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Search engines are usually not interested to promote or suggest an SEO service because they lose ad revenue and are held liable when the SEO firm does a bad job. SEO organizations do not work due to the power struggles between various marketers.

Why Search Engines do not like SEO

Search engines straight away cannot agree with SEO services since SEO services providers may or I can say directly affect their revenue search engines are getting through the pay per click programs they are offering. So, there is no official guidelines for How to SEO. Search engines always give a brief guideline but never provide a precise help required. Because if they had direct rules someone can find or crack a similar techniques to manipulate the search results thats were still under their TOC rule book. What matters in the SEO industry is results. How did the top site get there? How can my site rank at the top?

Why You can’t Trust an SEO Based on Their Rankings

A Site owned and run by an SEO which is doing good and for competitive terms will rank well, still there is no guarantee that the search engine will do a good job for them. Because I have come across a lot of website owners who buy SEO services lose money and again bought a different service from a different SEO. Some SEO’s have qualities outside the Box thats makes them popular and help them spread the message. This help does not mean that these guys are good at promoting your websites, only that they are good in promoting their websites.

Quality SEO is always expensive and takes more time. But because of bad SEO’s in the market the entire SEO field gets tarred with the same brush for the action of few bad people. Some companies rum PPC as regular SEO. But one thing always keep in mind that organic SEO if always different from PPC marketing.

The Problem with Labeling SEO’s

A website is important or not but the main task for an SEO is to make a search engine believe that the site is important. No matter how you do it, the job of the SEO is to improve rankings and to drive traffic. It depends upon the website to website that which techniques is to be used for the promotion. Because there are certain categories which are very competitive so an SEO has to work outside the SEO guideline ( think out of the box) set by the major search engine like Google, yahoo or msn. So, Ultimately it is up to the SEO service consumer which path he/she has to follow to achieve their goals to promote their website.

Other Problems with SEO

Some foolish SEO’s do stupid stuff that will get your website banned from search engines. These are not the only problem in SEO industry there are some lazy SEO’s to do a good job. Its for sure that your site won’t get banned if you are not aggressive. For SEO many keywords requires research, loads of efforts, and extensive link building.

For Example link building is the most time consuming and most expensive part of SEO. But often it is skipped of not done properly by many members of SEO community.

So, it’s my advise to please review a company of consult with someone before investing on your website for an SEO.

Visit http://www.canigetinfo.com for more information also you can find this article here – http://www.canigetinfo.com/2008/09/15/problems-with-seo-seo-organizations/

Article Source: EzineArticles.com

In order to separate SEO truths from traditional misconceptions and errors, you always must first examine the truth. For example, if an expert is trying to determine a counterfeit $100 dollar bill from a real $100 bill, he only gains insight by examining the genuine $100 bill first. You could examine many different counterfeit bills for a long time and never gain any ground at all, because you did not learn to recognize the truth first. But once you know and understand the real government issued bill, then you can spot the false things much more quickly.

First A Word about Hats: White, Grey or Black

Let me say that most skilled SEOs are not bad people. They are not schemers who are just out to get your money. Like anything else, there are people who are good and bad in every area of life. When it comes to practicing SEO skills, there are many people doing many different things, but it all comes down to the “intent of the individual person.”

People pegged for being “black hats” usually think quite a little bit differently than the SEO with a professional long term career. The Black hat is more prepared to lose the domain and knows that they are always on the run and they often view the search engines as the enemy. They thing that search engines MUST be “outsmarted” or so they are convinced. Some tend to enter more like a game with throw-away domain names that they’ll purchase in quantity, fully knowing that they’ll have to do the same types of things over and over again each time they get penalized. They think they are at war with the search engines.

White hat SEO professionals are more focused on creating high quality, useful content that serves a purpose and satisfies the reason why the user initiated a search. Many white hats have had structured skills training. They generally understand that they are not at war with the search engines. They choose to respect the search engines guidelines instead of trying to cheat them. They are never on the run, because they have done nothing to fear being caught at or banned for. They tend to do the job once for long term stable rankings that can last for years.

Black hat technique tends to relate to “tricks” and little “short cuts” to try and fool the search engine.

Okay so this fits in with the first misconception or idea that was first pitched years ago. However, this first misconception is a major misconception. Here it is…

Misconception 1. You are at war with the search engines to gain top rankings. Therefore you must learn to do sneaky tricks to outsmart their algorithm. Therefore you must learn ways to beat the search engine to gain top visibility in search results. Have you heard this story before?

While this whole concept (probably dreamt up by a marketer years ago sometime) it cleverly appeals to a human beings somewhat carnal side of being “sneaky” or being able to beat the search engines at their own game by using “secrets” and “tricks.” Even though the pitch may appeal to some people, the only trouble is that the concept is 100% FALSE from beginning to end. Some of you may be disappointed to hear this because for years, you thought you were at war with the search engines. Think a little bit more and let’s separate marketing pitches from the real truth.

Truth 1: The truth is that you have never been at “war with the search engines.” You are not required to “outsmart” or fool” the search engines at all to gain top visibility for your Web pages.

Listen up now. The only one you are truly competing with for visibility is your competitors, NOT the search engines. The whole idea that you must “beat” the search engines or “outsmart” the search engines is a completely false concept.

You never need to compete with any search engine. You never need to trick it or even try to “fool it” in order to get excellent visibility. A search engine does not really care whether you rank number 1 or not. They are fine with it, so long as you are offering relevant content that is useful and satisfies the reason why the user searched. Obviously any search engine does not want junk showing up in the results.

The only competition you have now or you have ever had, or will ever have in the future is with other competitors pages, not the search engines.

Being “sneaky” may appeal to some emotionally in a marketing pitch. It may make you even feel like the service or the course or publication will ultimately “make you smarter” somehow. But people need to learn to distinguish truth from error and you’ll be blowing far less money on e-books, tool sets and memberships that appeal to the emotion but are founded on untruths.

Many marketers come across with this anger or emotion in their messages using words that are planted to trigger your emotions.

You can be sneaky…
I am angry because…
I am so embarrassed by what happened…
You are going to learn a secret…
I am going to show you something exciting!
etc…

Don’t let your emotions be exploited.

Learn to recognize a marketing mailer that is attempting to exploit your emotions. Recognize these types of messages. Separate them out from communications that offer advice based on truths. I’ll do an article on this in the future.

Misconception 2: You must submit your Web site to the Search Engines, therefore you need to buy our services and we will submit your site to 30,000 search engines for only $29.95 per month. The misconception here is that a submission to a search engine is beneficial.

Truth 2: You are far better employing strategies that allow search engine robots to find your pages on their own (without submitting.) Any company that bases their whole concept of traffic or SEO on submitting does not understand how search engines work themselves. If you are using this type of service, save your money. There is no valid reason to be using a submission service for search engines. It is still being offered today widespread because there are always new people coming online to be exploited.

Misconception 3: If a Web site has been banned, the person must be an evil or unethical person.

Truth 3: Search Engine Workshops reject anything related to Spam or short cuts or tricks that are outside of the search engines guidelines, but we do not believe people are “always evil.” Many people that get banned or penalized by the search engines, are not even aware of SEO best practices. The only thing they turn out to be guilty of in the end, is of never having had any real structured SEO skills training.

In other words they were listening to some bad advice or perhaps were not even aware that each search engine has guidelines. In some cases it’s their Webmaster that may have gotten their site banned. Every situation is different but ultimately it’s far better to gain your skills sooner than later. It is not always about good and evil but there most definitely is always a story behind the story and it boil down to user intent.

Misconception 4: SEO is a nightmare to try and learn.

It is extremely important to measure each SEO influence and get each factor exactly right. Therefore you need to research how many characters go in a title tag, keyword density, keyword prominence, keyword placement, how many keywords can go in a Meta tag plus all of the other factors for each individual search engine. This concept is what people seem to talk about because it’s what some people are selling, but it is also completely false.

Truth 4: Sure you can spend your days measuring these types of things, but chances are you will be burning out after a while and getting very few success stories. This is because there are for more important things to understand that have an extraordinary impact in the results. SEO influences all affect one another, plus each search engine grades on a curve based on each specific industry.

Any researcher that tells you he is giving you the latest criteria based on these old fashion units of measurement will not make much impact. These days you are looking for the big picture, not individual influences one at a time. We have seen cases where people spend hours working on one page, when they could have dozens of pages performing for them in minimal time with much less stress. Yes I mean all 100% white hat strategies too, because these are all that we teach our students.

Misconception 5: You need to spend hours tweaking your source code each month to keep those top ranking positions. Therefore you cannot possibly manage your own in house search marketing. False again.

Truth 5: There are advantages to having your SEO handled by a professional firm that has been structurally trained. But don’t buy it if someone says they must continually “tweak your code” to keep you in top place. It is just not true. Yes, you may want them creating fresh new content. Yes, you’ll want continued practices if you’re Blogging maybe for example. But if a page is ranking in top spot, leave it alone. If you do look at making changes, make sure you are grabbing a look at the entire search landscape for your industry.

Misconception 6: SEO is Dead. This myth makes a great attention grabbing article headline although in my opinion it has been a little bit over-used and rather gimmicky. If you’ve read it, it is completely false.

Truth 6: SEO is merely more competitive these days but SEO is far from being dead. SEO is alive and well!

It may feel like it is dead if you are relying on old second hand advice or listening to some marketers who are pushing their next big thing. Most Webmasters have access to all of the same old common tools that everyone else has, so there feels like there is less advantage than a few years ago.

Misconception 7: There is only one correct solution to solve a specific SEO challenge. If it is not my way, it is the wrong way. Needless to say this is also false.

Truth 7: For any specific SEO challenge there are often multiple solutions to choose from. In many cases there are alternative strategies that are all white hat and yet very solid solutions. Don’t let anyone tell you that there is only one way. Every Web site is different with different challenges and you need to be equipped with the full range of solutions.

To gain a real significant advantage, the answer rests with building your genuine SEO skills and less reliance on tools.

Since we are talking about misconceptions in this article, let’s take it a step further and discuss a few old and new

“confidence schemes” to be aware of as well. Confidence schemes are not exactly misconceptions but you need to be aware of at least a few of the newest ones.

A Con Man or “Confidence man” is (a swindler who exploits the confidence of his victim) A few other names for Confidence men include bunco, scam artist, fleecer, swindler, shark, rainmaker, hustler.

Some confidence schemes operate on the same old methods, others come up with new methods. Here are some examples of old con tricks and new ones to be aware of.

From Wikipedia:

The Phishing Scam:
“Phishing is a modern form of scam in which the artist communicates with the mark, pretending to be from an official organization that the mark is doing business with, in order to extract personal information that can then be used, for example, to steal money. In a typical instance of phishing, the artist sends the mark an email pretending to be from a company (such as eBay). This email is formatted exactly like email from that business, and will ask the mark to “verify” some personal information at their website, to which a link is provided. The website itself is also fake but designed to look exactly like the business’ website. The site will contain an HTML form asking for personal information such as credit card numbers. The mark will feel compelled to give this information because of words in the email or the site stating that they require the information again, for example to “reactivate your account”. When the mark submits the form (not checking the URL), the information is sent to the swindler.”

A Blogging Scam:
“The Ogged Scam: A new con trick born in the age of blogs. For this scam, the con artist creates a pseudonymous internet persona and befriends a group of people online who will become his marks. Then the scammer feigns some terrible disease, such as stomach cancer. Finally, the scammer subtly pushes the idea that his online “friends” could pitch in for something to make him feel better, such as a $700 gift certificate to the French Laundry. After the boon is received, the scam artist claims a miraculous recovery or doctor error.”

The Paranoia Scam
“The Paranoia Scam is a scam that involves the con man telling the mark various lies about the different scams and instigating false attempts so that the mark (feeling worried and with no place to hide their money from fraud) turns to the con man for help.”

For more insights of these types of scams and and what to be aware of, visit Wikipedia.

Have SEO topics been used for scam purposes?

Unfortunately, SEO has been used as a buzz word by the modern types of hustler.

I think you’ll agree that there have been plenty of cases where people have been sold some expensive bill of services in the name of SEO, but never really delivered on their promises. Genuine SEO Professionals seldom need to hype up their offers as there often is a trail of success and results that follow their work. In other words, it is evident that they are good at producing fair to highly satisfactory results without to much hoopla in their presentation.

Still, there are SEO scams being worked. But there are ways to determine if you have found a dependable and trusted resource. There ways to help you distinguish those services who actually are keeping their skills up to date and by studying truths you can quickly learn to detect error and protect yourself.

* If you are interested in building genuine skills or managing a team overseeing SEOs then the surest why to close the gaps in your learning time is with a focus on live skills training and ongoing mentoring at a workshop or else study a course that focuses on teaching you the genuine skills. It is safe to say that you will be far less likely to ever be taken advantage of again, once your own knowledge is up to speed.

* That being said, there are many who do not feel they can learn the skills. Maybe you’re looking for hiring an SEO firm instead of managing your own projects. One of the easiest ways to separate the trained experts who have had good structured training from the hit and miss individuals (or worse,) is to simply examine the evidence of their work.
Examine it closely so you can determine that behind them, the results show the evidence of their skills.

- Ask them for a list of their recent client’s phone numbers.
- Ask them for a list of their oldest client contacts and their Web sites.
- Dependable SEO services will never have trouble providing you with the evidence of their success although they may want to offer you client contacts in a different business category than the one you are in (out of respect for their clients.)

* While many SEOs will offer you typical proposals, try and watch for those who also have alternative approaches that will serve your best interest at reasonable cost. Optimization is only one aspect of visibility these days. It is not just about how many pages show up in the top rankings for specific keywords anymore. There are a lot of additional things that a well trained graduate can bring to you that are beyond SEO.

* If you decide to build your SEO skills and are trying to choose which workshop to attend, look for education that is based on time tested methods. Some who claim to teach classes, will often have a second or third agenda to try and sell you SEO services. Others may focus mainly on using tools. The best training is where you can get personalized hands-on skills training, ongoing coaching and mentoring even after class is over. Each of our associate educators have expert training and offer the full workshop in multiple communities.

* Beware of any service that builds their whole success platform for SEO on “search engine submissions.” Submitting to search engines is one thing you don’t need to do and you don’t need to do certain things over and over to get results.

* Due diligence is the word of the day when hiring an SEO firm or seeking SEO skills training.

John Alexander is Co-director of Training at http://www.SearchEngineWorkshops.com offering live, SEO Workshops with his partner SEO educator Robin Nobles, author of the very first comprehensive online search engine marketing courses http://www.onlinewebtraining.com John has taught SEO skills to people from 87 different countries world wide.

Article Source: EzineArticles.com

One of the most commonly asked questions regarding search engine optimization is: “What is the best way to learn SEO”? The answer I always give to this question is simple yet complex. My answer to this question is always: “It Depends”.

Now before you say that my answer is not a definitive response to the question – let me explain my answer to you.

Search engine optimization by its very nature is not a black and white concept. There is a lot of gray area in the field of search engine optimization SEO.

Thus, it is only natural for people who are trying to learn SEO to be totally confused about how and what to do in relation to learning SEO because there are so many options and opportunities available for people to learn search engine optimization.

Well, let’s look closer at my answer to the question what is the best way to learn SEO: “It Depends”.

My answer to the question is based purely on my viewpoint of education in general and learning new subject matter.

The fact that someone is trying to learn SEO is only the current situation for the individual. The real question that is being asked is what is the best way for the individual to learn and this depends on the individual.

For example, some people learn best using visual aids while others learn more through audio aids while still others learn better from reading books.

In the end, the best way to learn almost anything is to use a combination of these methods.

However, in our society today people have very little patience, so the visual method tends to be what many people prefer because frankly it is easier to apply and use; but in my experience, the “visual” method in the long run is the least effective method for individuals to utilize for retaining and applying new information.

With this being said, the best method for learning in my opinion is reading a well-written book related to the subject matter.

The book should include visual aspects in the material to enhance the learning experience and access to an instructor for reinforcement of the material that is read or it should be written in a manner that presents the material as if the author is actually sitting with the reader and explaining the information.

Therefore, my answer “it depends” regarding the question of what is the best way to learn SEO can be summarized this way.

“The best way to learn SEO is by reading an SEO book that is well written and covers the entire realm of SEO at the level of the actual reader so that a clear understanding can be conveyed. Hence, for beginners to the intermediate level, the material should be written for readers at that level in a manner that is best for them to learn SEO, which would be different than a book written for an advance SEO reader.”

The main problem with reading SEO related books is that most of the books and ebooks sadly are not well written and the information is usually written in a manner that is not designed for the reader to learn but only for the reader to apply what was read. You or no one else can learn this way. It is easy to write a book; but is very hard to write a well-written book that helps an individual learn new material.

If you want to learn SEO, you need to read a good SEO book and/or ebook that actually provides the search engine optimization material in a comprehensive manner and also provides the material in an easy to read, easy to understand, effective and easy to apply manner for real world situations.

Don’t fall victim to the hype. If you want to learn SEO, it will take time. A two-day SEO workshop, SEO videos and/or SEO online classes will not help you learn SEO. You can learn to apply specific information using these methods; but you will not learn SEO.

Search engine optimization is much more than a few techniques or tips. SEO is a field of expertise, which requires a strong understanding of all aspects related to SEO before you can truly learn SEO. Thus, it will take time. Remember, Rome was not built in a day.

If you want to learn SEO, you will need to do it the old fashion way by reading and applying the material from a good SEO book and/or ebook.

Remember when you were in grade school, middle school, high school and/or college were you ever just given a CD, video, two-day workshop or other similar methods to learn a subject? No, I will guess that you learned primarily from books or material derived from a book presented by an instructor.

On this note, a well-written SEO book, by an author, that presents the material as if he or she is talking to you can be the substitute for an instructor; but you will still need to read the book and apply what you learn. This has been a time-tested method of learning for hundreds of years around the world. The method will not fail you; however, you can fail the method.

Learn SEO by reading a very good SEO book today.

You can determine the SEO book to purchase and read by carefully reviewing the promotional material for the SEO book, reading objective book reviews regarding the SEO book, comparing the prices of the various SEO books, making sure that you purchase a book that is written to actually teach SEO and finally purchase an SEO book that provides a money back guarantee in case the book does not meet your expectations.

However, remember that you should never take advantage of a money back guarantee. The author worked hard to write the book. If you actually benefited from reading the book or ebook, don’t ask for a refund just because you do not want to pay for the book. Always remember that what comes around goes around. Treat people fair and be honest in your dealings with others.

Read a well-written and comprehensive SEO book or ebook.

Eric Brown

SEO Tips 4 U

[http://www.seotips4u.com]

info@seotips4u.com

Learn SEO Today

Article Source: EzineArticles.com

Although they may sound similar, SEO content providers and SEO writers are actually quite different in practice when it comes to search engine optimization. While it’s true that they both provide valuable services to website owners or similar, there’s actually one main area where the two are completely different – and it’s in the name itself. Whereas SEO writers will generally write articles for a website or blog, SEO content providers will also look at the overall SEO of a website to maximize its SEO visibility.

Writing SEO

To really understand the difference, you need to know what an SEO writer is. Whether it’s for their own website or blog, or creating articles for a client’s website, blog or even article directory like EzineArticles.com, an SEO writer usually only writes keyword rich articles. That’s not to lessen their worth – far from it, since SEO writers need to know how to distribute keywords effectively throughout their articles.

However, SEO writing is completely different from SEO content writing – after all, an article for a website or submission site can be on pretty much any topic that the writer or client wishes. It may be that the writer wishes to be known as an expert on a certain niche, so they write keyword rich articles to place on their blog or similar. Nothing wrong with this at all – but it’s a far cry from being an SEO content provider.

The SEO Content Provider Difference

While a good SEO writer may make for a decent SEO content provider, a decent SEO content provider will always make for a good (if not excellent) SEO writer. This isn’t said from a “mightier than thou” position either – it’s simple writing economics.

This is down to the different and more expansive roles that an SEO content provider has to fill. Not only do they need to provide strong, keyword rich and SEO-friendly articles and content, they also need to:

• Enhance the overall SEO of the website in question
• Work in conjunction with the website’s URL and meta tags for increased SEO performance
• Constantly provide fresh and relevant content to maintain SEO performance and visibility
• Be aware of the competition’s SEO and marketing methods
• Combine the SEO potential of website and complementary blog(s)

When you take into account the various roles that an SEO content provider brings to the online marketing table, you can see why there’s a vast difference between top SEO writers and top SEO content providers. Agreed, they both have their places and will continue to do so. However, to truly maximize your online visibility and presence there’s no competition – while an SEO writer will give you good keyword articles, for maximum results you need to look at using the services of dedicated SEO content providers and consultants.

SEO Content Providers has but one goal – to provide affordable, high quality SEO content for websites and blogs. Whether you’re an individual, professional or business you can be sure that your SEO content projects are handled professionally and punctually. Choose us for your next project and see for yourself the SEO Content Providers difference.

Article Source: EzineArticles.com

Introduction – If you are still learning about search engine optimization (SEO), you are probably a bit confused about the difference between on-site and off-site SEO strategies. On-site tactics are more straight-forward for the beginner and are probably written about the most. I thought I would write an article and cover what I’ve learned. This pool of SEO knowledge comes from working with about 10 clients and another 10 personal web sites over an 18 month period.

To anyone with an SEO background, there are certain basic on-site SEO tasks that any web master, business owner, or Internet Marketer needs to be aware of. These include the following major components:

1) Title Tags - The title tag in your HTML meta code is the tag that tell the browser what to display in the title of the window at the very top of the screen. Because this text is so visible to the user, Google likes to rely heavily on this text as a clue as to what your page is about. As a result, it is a really important SEO strategy that your title tag be filled with keywords that are appropriate to the content of the web page. Furthermore, you really don’t want the same title tag on every page. This is not good for SEO. Instead, you want to have different keyword phrases in your title tags that properly identify the theme of that particular page. Remember, you are trying to help the search engines easily digest your content. That’s basically what SEO is. You want to aid them in their understanding of what this page is really about.

2) The first H1 tag - Similar to the title tag, Google will look at the first H1 text to appear on your page as a strong signal as to what the page is about. Use it wisely. Again, you want to place keyword phrases here that are thematically related to what the information on the page is conveying to the end-user.

3) The name of the page itself - As you name your pages in your web site, use plain English as much as possible for SEO. You will notice that WordPress uses this extensively in their blog software. This is no accident and WordPress is considered the best blog for SEO. For example, http://example.com/?On-Site-vs-Off-Site-SEO-tactics&AID=22 will perform much better for SEO than http://example.com/?AID=22. Why? Because there is descriptive text in the longer version of the page name that helps the search engine know what the page is about. Many people have written about issues around “dirty links” and SEO (links including system variable data such as AID=22 in the example above). I think it is better if you can design your system without any variable data at all. It just takes this SEO issue away. And it’s just easier for the search engines. It’s also easier for the end-user. However, there is no problem promoting pages via SEO with variable data in the links. I’ve been able to make both fly using the same SEO tactics with no problems. The search engines are smart enough by now to manage through that variable data. Just make sure your plain English is in there.

4) Keyword meta tag - This tag used to get a ton of play for SEO, but is now largely ignored by the search engines. I believe it fell out of favor due to manipulation and misuse. It is a tag that is not seen by the end-user, so unscrupulous web masters abused it and it became less-and-less important for SEO. Real SEO tactics don’t abuse or deceive. I still populate my keyword tags because I believe they are still looked at, but I don’t believe they are very critical. If nothing else, it’s another instance of your keywords. They all help SEO.

5) Description meta tag - This tag is still useful, but probably more for Yahoo and MSN. Since you will be in this part of your web site anyway to get the Title right, you might as well make this variable-driven as well and make the description appropriate to the page. Again, it can’t hurt SEO.

6) Keyword Density - This is very important for SEO. Keep in mind that the search engines are just large computer programs digesting your site and trying to figure out what it is about. One of the simplest things they do is to count up all the words and look for repeats. They then calculate percentages, or densities, of specific 1-word, 2-word and 3-word phrases that are found in your text. By looking at the most popular keyword phrases, their programs understand the important themes of your page. If you observe your own writing on a specific subject, you will see the patterns as well. I don’t recommend that you write solely with keyword density in mind as it will result in lower quality content. However, I also don’t recommend that you completely ignore keyword density in your content creation. My preferred approach is to write content straight-up for the first draft. Then, as you edit for grammar, consistency, and clarity, also edit for density. Run your content through a density checker and see what phrases are used the most. Make adjustments accordingly so that your top themes / keyword phrases are showing up between 2-4% of the time. But don’t do this to the extent that anything reads as unnatural. You need to always keep your audience in mind.

7) Outbound links - What your page links to matters, in terms of both the quality and quantity of links. As you build links out of your page, be specific about where they go. Don’t link to low-quality or bad-neighborhood sites. Also watch your number of links. Generally, the less the better. However, having no outbound links is not always good. I believe Google uses your outbound links as a way to position your site in the vast weave that is the Internet. Often times, Google can get a good feeling about what your site is about just by looking at who you link to. So again, select these links wisely understanding they will actually impact your SEO.

High-quality, original, content - I probably should have put this first because it can’t be stressed enough for SEO. Your site needs to provide high-quality and original content. You will read this maybe a hundred times as you research SEO. Content is king. And I firmly believe this to be true. If you are under the impression that the internet is so big that search engines can’t identify content as really unique, guess again. One afternoon spent playing with CopyScape will convince you that there is technology available today that is able to tell you if any given sentence has been repeated anywhere on the Internet. It’s staggering, actually, when you really think about that. The volumes of data are just outrageous. But if CopyScape can do it, I’m betting that Google can do it also. And I firmly believe that your site receives a positive bump when Google determines that the content is original. Many people have asked me if using content that is repeated on other sites will penalize the site. I believe the answer is no, you will not be penalized by Google (copyright infringement is a completely different and very serious legal topic that I won’t go into today). But I also believe that you won’t get where you want to be by using content that already has high mileage. The other hot debate related to how sites using duplicate content can actually rank higher than the site where the content originated from. Yes – This has been demonstrated empirically a bunch of times. But you don’t need to be too concerned with that for reasons we will get into later. Just keep your eye on the ball. Put in the time, energy and creativity it takes to create unique content and you will be rewarded. Plain and simple.

9) Appropriate amounts of content - Somewhat different from #8 is the issue of how much content to put on your site for good SEO. I don’t believe there is a single magic answer as each site has a different objective. But as far as SEO goes, I generally believe the more the better (assuming you are following #8). Give those hungry spiders as much food for thought as you possibly can. But let me also qualify that statement. You need ensure that your content doesn’t stray too far from the core message of your site. If it does, this can create confusion around what your site is really about. Tightly focused sites perform much better than more generically focused sites. For example, a site selling used Honda Civics that uses appropriate SEO strategies will probably get ranked higher and faster than a more generalized site selling all types of used cars. This is a generic statement, and there are many exceptions, but it’s a reasonable place to start your thinking about niches and themes.

For more on SEO, visit HubShout.com.

Article Source: EzineArticles.com