Question for you all

[jesifra]

1)This question may sound silly to many of you, but I want to ask it anyway. What does an SEO professional know that the next webmaster doesn't know?

[thebassman]

how to manipulate raknings in search engines.

[webdance]

From what I can work out not a lot....

Many so called SEO's are self proclaimed as that because they are unable to get into the nitty gritty of code and (really) optimize it (at least in this neck of the woods)

They learn early on that when questioned by people to try and humiliate and talk down to or even over when having conversations, let alone the ignore state of mind they come into when someone may challenge them to their ethics or legallities of the project they are working on.

The SEO you are talking of is a beast of a quick buck (there are plenty such specimins here).

I hope you just go out and pick up some real books about programming and don't fall fo the thought of tricking the search engine in providing results that are biased and inaccurate.

HTH

WebDance

[thebassman]

Interesting take, webdance. I don't think you really answered the question, though, except in your lame attempt to insult the members of this site. While I'm not a Professional SEO, nor do I really think there are many good SEO's out there, these days, you can't really be a good webmaster (don't confuse web designer with webmaster) without understanding general SEO concepts. Of course things like 100,000 search engine submissions for $19.95 and guarenteed #1 rankings in 5 days and PR6 after only 1 week promises are obviously from the group of SEO's that you refer to... The difference between your average webmaster, and a webmaster who knows and understands SEO is the difference between a dead site, and a successful one.

[TanyaMartin]

Originally Posted by thebassman

The difference between your average webmaster, and a webmaster who knows and understands SEO is the difference between a dead site, and a successful one.

Very good answer

[webdance]

The difference between your average webmaster, and a webmaster who knows and understands SEO is the difference between a dead site, and a successful one.

The real difference is that people who are self proclaimed SEO's spam forums; real coders and optimizers don't need too.......

[John Scott]

Originally Posted by webdance

The real difference is that people who are self proclaimed SEO's spam forums; real coders and optimizers don't need too.......

To a certain degree, that is true. But then there are people like Aaron Wall who do a great job of optimizing sites without resorting to the really nasty options.


Of course, most SEO's are either incompetent or filthy. But then some aren't, and some have real technical knowledge that comes in handy.

[I, Brian]

Why is building a network of sites somehow filthy? Blogs and co - yes, unpleasant. But owning sites and renting links - nothing wrong in that at all. The surfer has content, the client has anchor text, and the SEO gets a return on their investment. Everybody is happy.

[Johan007]

SEO is not rocket science, the reason there is "professionals" is because the most simple accurate information is very hard to get hold off. I think this is becuase a company employees coders and designer who don’t need to know these skills in the eyes of their employers and is given to poor Marketing bods who don’t have the technical understanding and get scammed my crafty scammers.

Aarons SEO PDF ( www.seobook.com ) is a fantastic guide and well worth the money I paid him. Also John's sticky does a good job.

[imaginemn]

Here is my take.

A SEO's job is to, but not limited to:

• Keyword/search phrase analysis
• Competitor analysis
• Search phrase optimization
• Link building
• Anchor text building
• On page optimization
• Directory listings
• Outgoing link analysis
• ALT text analysis
• Image usage analysis
• Brower compatibility analysis
• Navigation analysis
• Load speed analysis
• Conversion rate analysis
• Optimization of all of the above
• Log file analysis each week (very important)
• Market share analysis
• Determination of sponsorship requirements (can't win 'em all)
• Do it all again.

A Webmaster's job is to, but not limited to:

• Responsible for the development and maintenance of one or more web servers and/or some or all of the web pages at a web site.
• Capable of the design, development, implementation, and maintenance of customer web sites.
• Assist in coordination of web projects and provide guidance to web development team members.
• Responsible for coordination of all division web projects.
• Responsible for accepting design and content of official site web projects.
• Provide oversight of hardware activities related to site webs, and web related issues.
• Coordinate research, testing, and implementation of new web techniques.
• Devise solutions for solving customer problems using customer-furnished computer systems and equipment or commercial off the shelf packages.
• Act as technical expert.
• Design and build web pages using a variety of graphic software applications, and tools.

imaginemn

[jesifra]

OK, I am suprised by the number of answers that I have received so far. I have another question on that same topic. How often does a good SEO change the keywords on his site? Do you think every three months is good? Or How often do you think a good SEO should move keywords around or change around keywords on a site?

[jg_v7n]

If your current optimisation is working for you (ie your #1), then keep evolving and improving it so that you stay ahead of your competitors...

...and if it's not working then keep evolving it until it is.

Originally Posted by imaginemn

[*]Do it all again.

[realestate]

.. and getting popular.. if a site gets popular it will receive thousands of links from disjoint sites. getting popular once is enough.