Who else wants to get on the front page of Google?
Filed under: Getting Started, News, Search Engine Marketing
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!
Tweet This Post 
Ping This Post 
Stumble This Post
Worth Reading – 02/08/2007
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.
Tags: web marketing, affiliate marketing
Tweet This Post Ping This Post Stumble This Post
Google Opens up about backlinks
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!
Tweet This Post Ping This Post Stumble This Post
Free Social Search Webinar
Filed under: Search Engine Marketing, Social Bookmarking
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!
Tweet This Post Ping This Post Stumble This Post
5 Money and Time Wasting Scams To Avoid
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Getting Started, News, Search Engine Marketing
In the eight or so years that I’ve been an Internet Marketer I’ve managed to involve myself in a few stupid, money and time wasting scams. I consider myself a reasonably intelligent guy, but sometimes I can’t help myself and I just get a little too caught up in a well-written sales letter. I tell myself that I learn something from every mistake I make, I hope so. At the very least, I have enough experience to write this post. So here goes, here’s my list of five things every website owner should avoid.
1) Any of the “Make a million dollars today, by doing nothing scams”: It’s common sense that these things won’t work (c’mon if you developed a system that could make you tons money without doing anything —would you really tell people about it?), but we get so caught up in the dream that our common sense sometimes goes out the window. Earning a living is hard – being an entrepreneur is oftentimes even harder, there ‘aint no shortcuts!
2) Amazing traffic deals – get 10,000 hits for $9.95, or others like them. Listen closely to me —ALL of these “deals” are JUNK! You’re getting machine generated hits, in other words, people never actually visit your website. As with many scams, common sense would dictate that the traffic is junk, why would a company sell you so much traffic for so little money —wouldn’t it make more sense to use the traffic themselves?
3) Search Engine Submission software– Make no mistake, the multi-billion dollar search engines of the world do NOT rely on people buying some $49.95 submission script to find new content to index. Search engines like to find their own content, how? by sending out spiders that surf the web much like humans do —they follow links.
4) Link brokers – Now I’m not saying there is no value in buying links to your site – if done properly this technique can provide you with targeted traffic and maybe even boost your search engine rankings. Unfortunately, you’re often buying links on sub-par websites that never get any real traffic.
Tip: Buy links on pages that are related to what you’re trying to sell – the links you buy should be visible to the people that visit that site, remember – you want traffic – if someone sees your link and clicks through, that’s a targeted visitor that wants to see what you’re selling. Buy links for people to see NOT just search engine spiders.
5) Link Exchanging – Like buying links this is only effective when done properly. Most link exchanging campaigns are simply a waste of time, links that are buried 10, 20 30 pages deep –Never see the light of day, not by search engine spiders and certainly not by surfers. Unfortunately, that’s what 95% of link exchange campaigns are. Someone either buys a script or joins a paid service and starts doing automated link exchanges – in a few days, they can have hundreds of pages of links on their site. Search engines don’t like links pages, they’ve said so! Don’t you think the search engines are smart enough to see what’s going on? The engines can tell a links page a mile away and they know exactly what their worth: $ZERO. The engines want you to build websites for human visitors; a website with 5 pages of content and 50 pages of links is NOT what they have in mind.
Exchange links properly, do it on a one on one basis. Get to know other sites in your niche, link to the ones you like. Then (and only then), contact the owner of these sites and tell them that you’re already linking to them and ask for a link back. Some may not want to reciprocate – maybe they don’t think you have a sufficient amount of content on your site yet. Don’t get angry and remove their link from your site, if you think a resource is good for your visitors then leave the link up – remember you’re building a site for your visitors NOT the search engines.
So that’s it, five stupid things that I should have avoided but didn’t. Go forth now and make your own mistakes, just stay away from these five – they’re mine!
Tags: marketing, seo, link building, buying links
Tweet This Post Ping This Post Stumble This Post
When bots chow down…
Filed under: Getting Started, Search Engine Marketing
I just read a great post over at the Yahoo Publishers Network that shows, visually what is important to search engine spiders. The metaphor shows a typical web page as a side of beef with each section labeled as a different cut. The “top sirloin” is the title bar, the brains (inedible) would be things like a search form.
If you’ve been struggling with the “rules” of SEO, this graphic should help you see what is important from a spider standpoint. Optimizing for Relevancy
-
Learn How To Start A Profitable Web Business
Right Now - For FREE!
- Learn How Money Is Made Online Everyday
- Learn How To Get FREE - Targeted Traffic to your Offers
- Learn How You Can Get Started Right Now - at ZERO Cost
This Free ebook is all you'll need to build your online business started NOW!
Download Your Personal Bailout Plan Now - This one is FREE!