Getting Started in SEO
Since there is no thing as a certified SEO course as yet, most of the SEO experts have learned their SEO tricks by pouring over tons of SEO literature available on the Internet and by their own trial and error methods. And these people DO get results for themselves and their clients.
In order to optimise your website and appear higher on the search engine result pages (SERPs) you can do two things:
- Hire an SEO expert or an SEO company
- Do your own search engine optimisation
Both the options have their pros and cons. For instance, if you hire an SEO expert, you might end up spending lots of money and still be not happy with the results. On the other hand, if you do it on your own, you’ll spend lots of time learning a highly competitive skill and it may take you years before your website really begins drawing some quality traffic from the search engines. All that lots business can add up to be a huge cost.
Anyway, it’s up to you what course you want to take. In this post we’ll briefly discuss some ways you can improve your SEO skills and then kick start your own SEO campaign.
Interact on the SEO forums
SEO community is a very friendly community (although there is cut-throat competition). There are plenty of high-quality SEO forums on the Internet and a great amount of information-exchange happens in these forums. Some are free and some (especially that apply the black hat SEO tactics) charge a premium fee. It depends on what level of information you are currently seeking. My favourite forum is SEOchat.
Visit SEO blogs
Again, there are plenty of SEO blogs and many of them are run by highly successful SEO gurus. In fact, for learning better, even you should start an SEO blog. This way, you can organize everything you are learning, and discuss things with your blog readers. This not only helps you learn, but also helps you share your knowledge and hence, expand your circle of like-minded friends.For a good informative SEO blog try SEOmoz.
Write clean code for your website
This you can do even without learning SEO. If you keep your source code clean and follow the W3C recommendations half of your battle is already won. The search engines love websites that contain less code and more content. Talking of content…
Generate lots of relevant content
I can never stress enough the importance of relevant content in order to achieve higher rankings on the search engines. Your content gives you a head start when you start your SEO content because the search engines prefer websites containing valuable, relevant content.
Buy SEO books
Most of the SEO books are e-books and only one or two are the good ones. But you’ll have to use your own judgment before you purchase an SEO book. Do some research on the Internet and try to find out what experience people have had with various SEO books and e-books and only then make a purchase.
These are a few small, but significant steps towards your own SEO efforts. Apply them for, say, 5 months, and you’ll definitely see some good results.
Today is July 6, 2008
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Maybe I should send my clients who are reluctant to pay my fees to this page
Surely there are never clients out there that are reluctant to pay
Joking aside, 90% of my work is done on a monthly basis paid for by standing order. Also, I usually sign 12 month minimum contracts, thereafter 6 months rolling.
I find that clients that are not willing to invest long term, are best left to others. At the end of the day the cliche you only get out of it what you put in to it applies, and this works both ways.
Point you reluctant payers in the direction of the Small Claims Court.
SEO is quite easy, i think if anyone WANTS to learn the skill they can without a problem. I looked at the few examples you gave and seen a few flaws, for example with the content comment, make sure the content is UNIQUE aswell as relevant.
I personally wouldn’t waste my money buying SEO books for the simple fact that there is plenty of excellent information you can find on the web, via SEO forums or blogs like here.
Back Links!! probably just as equally important as content, make sure you get relevant links i.e. if you have a travel site you would source links from sites that are related to travel, travel accessories, airport parking etc etc.
Hi Lee,
I think this is your first post on Phoenixrealm, it is good to hear from you.
Many thanks for your advice.
I also took a look at www.searchlogic.com - nice site.
Cheers,
Gary.