I think there’s a lot of misconceptions about SEO; What it is and how hard it is.

Personally I just see it as following rules and never like to admit people as experts on it as it’s always changing and I don’t think it’s hard enough a field to have experts in.

I’ve always done fine in search engines and have never needed to get an ‘expert’ to use their special powers to do it for me. It’s literally as simple as following instructions. As long as you keep up with what’s good and what’s not, it’s all good.

Some basic SEO pointers from a non-SEO-expert:

• Write clear, descriptive, keyword friendly page titles. Never compromise viral ability or site integrity for search results though.
• Write short, effectively distinguishable, relevant META tags.
• Write quality content. If you can, fit keywords naturally into your rhythm but again, don’t force it. If it happens or, you can make it happen naturally, do it. But great content will result in great backlinks, which in the long run are much better practice for your SEO.
• Use no-follow on links you do not trust or links you do not feel are relevant. But in my opinion, if you have to use no-follow, why are you linking that link anyway? I only ever link to relevant sites or sites that I deem trustworthy quality.
• Use image tags on all your images. I have found images to be pretty effective SEO wise. On one of my first posts I was the very first Google Image result for ‘YouTube Logo’ in a post about YouTube. Just because I used that as the image title tag. I foolishly changed this image and I never got that position back but on some of my other sites, I cover a lot of the first few pages of Google Images with image results for decent, relevant keywords.
• Use a redirect on your URL to have it point to one only; It should only ever point to http://www.yoursite.com or http://yoursite.com so that if someone types one of them, it will go to the other. If you don’t do this then search engines will treat your 1 domain as 2 domains; Defining http://www.yoursite.com and http://yoursite.comas separate sites. This isn’t good, you will get different pageranks and it will weaken the overall SEO effect of your site.
• Do NOT make any paid posts or sell links, Google will punish you. If you don’t care about PR, as I don’t, don’t worry. But if you do and you do either of these, expect a bitchslap from Google.

Moral of the story is, don’t pay anyone to do your SEO. It’s not worth it. A lot of so called ‘experts’ charge ridiculous amounts per hour to do easy work, stuff you could do yourself with minimal effort.

There are some legitimately good SEO people out there such as Aaron Wall - creator of the SEO Book. He genuinely knows a lot about SEO and I believe he genuinely likes to promote the development of it and help the knowledge of it grow amongst webmasters. I own his SEO Book and it’s definitely the best stuff I’ve read on the subject. That being said, there wasn’t too much in there that I didn’t know or wouldn’t deem easily findable for free. But, it’s still a very nice SEO guide and collection of links and helpful tips. I recommend reading it just for the knowledge expansion.

I know this title is a little provoking as there are a lot of people who base their careers on this subject and me saying ‘It’s easy’ does sound a little disrespectful. I don’t mean it to be perceived quite like that though, I just mean; It’s really not as hard as you may think and with a little research and effort, you can be a self-proclaimed expert on it much easier than you could be…. an affiliate expert.

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Here we go. Second part in the saga. I say saga but that actually means a series of novels or stories. Can hardly call each one of these posts novels now can we! But I don’t care, saga sounds nice. I’m going to call the series a saga.

I’m not going to bore you with the same old cliche speech on content. Yes we all know it’s important and we all know (and I feel sick I’m about to say this annoyingly over used quote) CONTENT IS KING. There we go, a bit of vomit just dribbled willingly down my chin.

So, how do you make great content that is also good SEO wise? Keep reading…

Know Your Audience

In order to write content that will humor, inspire, motivate or in some way capture your audience. You need to know your audience. Which is why you need to know your niche. If you know nothing about Internet marketing but you’re trying to make money via Internet marketing, fine. But don’t write about it as if you’re a pro because people will see through it.

Writing Great Content

So, how do you write great content that will both satisfy your readers and Google. It’s incredibly simple - forget about Google.

Write for humans. Write quality, thought out, well produced, grammatically sound content and you will get a flood of high quality backlinks, if you market your content accordingly.

No need to try and slip keywords in here and there. Forget about it, Googlebots crawl your page but there are many aspects. More important aspects, that contribute to your SERPS. Such as; quality backlinks, general mention, overall originality, quality and unique output as well as other things I’m sure.
It’s a whole combination of things and nobody really has the faintest idea what Google really looks for in order to assort their complex algorithm. So don’t bother trying to figure it out, just have fun and produce great content to the best of your ability.

Keyword Dropping

Although I don’t agree with it as it’s just dancing to Google’s tune and possibly compromising your content along the way. Keyword dropping can help.

But if you’re going to do it. Do it naturally, don’t stuff keywords because Google are smart and they will see through that too.

For a nice mini-tutorial on how to naturally drop keywords or at least an opinion on it. Check out this post I did on it way back last year.

Final Thoughts

I think bloggers have almost claimed the word content. Don’t forget - blogging is a very small segment of the Internet. There are much bigger and more creative ways to put out media and content. By far.

This SEO saga is sort of aimed mainly towards bloggers as that’s mainly my audience and this is somewhat a blog about blogging. But I wouldn’t call myself a blogger by a long shot. I started off making pure content sites. Text, music, videos, images etc. As well as pure community sites and interactive platforms like; forums, image galleries and so on.

Never tie yourself down to one specific medium or format. Just do what you want and be creative as possible whilst having as much fun as possible.

Next in the series? Meta Tags

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Over the next few days I’ll be covering SEO as a whole. I haven’t gone too much into SEO on this blog as I’m not really an SEO enthusiast but I think it’ll be nice to break down the basics in a nice series.

So let’s get into the first post in this series; page titles.

Why Do We Use Page Titles?

I think the best thing we can do first in this break down is establish why we use page titles. Let’s go back to pure basics.

Well, page titles help people see what a page is about before they visit it. Simple as that. I believe, personally that relevance is better than keywords. Meaning, the more relevant you make your page title, the better chance you have of Google placing you higher in the ranks. Also, the better chance you have of people clicking on your page title.

By stuffing your page titles with keywords galore you cheapen the image of your site, page and immediately put forth a perception of spam. People will just intuitively blank page titles like this out as it doesn’t look attractive or explain much.

Remember, the average person, the average web user doesn’t know anything about SEO. Even remotely. Neither do they know about PR or why sites are where they are in search results. All they know is they’ve searched for something and they are going to click on the most relevant title. Subconscious maybe, but true.

What Makes a Good Page Title?

To me, a good page title is one that briefly but perfectly defines a page and one that is 100% relevant.

You need to remember though, what makes a good page title to you aka a web savvy tech who knows about SEO doesn’t necessarily make a good page title to the average person.

It all depends what market you are in and what type of site you own.

If you’re in the Internet marketing niche then it will be, a lot of the time - SEO, web savvy people searching for the things that you provide or write about.

If you own a store selling comedy DVDs for example though. Then even if you know about SEO and how to rank well and think Google are only looking for keywords. Remember that it’s average humans that will be looking for what you provide.

A title such as: RICKY GERVAIS DVD, DVD RICKY GERVAIS, GERVAIS, THE OFFICE. For example. Would be awful! Yes it has a popular comedians name in it numerous times and a relevant association people would often search for with his name.

But, do you think that title is attractive to the average person? Neither do I. They would be more likely to click on something like: Ricky Gervais - The Office DVD.

It’s clean, 100% relevant and has all the keywords you need for Google to gobble up. Difference is, it’s not overkill. It mentions everything, once. That’s all you need.

It’s covers both sides of the fence. Google likes it because it has relevant keywords and the average Joe likes it because it’s exactly what they’re looking for, it says all it needs to say.

How to Write Good Page Titles

It’s not rocket science. It’s very simple actually, there’s no particular skill or art to it. Just write what you see but write it for humans. Yes, make it keyword friendly but NO do not make it stuffed with keywords to try and manipulate search engines.

Well, I say ’search engines’ but let’s face it. Google.

Here are some very simple rules to follow when writing page titles

• Make it as short as you can whilst still fully explaining the nature of said page
• Include relevant keywords in the page title but do not stuff it
• Write for humans
• Use proper grammar

If you search for something. Anything, like a Photoshop tutorial. The results that come up in the first 10 are always the neat and tidy ones that get the point across and are 100% relevant whilst being as compact as possible.

Google likes to display the most relevant pages. But also the highest quality pages first.

Just write what you see. If you have a page explaining how to peel oranges. Call it that.

So something like: How to Peel Oranges

As I’ve already mentioned, using proper grammar is also a plus. It’s not essential in content but in page titles I’d say you have a much better chance of Google ranking you higher and a much better chance of people clicking on your link, if the grammar is readable. It immediately shows you are more professional.

Now, that How to Peel Oranges page title example I just gave. I know, it seems too basic right? Surely there are tons and tons of other pages with the same title that have been indexed and ranked well before me.

You’re right! But this is where content comes in.

I’ll be covering content in Part 2 tomorrow. Stay tuned!

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After the first PR update this blog endured, it was PR2. I then did a few sponsored reviews and a PayPerPost post. The next update this blog then went to PR0!

I think Google may of bitch slapped me for that PayPerPost review.

I don’t care though, PR doesn’t bother me as much as most. It’s nice to have a high PR but it’s not essential to me. What’s more important to me is SERPs, viral buzz, general awareness and credibility within the given niche.

I’m hopefully going to build that over time with this blog. I hope I’ve built some sort of credibility already but it takes a long time to gain all round respect and awareness, especially in the Internet marketing niche.

I should have a good PR though given relevant mention within this niche. I’ve got quality backlinks ranging from PR2 - PR6, all genuine, non-payed, quality backlinks to inbound pages ranging back way last year.

I have also read elsewhere that Google have gone after PayPerPost, so they must have set my PR back to zero as people are suggesting they are doing. Personally I just think that’s stubborn and petty. It’s like they don’t want anyone else to make money.

If a blogger tries to earn some cash, they bitch slap em, if an Adsense publisher makes too much they say they’re cheating. They can have sponsored links but we can’t? 

I don’t care though. Up yours Google, you evil people. Lol

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Just to let anyway who doesn’t know already. A Google PR Update has happened.

This blog is now a PR2

So anyone who didn’t know, go check your PR, you might be happier

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There’s a lot of speculation, worry and curiosity about the supposed upcoming so called ‘PageRank Downgrade’ meaning Google will get rid of PageRank altogether.

Some think it’s happening because of link farms, manipulation, link selling, John Chow. You name it. Here’s what I think… I couldn’t care less!

I know it’s all relevant in the context of link selling. And if you’re a webmaster who does sell links then you may be worried as your PR was one of the defining factors in link sales.

But, think about it. It’s just a number, the only reason it seems important is because Google are so huge. Google are the biggest search engine and one of the biggest sites on the net, they generate a monster income and are just… huge.

If they want to abolish PR, so be it. I could not care less. All I care about it providing quality content, making quality websites and trying to generate income. PR only seems relevant in link selling evaluation because we and Google have made it that way.

Solution = make it irrelevant.

Start selling based on quality and traffic.

PR has never mattered to me much to be honest. I think it just becomes an obsessive figure in people’s minds which they feel they must improve more and more. They worry about obscure little SEO details and make delusional accusations towards Google about lowering their PR due to this and that. It’s become almost a statistical paranoia!

I say, forget about it. Worry about quality, user experience and traffic. The rest will fall into place.

Goodbye Google PageRank!

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I think one of the most instantly advantageous things you can do as a… blogger I suppose, is to anticipate what people will search for. Of course people are doing this more and more now so it’s alot harder to be the first there, but if you’re persistent and obsessive enough it can be done.

If you own a blog about TV say, think up all of the most popular worldwide TV shows possible, write them down and anticipate what people will search for in a week or a month. If you can do that before anyone else, you will usually land an instant top spot in the search engines when people do start searching for that because you were already there before it was being searched for.

Now obviously given that this isn’t anything new and alot of people do it these days you need to be quick. And maybe doing it with gigantically popular things isn’t always the best option as sometimes even if you get there first there will be so many people doing it and so much media coverage from large media sites that you may still not get there.

But, still experiment. Also try and find niche things that are still popular enough to be avidly searched for amongst a curve of people but not so popular that saturation is an instant give.

You can even take it to the extreme and start buying domains years before future events that you know will be huge, like the Olympics. Then start blogging on them way before anyone else.

I don’t do this enough myself either and actually the idea for this post actually sparked the intention of me following up with it so I will also start doing this more. I think it’s a great thing to do.

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Since this is my first blog as I have always had targeted sites, this is my first experience with really diversing and typing naturally and often. And one primary thing i’ve noticed is how the best way to get ranked, well, is to just type for humans. It’s been said over and over and it’s true, don’t write to optimize for search engines because for a start it wont read completely naturally to the average person. And if it’s Internet pros reading your blog then it’ll be obvious and they’ll just read another blog. It wont become anodyne reading because it’ll be to formal and everyone writes like it, they try and drop in relevant keywords, they plan to. Which is fine, obviously optimize to a degree, SEO is a good thing. But I think focusing more on that than the issue of making your writing original and fresh is wrong.

If you write naturally and let it flow as it comes, it will seem spontaneous and fresh to people reading it therefore making it better to read. Which is the reason I don’t edit much at all once a post is finished. I type and let what comes out come out so it’s as spontaneously written as possible, doing this also helps your brain diverse as much as possible, naturally, whilst staying relevant therefore dropping in keywords naturally without noticing. Also you’d be surprised what people search for and what you can get picked up on maybe not because of PR or backlinks but simply because your content is so unique that Google prefers it to the copied, duped and predictable stuff.

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I think alot of people these days try to apply too much complex SEO and do alot of manipulative techniques assuming that it’s really that hard to get high rankings. I’ve ranked #1 for targeted keywords using nothing but basic SEO. Here are a few things to remember with websites, basic SEO that will get you to the top, if the market is not too over saturated.

1. Domain Name - Buy a domain name, which is virally sound n by that I mean. Sounds natural to humans, don’t buy one purely for SEO strategy. Get one with one or two keywords, quite short.

2. Meta Tags - People seem to think these are useless now as if search engines discard them automatically because of all the malicious ways they’ve been used. They don’t, they simply have ways of assuming which meta tags are spam. It’s simple, do your meta tags properly, search engines regard them highly alot of the time still today if they’re not abused. Use a small number of very related keywords. Write a detailed, short, natural description. That’s it.

3. Good File Names - If you are building a purely html / css site. This can do wonders for the average site. Name your html files appropriately - simple and keyword orientated. Also sites usually rank better when keywords are uncluttered and appear in order. You’ll often find if a keyword appears first in a title it ranks higher. It can be that simple.

4. Good Browser Titles - Probably the most effective way to improve rankings. Decent browser titles, spell everything correctly and do not put unneeded keywords there. Simplicity is the key, it’s one of the primitive things that lets people know what the page is about. Write for humans but include keywords appropriately.

5. Quality, Unique Content - Don’t ever be tricked into thinking scraping content endlessly and paying for content creation will get you far. You might make a quick few dollars here and there but it will not last. Search engines are constantly weeding out trash sites with ‘duped’ content and they will continue to get smarter. So as they do, you should do to and the only way to get smarter is to start creating quality, unique content NOW so that in years to come, it’ll still be there. Still earning.

You don’t need to know much more. It’s really not that complicated, people just like to make out it is to sound smart and sell you pointless products. Follow these rules wholeheartedly and take them as rule of thumb. Focus, make free, quality content, monetize traffic and you will soon see results.

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Rand Fishkin shows you how you can move people’s rankings down a few by exploiting Google’s love for Wikipedia!

Spotted on Shoemoney.com

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