Hi All,
Why I am posting this?
There is a huge misunderstanding from users on this forum (and quite frankly the "professionals" in the industry) as to what "Search Engine Optimization" really means and how to execute optimization properly. I want to talk about a few of the key misunderstandings I find in this industry.
Optimizing and Ranking
How a website can rank on Google
There are a lot of theories that float around and quite frankly, it's humorous to watch SEO "experts" try and receive better rankings for their websites without a clue as where to start.
Lets take a look at this link:
http://www.browsermedia.co.uk/2011/0...and-what-next/
It's an article talking about the new Google Panda Update.
Look here:
Quote:
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Panda is a ‘filter’ that is designed to identify what Google believes to be ‘low quality pages’. If there are too many low quality pages, the Panda filter effectively flags the site.
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After reading that article, you should know what "Panda" is and should be able to understand that the update is essentially Google trying to fight spam and provide better search results to it's users.
There is no one thing or "golden answer" to reach a top spot on Google. Changing title tags or posting links alone won't bring your site to number one. Please remember there's a lot that goes into the ranking factor and ultimately is where most fail (professionals included.)
Your Target
Optimizing vs. Promoting
In my opinion, your first step is to memorize this quote from Google's SEO starter guide:
Quote:
Even though this guide's title contains the words "search engine",
we'd like to say that you should base your optimization decisions first
and foremost on what's best for the visitors of your site.
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You need to remember
who you are optimizing your website for. The search engine
computer, or the
human who can convert into a customer or user?
Remember, optimize for the one that can convert (isn't that the goal of trying to rank on a search engine anyways??)
Coming on sites, such as webmaster-talk.com or freelancer.com, and spamming posts to promote your signature advertisement won't really do much for you.
Understand what a good link is and what a bad link is when promoting your website. Posting on either of those sites would be a waste of time as they are nofollows anyways. Just sayin 
Good link vs. Bad link. A links a links a link (something like that
) here is a great article on links:
http://knol.google.com/k/seo-bad-lin...d-great-links#
The website optimizer should understand that link building is promoting, not optimizing.
Optimizing is in the name:
Quote:
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to make as effective, perfect, or useful as possible.
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How does link building, make something
effective,
useful, or
perfect at all? It doesn't. It
PROMOTES your page. You must differ the fine line between the two and remember what Panda's goals/rules are. Yes, you must promote and get the word out (Panda encourages this,) but you cannot spam.
Promoting is:
Quote:
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to help or encourage to exist or flourish.
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Remember the difference between optimizing and promoting.
Other
More common mistakes I have noticed
1. Stop obsessing over getting that one keyword or phrase. You're missing out on so many conversions by not optimizing your entire website for other keywords and phrases. Imagine spending years trying to get one keyword, then Google changes and algorithm and you have nothing...
2. If you want to know the difference between white hat and black hat SEO, please see this important thread:
http://tycoontalk.freelancer.com/seo...hat-white.html
Don't do black hat tactics, you won't win. Simply put.
3. Content is important. Google has one goal, provide the best content in a search query as possible. This most likely will not change thus proving the fact that good content is/always will be important. Past updates, such as Caffeine or any other, always have been about bettering their #1 goal.
http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/03/goo...5-of-searches/
4. Meta Keywords, forget they exist. They don't determine ranking anymore. Times have changed.
Thanks all for reading this. I will add more to it when I see a need and complete misunderstanding for what SEO is. If someone believes I am wrong in this post in any area, please let me know. This is meant to be informative and help those new to SEO who have common questions. Please note, some of this might be opinion based and should take that for grated.
