Climbing up the Search Ladder

j_heisenberg writes "Wired carries a story on SEOs or search engine optimizers. Among some bold claims: traffic is up 6 times and sales double, once you hit the first page of results on major engines. The catch: eventually everyone will use SEOs, and there is only one first page."

Comments

SEO

[chris09876]

Why should I truest oneupweb when they don't have the #1 position for the keywords 'search engine optimization'? :-)

Re:SEO

[Manchot]

Ah yes, but they don't need to optimize their own page. Do the search again, and notice that OneUpWeb is the first sponsored link. And as we learned a few weeks ago, most Google users can't tell the difference between acutal results and sponsored ones.

SEOs Overrated?

[SuperficialRhyme]

Just by using XHTML compliant code and writing in our blog my fiancee and I are the #1 result in Google, Yahoo, and the new MSN search for a wide variety of topics. This includes areas we only talk about in one post or something. Perhaps the $$ and time that people spend on search engine optimization sites/links/etc would be better spent writing proper XHTML?

Our site is http://www.caseyandanna.com [No link, please don't slashdot!]
A few of the common search terms that we see involve: Cinara Aphids, Shrek2 pictures/etc (my typo), Aramark norovirus

Anyway, that's our experience.

Aren't SEO unethical

[The Grey Clone]

Am I the only one who considers SEO unethical, almost to the sense of Nvidia or ATI making drivers that would cheat on benchmark programs? If your page is what someone wants, good, if it isn't, you can pay Google and they'll advirtise it on the side of the page along with all the other junk.

Re:Catalog

[Xzzy]

Suggest it to google. Ask them to make available a "non commercial" front to their engine (suggestions@google.com).

If they can make froogle, they should be able to make an anti-froogle.

I know I'd appreciate it, sometimes I want reviews for hardware but find it difficult to get past all the merchant sites.

Exclude web stores

[tepples]

I'd like to see google be google and froogle be froogle and that be that.

There are some keywords you can tell Google to exclude if you don't want web stores. Try adding -price or -shipping or -checkout to your query.

How shocking !

[ultranova]

A study conducted by a CEO of a SEO company shows that using a SEO company can create a thriving online business, and not using one can mean banckrupty.

In other news: Mafia concludes that not paying them protection money can be hazardous to your health ! Stay tuned for more headlines from the cutting edge of research !

Re:The question is...

[dilvie]

You think so? The truth of it is this: Most websites are not well thought out. Many websites don't even include important keywords anywhere in their page title, heading tags, or even the page content itself!

It's so easy to blow past 90% of your competition on most keywords, it's silly. Only a small fraction of the hottest search buzz keywords are difficult to optimize for, and even in areas with heavy competition, there is a long tail that's fairly easy to grab.

You want to optimize your site, here's the whitehat way, and it's a piece of cake:

• Know which keywords your potential customers are using, and include them in your page titles, headings, and content -- you don't have to do any spamming, just be sure that your landing page is exactly tuned to your customer's searches.
• Develop a site that is worth linking to! Hire a decent designer. Make sure the site works on more than one browser. Provide quality content. Offer a good value.
• Run a blog (update it frequently), provide an RSS feed, and send out pings. Be sure your blog is something that people will actually want to read. Obvious spam doesn't attract inbound links.
• Make sure your site is listed in all the obvious directories, including the local listings like superpages and Yahoo! Local.
• Make it easy for people to link to you. Provide a "link to us" page with (valid) sourcecode.
• Run an AdWords campaign, and be sure to target a wide variety of keyword variations.
• Link to your customers, and ask them to link back to you. Happy customers are an easy way to get hundreds of great inbound links -- more than enough to put your site at the top of most search results.

You don't have to be a blackhat or break the bank to get results.