SEO GO.
SEO RULES-THERE ARE NO RULES.
By, Anthony Johnson (CIM)
My name is Anthony
I’m going to translate the SEO (blind you with science) language for you.
Everywhere you look there is an SEO company/person telling you the secrets of Google listings and how to get you site in the top ten.
I’m going to tell you the small print under these claims and maybe (if I get enough interest in this blog)
Actually advise you with no strings and no small print how to try and do it.
I have written this as I have worked hard over the past ten years to learn and do a job in this industry successfully, I am now getting a tad fed up with people who have been in it for 15 minutes read a forum for 10min then think they are a SEO. Most of the advice you read is very out of date and not even relevant anymore, you also need to be wary of the 15 min SEO as they could put you out of business with 1 small piece of advise and will not have indemnity insurance to cover this!!
Lets start with the first 3 useless bits of SEO freely given and supposedly secret rules, which can be found on almost every SEO forum or blog from the year 2000 just rewritten 50.000 times to suit the 15min SEO.
“You need to optimise your page ”
Oh yes that old vague chestnut, while the phrase is correct what does it mean? It bears no meaning or solution to your SEO problem if you’re a novice hence this is called blinding with science to a novice and pot luck to a DIY.
Even if you are a competent DIY SEO then it can lead you down a garden path of trial and error till you find out that it not quite a simple as knowing this rule, but being able to implement it and evolve it in to what each individual site needs and which niche it comes in.
Over my next few blogs I will break it all down into meaning and explain exactly what this is and how to either do it yourself or a least understand the theory so you can have a webmaster to implement the changes for you.
Summary, If you are passionate about something and you design a website the same way, you will have no problem covering the above yourself just by writing ideas about it, A good SEO should then help you with guidance and programming but not changes to what you really want, otherwise this then makes your site the same as all the other that’s have been SEO’ed as they have been hypnotised into these Stupid rules!!
“Page rank essential ”
Page rank? I have seen sites with a PR of 1 on Google above a site with PR 6 so page rank is old news I do believe that some SEO company’s/persons use this as to why sites are not where they should be after they have worked on them NOT TRUE!, Google and others Search Engines are for ever evolving the only way to know this is if you are experienced enough to notice. I don’t want to get into my company and the sites we work with, this is not a sales pitch, but when you have worked with so many the changes become as plain as if written by the search engines and delivered via first class post!
“lots of good quality links is a must”
Links: this is a really difficult area to explain years ago this was key to the rise or fall of a website, but not so much lots and quality this is just a cheat way for the person doing your SEO to say “look, I have got your site from 50 visits up to 10,000? But what good would a pr 7 site about USA aero space do for your restaurant website in the UK? All you need is relevant links, sites which have a reason why they should link to you, no mater the Page rank, I have tested the theory and as long as a site has all the other attribute the search engine is looking for then it should still hold a strong position, I thinks its more of a get out clause, for all software generated/lazy SEO’s, you pay for the software then you do all what is asks of you then right at the end the one thing the software can not do is build links for you so with statements like GET LISTED TOP 10 ON GOOGLE WITH THIS SOFTWARE is a bit of a bold statement considering once you have finished all the other items they have suggested it says you need more then more then more links to be top 10, well if this is the case the software didn’t get me top 10 did It? I did it by building all these links!!! Actually some of the software packages are a good guide and can be very helpful to a novice but nothing more, anyway back to the links, This is the pain staking part of the job you must do! this depends again what market you are catering for, just a few links from other areas in the same niche is just as good as 10,000 links from www.wasteyourmoney.crook but only if your site is good and original and if you take time to look at the site you want a link from and where and what keyword and descriptions. There are sooo many factors you need to consider which is why I hate these rules so much! I have a site I’m working on now, its in the top ten for the hardest search term to get listed for in the UK, I can tell you that the top 5 have all taken a different approach to getting there place now maybe this is the key one has 60,000 links another only 275 how do you explain this? Is it to be different from the rest? This is what I will be discussing over the next few blogs. I think the days of copying the Title and description of the leading competitor then changing it a bit has all but gone, Google is far to intelligent for that.
Summary: Now im not saying do not link as they are a good way to get visitors but you want visitors who want to see what you offer not just anyone and again this is a big factor as the time someone stays on your site indicates the site quality or interest. So just links from sites that have an interest or connection with what you do never mind the Page Rank.
