor

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When I’m looking for ideas to blog about, I often head over to PRweb and have a look at what’s new in my niche. You see, the use of press releases is an excellent way to get a buzz going about a new website or a new service or a give-away etc… So, PRweb is an excellent place to keep abreast of your Niche. Now, something else to consider, even though Press Releases have been around long before the web was in existence, the web did bring something new to the world of Press Releases…

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Trackbacks…
One aspect of PRweb that is often overlooked is the fact that many of the press releases will give you a trackback if you reference them on your blog. I’ve used this tactic quite a bit and see a reasonably steady stream of traffic coming from these press releases for sometimes weeks after I make the post.

Further, a look at the source code of these trackbacks reveals that PRweb is NOT using the fabled “NoFollow” tag. Which means, Google CAN follow these links and CAN give you a PR (as in Page Rank) boost. What’s more, PRweb is an authority site with a homepage Page Rank of seven; make no mistake, this is one of the trusted sites that Google spiders everyday!

Now for a real-world example:
Here’s an example of a Trackback I received for a post I did back in December:

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/12/prweb486905.htm

The PRweb page above has a Page Rank of 4, if you follow the link through to my post you’ll see that my page has a PR 3 – most of the Page Rank has to be from my PRweb trackback since my Homepage is only a PR 2 .

…That’s all I’m saying on this one, use the technique if you want, tell your friends about it… Just please …speak kindly of me .

Posted by David Olsen - Owner/Editor

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Here’s five interesting posts from the Internet Marketing and SEO world:

1) Here’s a great post from Tropical SEO about Link Baiting Read Andy Hagans’ Ultimate Guide to Linkbaiting and Social Media Marketing Now.

2) From the Official Google Webmaster Blog, here’s the official post about the new Link information in the Webmaster Tools section. Read Discover your links Here.

3) From Blogging To fame comes an interesting read, 10 Essential Assessments for your Blog, Clinch the Competition Now!

4) Here’s a post From Warrington Webworks about linking out to quality sites; The Value of Links on websites

5) Last but not least from Shoemoney comes: Google Adwords Arrow Trick To Increase Click Through Rates, where he outlines a very cool trick he does to increase his PPC click-thru rate. Good Read.

Posted by David Olsen - Owner/Editor

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Backlinks have always hit or miss with Google. Using the link command in the Google search box would return a seemingly random selection of a websites backlinks. Is Google crediting you for a specific linkback? Just because it’s not in the SERPs doesn’t mean you’re not getting credited for it.

Well today, the great Google Gods have given us a few new crumbs to play with. In the webmaster tools section there is a new tab called “Links” clicking it on reveals a listing of your sites page, each entry shows the number of backlinks that Google sees for that page – clicking on that number brings you a detail listing of those pages. It’s very cool to see all these new pages linking to you —is that all of them? I don’t know, but it’s definitely more then the link command show.

Have fun playing around with this cool new tool. If you don’t already have a Google webmaster account, get one —it’s free. Enjoy!

Posted by David Olsen - Owner/Editor

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On Thursday, Jan 25 – 07 at 1pm (EST), join Chris Sherman of SearchEngineLand for a 45 minute webinar entitled: “Social Search: New Marketing Opportunities”. The webinar is free but you need to register here: http://searchmarketingnow.com/

See you there!

Posted by David Olsen - Owner/Editor

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Affiliate marketing is tough, there’s no denying it. Especially if you’re just starting out; you first have to build your website, then, you have to get traffic to it (that’s a whole different can of worms). Finally, after weeks or probably months, you start getting a steady stream of visitors to your site. Now, it’s time to start selling to them.

Yes, I know, “selling to them” is an ugly term, but let’s face it –it’s what we’re here for. Whether you’re trying to build a business that will allow you to quit your day job or simply trying to make a few extra bucks – affiliate marketing (promoting other peoples products and services) is the quickest way to get started. Here are five ideas to help you start earning those commission checks:

1) Become an authority – Whatever your niche is, regardless of how large or how small it is - visitors come to your site with the assumption that you know what you’re talking about –you have the upper hand, don’t disappoint them. Give your visitors good, original content, keep your site fresh, report about what’s going on in your niche and your visitors will come back to your site again and again – this is called authority site building and it’s one of the most powerful techniques for building web success.

2) Know what you’re selling – Don’t sign up for every affiliate program you see and fill your site with every banner and every offer you can find. This is counter productive and goes against the authority site building process described above. Sites like this (often called banner farms) have been around since affiliate programs began and they’ve NEVER sold anything! If you’re an authority within your niche, then you really ought to have first hand experience with the products and services you’re recommending. Banners won’t sell to your audience, thoughtful (warts and all) reviews will.

3) Don’t sell it PREsell it – As affiliate marketers, it’s NOT our job to sell. We’re in the business of recommending products and services and sending interested visitors to their sales pages. This is called Preselling, it’s the process of warming your visitors up to an affiliate product (For more information, read Ken Envoy’s free ebook “Make Your Content PREsell”). Let the affiliate programs landing page do the high-pressure selling, you’re just recommending a product you like to your visitor.

4) Always include a call to action – This is a very subtle technique and one that is often overlooked; you need to tell your visitors what you want them to do. If you want them to fill out a form and hit submit – tell them! If you want them to go to the sales page for a particular product –tell them! It sounds pretty simple but it is a basic selling technique that is often the difference between being a good salesman and a great one. Here’s a few call to actions to give you a better idea of what they are: “Click here to learn more” or “Check out their website now”

5) Be Patient, don’t quit or get discouraged – This is the big one. Only a fraction of the visitors you send to the sales page ever buy and of the few that actually do buy, most will NOT buy on their first click through, it can be days even weeks or months before today’s visitor, actually hits that buy button and plunks down their credit card number. In other words, even if you do everything right the odds are you won’t see your first sale for at least a month after you start getting traffic to your site. You have to just keep plugging away; you never know when success is just around the next corner.

In conclusion, the five ideas above are by no means the only things you’ll need to concentrate on to make your site successful, but in my view they are up there very near the top of the list. Re-read this list whenever you start to get discouraged! Oh and pay special attention to number five – if you can fully digest that one, you’re well on your way to being successful.

Posted by David Olsen - Owner/Editor

Don't forget to get your SEO Success Guide! My FREE Ecourse that Will Show you how to beat your competition on Google and the rest... CLICK HERE!