How to spot an "SEO expert"

The great thing about the web is that there is a vast array of information is accessible to anyone. The downside is knowing how accurate it is.

So it is with SEO (search engine optimisation). There is so much information , but how do you know which bits to focus on. And how much should you believe from someone purporting to be an "SEO expert". Well, it is difficult, there is so much hype and hyperbole floating around it is difficult if not impossible for a lay person to identify what the true path to SEO enlightenment is.

I think one way of narrowing the field down somewhat is to dismiss those who come out with blatant untruths. Some of the most common of which are:

My top SEO myths

1. you need to submit regularly to the search engines to get good results - please don't ever be fooled into paying for this "service"
   
   
2. it's all about the number of links - NO, it's all about the number of QUALITY links. 500 links for $50 from India, would be best spent down the pub
   
   
3. you have to be an insider to be constantly on top of the "Google algorithm". Nope. Admittedly Google does amend it's algorithm regularly, but in my experience the fundamentals don't change. Let the punter (and Google in this case is a punter) know what each of your web pages is about and then get sites that are well regarded link to these pages under your KEYPHRASE and not your domain name. That is the fundamental truth of optimising your website for Google.

Yes there are tweaks and a bit of insider knowledge borne of following good blogs and industry newsletters, but these are more about the icing on the cake and technique rather than an nugget of information that will send your site to the top of Google. And forgive me for only mentioning Google, but I don't know of any othe search engine that's a verb. Yahoo may Yahoo, but I don't know anyone else who does...

Alternative Search engine

When Google is not enough ... | think outside the box

Altsearchengine has just published his "The Top 100 Alternative Search Engines, August"
It is interesting to notice the diversity of those search engines and the variety of the area covered. Among the list :

• Social Powered Search - 50 Match | http://www.50matches.com/


• Clustering search - Kartoo | http://www.kartoo.com


• Social Search - Aftervote | http://www.aftervote.com


• Podcast Search - Blabline | http://www.blabline.com


• Collaborative Search - Yoople! | http://www.yoople.net


• Video Search - Blinkx | http://www.blinkx.com

Keywords Strategy

How to choose your keywords with efficiency

Here is an interesting article giving tips on how to choose your keywords for search engine optimisation.
The better you will choose your keywords the more likely you will increase the traffic to your website.

New Google feature

Google book cover on Google search

When searching a book in Google, the search engine provides now an associated book’s cover. See the article Google’s Custom Books Onebox
In google.co.uk - A search for Graham Greene will display this results.

Paid Links

Paid links or not paid links ....

Here is an interesting discussion from Michael Gray about paid links | it has been displayed at the Search Engine Strategy San Jose.

Following this polemical debate about the paid links, Rand Fishkin from Seomoz interviewed Matt Cutts where the paid links debate raised again.

As you can see it is tricky for Google to enter this debate as a huge part of the company's earnings come from sponsored links and Adsense.
This economic model is threatened by a company that propose sponsored links based on Google model.
Another solution would be to consider partnerships with relevant sector websites where a company looks for a strong link exchange. In that case both companies will benefit from a “free” collaboration.

Website content and statistics

Website content and statistics

This article from the Online publisher association underlines the fact that internet users tends to spend more time on the website looking for content rather spending time searching.
I have founded the link to this article on Sebastien Billard blog. Here is the original article form the Online publisher association
This snapshot of internet use shows that you should carefully choose what to publish on your website to reach the user needs.

Good copywriting practices for search engine optimisation (SEO)

To achieve a good copy there are three things to keep in mind:
a. relevant content
b. a well structured page and
c. a well connected page.

a. Relevant content

The web page content needs a good density of search terms or what is often called ‘key words’.
The aim is not to fill the page with key words, but to have the most important keywords combination in the web page.

Each paragraph should contain several relevant key words and focus on a single topic.

b. Well-structured page

i. Titles, headers and subheaders

It is important to structure each web page by breaking content into smaller topic chunks.
Use headings and subheaders in each web page. These should feature as many key words as possible.

ii. Link practice

- Always try to have explanatory text after a link that describes what the linked page is about.
- Have a relevant anchor text (the text that link to a page)
Here is an example from the guardian edition of the 9th August 2007:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment

Yangtze river dolphin officially extinct
Scientists blame shipping, hunting and fishing for disappearance of one of most endangered species

This is the introduction to the article, a link with a short text next to it. There are 2 things to notice from a Seo point of view:

• The anchor text is very descriptive and includes the main keywords (Yangtze river dolphin officially extinct)


• The semantic field is coherent and rich:


• Hunting / fishing


• Disappearance / extinct / endangered


• Yangtze river dolphin / species

c. Well-connected page

External and internal links to relevant web pages.
A page should be connected to internal and external web pages (others websites).
Each links is pointing to an internal or external relevant web pages that target the chosen keywords combination.
Each anchor text is a keywords combination that link to a page which includes those keywords.

CONCLUSION:

When building a page keep in mind that:
- The copy has to follow a keywords orientation / a semantic field.
- Ideally a paragraph should underline one topic.
- A page has to be structured with title and subtitle that carry the main targeted keywords.
- The anchor links and the text around a link have to be relevant.
- A page should be well networked (links to internal and external pages).

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