What Is The Single Best Thing You Know About SEO?

[Bill Slawski]

Start thinking more about information extraction (presenting information in attribute:value pairs, using intelligent labels, etc.), and less about tf/idf (though learn the basics about how search engines work).

Start paying more attention to how recommendation systems work, and less about a broad relevancy (java can be an island in Indonesia, a cup of coffee, or a programming language - with no two serps alike - depending upon the searcher).

While search engines are still concerned about keyword matching, the movement is towards fulfilling information needs, and providing individualized recommendations.

[peter_d]

Hey Bill

For those who don't know Bill, he writes the excellent blog seobythesea.
www.seobythesea.com

Bill knows everything there is to know about search engine patents, and his detailed and thoughtful analysis provides clues on how the algos may change in future.

[Cricket]

It's a pleasure to meet you Bill!

[Ferre]

Welcome onboard Bill.

[Bill Slawski]

Bill knows everything there is to know about search engine patents, and his detailed and thoughtful analysis provides clues on how the algos may change in future.

Thanks, Peter. There are always surprises, though.

The pleasure is mine, Cricket. Appreciate the welcome, Ferre.

[Brave7]

Hello,

Very interesting post and good question, but let's take a look at this one:

What is the best thing you can recommend us at a reasonnable budget? because if you spend more money in SEO then what you can make, there is only SEO for the big guys, as usual the little guys like me will be out of business.

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by Natural Elements

What is the best thing you can recommend us at a reasonnable budget? because if you spend more money in SEO then what you can make, there is only SEO for the big guys, as usual the little guys like me will be out of business.

It doesn't cost anything to write excellent content that people WANT to link to naturally.

[Bill Slawski]

Beyond what Cricket suggests, you may want to start looking into learning how to use things like Google Base for sites that have products, and learn how to optimize well for local search for businesses that have locations associated with them.

Those may present some opportunities to you that bigger businesses aren't taking advantage of yet.

[Brave7]

Originally Posted by Cricket

It doesn't cost anything to write excellent content that people WANT to link to naturally.

As you can see English is not my first language. I am using the services of a wonderful copywriter, and she does a great job, but people don't WANT to link to naturally.

Any other suggestions Cricket? thanks :-)

Thanks Bill, but I don't have a brick and mortar business, only working online for now.

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by Natural Elements

As you can see English is not my first language. I am using the services of a wonderful copywriter, and she does a great job, but people don't WANT to link to naturally.

Any other suggestions Cricket? thanks :-)

Thanks Bill, but I don't have a brick and mortar business, only working online for now.

First step is to know who your specific target audience is, then you can create a plan based on what your target audience has in common.

• Are you blogging?
• Submitting to quality directories?
• Do you have a free service you can offer in exchange for links?
• Are you actively participating in forums and discussion groups where your target audience hangs out? (Using your signature)
• Can you find some quality blogs that might be looking for a guest article that you could include your signature link in?

What makes your site different than all of the other sites out there that offer the same thing that you do? What can you give your target audience that no one else in your business does? Do you offer decorating ideas for your products? Do you offer gift giving tips for your baskets? These types of things will bring in some natural links.

[Halfdeck]

I guess this is my first post here.

Domain Authority is overrated, as I wrote here:

[link removed]

I proved it by outranking v7n for both "free seo course" and "seo course" with a new page on a TBPR 4 domain:

[link removed]

How? A few links from Michael Martinez's Lord of the Rings/Sci Fi sites did the trick (note I asked Michael to remove those links, so my rankings are back to where they were originally).

Also take a look at the backlinks for the site that ranks first for "free seo course" and you'll notice its a crappy site that ranks 1st via anchor text spam from low value directories.

Still, often I found all it takes to rank for thousands of keywords is to have many pages in the main index and use internal anchor text to rank high. But it ain't easy to get thousands of pages indexed unless you got some PageRank/link weight what-have-you flowing into a site and that juice is well-distributed. Being an authority domain, in general, means faster organic link growth and higher quality IBLs.

So, a high authority score isn't a must when you're chasing after one single keyword (you can outrank it by spamming anchor text), but if you're after millions of keywords, domain authority is a huge plus.

---

I agree with Peter about long tails. For one of my pages, out of 1,000 hits on a page that ranks #1 for a set of keywords, 95% of the traffic are long tails I can't dig up using keyword tools.

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by tdd1984

domain authority rocks, you can rank high for competitive keywords with a pr3 if you have a domain with authority. My website has a great deal of autority

Respectfully, I think those sites that might be considered authority sites by Google, are highly unlikely to have a PR3. When a site is truly considered an authority on a particular topic, it will have a huge number of natural incoming links from people referring to it as their source, within articles, etc. Mathematically speaking this is just not going to be a PR3 site.

[Brave7]

I know my target audience.

I am not blogging, once again English is not my first language so I will need to pay for copywriting and it is an extra cost I cannot report on my prices.

Submitting to quality directories, yes this is where my main traffic come from.

I don't understand your question about free service I can offer in exchange of for links?

I am participating a little in forums and discussion groups, but on the very specific Hawaiian products, there are not a lot.

When starting to find some quality blogs, most of the time they are general, not specific to my topics, and once again the cost of these links will put a higher price on the products we are selling, and I dont want to do that.

My site is a little bit different then others, because we are selling products from different manufacturers that no one does.

We give a prompt service to our target audience that no one else does, this is easy to check on the testimonials page, this page is not fake but real.
We offer decorating ideas on our articles for our products.
We also offer gift giving tips, not only for baskets.

Well I've got a few natural links, but not much.

Thanks Cricket, any other suggestions?

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by Natural Elements

I know my target audience.

I am not blogging, once again English is not my first language so I will need to pay for copywriting and it is an extra cost I cannot report on my prices.

Submitting to quality directories, yes this is where my main traffic come from.

I don't understand your question about free service I can offer in exchange of for links?

I am participating a little in forums and discussion groups, but on the very specific Hawaiian products, there are not a lot.

When starting to find some quality blogs, most of the time they are general, not specific to my topics, and once again the cost of these links will put a higher price on the products we are selling, and I dont want to do that.

My site is a little bit different then others, because we are selling products from different manufacturers that no one does.

We give a prompt service to our target audience that no one else does, this is easy to check on the testimonials page, this page is not fake but real.
We offer decorating ideas on our articles for our products.
We also offer gift giving tips, not only for baskets.

Well I've got a few natural links, but not much.

Thanks Cricket, any other suggestions?

I think you missed my point about target audiences and how they relate to your site. Let's say for example that your target audience is moms who are desperate for Calgon Take Me Away moments in their lives. Then I would focus on finding some forums and discussion groups that consist primarily of moms. In terms of blogging, there are a ton of ways to focus on topics that moms would love to read about. Your English seems fine to me. If you are worried, then use a grammar checker.

I like your attitude. You are looking for a way to solve your issues. Too many people get hung up on believing that it can't be done. I have a little sign on my desk that says, "Let's find some ways that it CAN be done".

[Rankenstein]

Originally Posted by Bill Slawski

Beyond what Cricket suggests, you may want to start looking into learning how to use things like Google Base for sites that have products, and learn how to optimize well for local search for businesses that have locations associated with them.

Those may present some opportunities to you that bigger businesses aren't taking advantage of yet.

That's a great bit of advice, Bill. To expand on that, MSN Expo Live in the UK ( //uk.expo.live.com - with no www) do very well on Google UK as well. I've got plenty of #1s from that, for what you might call medium tail searches, and they get indexed by Google very quickly.

[John Scott]

Originally Posted by GuyFromChicago

Test and let results (not theories or a bunch of gibberish from some "guru") guide your future actions.

Testing really is one of the most overlooked areas of SEO. Good point there.

[sirkakashi08]

"perseverance and good sleeping habits!" - TADO (Strangebrew)
i like that one!

[theseokit]

I guess the very best thing I know about SEO, would be the fact that I know the secret to getting a PR4 in one update, and keeping it!

[Brave7]

Thank you Cricket, I think a blog will help to interact with people interested on our specific topic. My English is not bad, but I cannot say this is excellent, I am practicing as much as I can, if not my wife will take care of her old French husband he he he

My target audience are not necessary ladies, but gentlemen who want to please their wifes or girls friend. Most of time they went to Hawaii for vacation, discover the products there, come back on the mainland and try finding a good deal on internet. Some are discovering the products on our site. Target audience age is variable. A few products are for gentlemen too.

I am not agressive on marketing and never send marketing emails to customers, I dont personalty like to receive marketing emails from online stores where I am buying, so why should I do to others, what I don't like for myself. If customers are happy they will return on our store naturally. We don't offer yet coupon for repeat customers, but I am thinking about that. It is just difficult to apply the programming on our site.

[Sandpetra]

Ignore Yahoo