SEO Tycoon

**andrewbowe** · 09-22-2006, 05:51 PM

I was wondering what everyone thought was the most important part of SEO and which one will bring a website the most traffic.

Also are there any great free ebooks that go into detail about SEO.

**vangogh** · 09-22-2006, 06:25 PM

Andrew I'm not sure if there's any one specific aspect of SEO that's the most important for bringing traffic. It all really works together. If I had to pick one I'd say having a site with good content, since it's the foundation for everything else.

Backlinks are very important and become more important as the keywords you are targeting get more competitive. Of course choosing the right keywords is important as well.

To me the basics are doing keyword research, building a site with good content that is easy for both people and search spiders to navigate and then work on link building.

As for ebooks there are some. I think the one from SEO Research Labs is pretty good, though it is a couple of years old. I wrote a simple tutorial that covers what I consider to be the basics. It's not an ebook, but it's a quick read.

If you search I'm sure you can fnd some decent ebooks though much of the latest information will be found on forums and blogs. It can be hard to know what is true and what isn't. It's best to think about seo more like traditional marketing. If you try to look for magic formulas or think seo is a quick path to the top you can go off track.

Hope that helps.

**stOx** · 09-22-2006, 06:36 PM

I would agree with steve with regards to the content being the most important aspect.
You can do everything else to perfection, But if the site has no decent content or provides no decent service people will 1) not come back and 2) not tell thier friends about it.

Good content is also link worthy, So if you have good content the second most important aspect, Backlinks, will happen naturally and you will find yourself getting some very good one way text links from some very important trustworthy sites.

**ANGELSP** · 09-22-2006, 06:44 PM

The most important aspect of seo is that seo is not the most important aspect.

**mgarde** · 09-22-2006, 11:19 PM

Like everyone above me has stated, along with Matt Cutts & other Googlers, I hear good content is most important. After that I would suggest that properly displaying that information. Like using <H1>...<P> rather then <font>

**ADAM Web Design** · 09-22-2006, 11:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ANGELSP

The most important aspect of seo is that seo is not the most important aspect.

As weird as this quote sounds and as ***-backward to some extent, it's also absolutely right.

The quest for high rankings is a lot like the quest for perfection: the harder we try, the further we usually find ourselves from our goal.

Focus on your design and content (i.e. your site as a whole). Maximize your user experience. Try to make it as valuable a resource as possible. That, a little self-promotion, and your SEO will come.

**vangogh** · 09-23-2006, 11:47 AM

Adam I thought the same thing you did when I read ANGELSP's quote. It sounds off, but it's really right. The best way to find your site ranking well is to build a site that provides a valuable user experience. Yes the site will need a little self promotion like you say, but if you've made it a good experience word about it will spread and people will visit your site.

**FastNext** · 09-23-2006, 01:35 PM

I consider right keywords + quality content + inbound links to be the most important things in SEO.

**andrewbowe** · 09-23-2006, 02:52 PM

alot of you say that having good content is all you need and a little marketing and SEO but if you took a brand new ebay it would get nowhere without alot of SEO and marketing even though it had good content

**stOx** · 09-24-2006, 11:21 AM

When was the last time you see a big advert for slashdot, digg or youtube?

**vangogh** · 09-24-2006, 02:25 PM

Andrew the reason we all mentioned good content is you asked what is the most important aspect of seo. If I had to pick one aspect content would be it because it's the foundation from which so much else comes. It will be much easier to promote good content than it will be to promote poor content.

I don't know that having an ebay store constitutes good content in and of itself. It certainly could, but just listing products for sale isn't an automatic. Part of the idea is to have content that people want to link to. You will need links if you're trying to get found for competitive keywords. Part of the content issue is having something on your site that people want to see. You can have all the traffic in the world, but if there's nothing valuable on the site it won't matter.

There's more to seo than just content true, but for one aspect I'll take good content over anything esle.