Does SEO Need Standards?

June 19, 2008

This is a very good question that may or may not have any easy answer. The whole premise of the question is based on the fact that a large group of individuals and businesses are offering SEO services that know little about Search Engine Optimization.
Those of us that do offer straight forward ethical SEO would like a way to establish some order in the industry.

I see these folks on Craigslist all the time offering services on the cheap. Usually they have gotten lucky with a Page Title for a seldom targeted search and landed in the #1 position. It’s the old saying “even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while” in action.

I use Craigslist myself and see these people’s postings. They always say “email me your URL and I’ll get back” or something like that. They never have a phone number in the post nor do they show a link to their SEO website. I email these posters and ask them to verify there work.

They often will provide a link to a website and the targeted keywords. Usually the same page title is used on every page. It doesn’t take long it discover that they got lucky and now think that they are experts.

There is also a large pool of companies that will guarantee first position on Google or your money back. There trick is that they target a very obscure phrase that no one else is using. It likely will have nothing to do with the websites products or services.

The true professional understands that it is unethical to guarantee the search results because they are out of our control. You can optimize a website based on today’s known standards only to have it changed by the search engines tomorrow. You competitors also have a dramatic impact on the results which you can not control.

Because our company is only a year old we have a link disadvantage compared with long established websites. While we currently rank well for 7 SEO related searches that we target that could change quickly if any of these established websites began to target our keyword phrases.

So it would be nice it there were rules and if everybody played by the same set of rules, but this is why even a good set of rules will not work. The search engines changes the rules all the time and they don’t tell us when they have done this. These changes become known only when we are able to detect them and this is not an easy task.

There is all kind of speculation abut various penalties but until the search engines reveal there existence, it is only speculation. We wait for Mr. Matt Cutts, the Google spokesman to inform us and even then the explanation is usually vague.

So knowing all of this I think the talk of standards is foolish. As for Tucson SEO Solutions we play by the rules as we understand them to be.

Are you ready for professional SEO results?

If so call 520-777-6479

Tucson SEO Solutions creating probabilities out of possibilities.

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Need A Free Website That Includes Free Domain Name, Hosting,And Email That’s Ad Free?

June 7, 2008

This is no joke you can get an absolutely free basic website. The website comes with a free domain name, email, and free web hosting. This offer isn’t a free offer like Geocities or Google free offering.

You get to choose your unique domain name, if its available of course. Big Brother is making the offer, no the other older big brother. This offer is from Microsoft’s Office Live group. To get started you need to go here, http://smallbusiness.officelive.com.

The software that is used is a WYSIWYG editor. You choice of templates are limited, as in very limited, but it’s free. You don’t have to put up with text ads which is way cool.

We started this SEO business with an Office Live website and made tens of thousands of dollars using the site. The great thing about the software is that it is very SEO friendly. It allows you to create your own page titles, descriptions, and keywords. Yes, Google may not use them but others do including MSN.

The software is a bit buggy but it’s free. It saved us lots of money and it made us lots of money. When we closed the MSN account we controlled the domain name and took it with us.

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Website 101 - Just Say No To Website Submission Services

May 28, 2008

Just Say No to Website submission services.

Recently, when I was doing a website review the client asked me about how I handle website submissions. This caused me to pause for I moment, I looked at him and asked “Are you asking me if all of these website submission services are worth all the money that they charge, the millions that they charge, for a useless service, that you can do yourself for free.

He stated “Yes, I have read… At this point I politely interrupted him, by saying “Yes, I known, there is a lot that is written, that is just not so, or is no longer so. He noted “things do changed don’t they?”

Yes, I explained, “things are always changing.” This kind of exchange happens all too often with clients and potential clients. This is especially true for the small business owner who is the mainstay of our business.

This is why I enjoy blogging and providing training seminars. These are wonderful tools to educate the consumer and to develop trust. An educated consumer is our best friend. We want our clients to be actively involved with the marketing and management of their websites.

Our desire is to empower the client to leverage the Internet to grow there business. We provide the tools, the training, and services to conquer the SERP’s for their local target market.

It is so way cool to help someone who was struggling to make the Internet work and then turn their website into a profit center.

Here are the links you use to submit your website.

Google - http://www.google.com/addurl/

Yahoo - https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit

MSN - http://search.live.com/docs/submit.aspx

Why pay when it’s free!

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SEO And Word Of Mouth Advertising

May 13, 2008

We attend lots and lots of business mixers here in Tucson to promote our business. At almost every event the conversation will turn to blogging and why you should provide free advice on your website. The usually refrain is “Why would you give away free advice?” Keep in mind that these are business owners that we are talking with about business.

I am still dumbfounded every time I hear that question. For, us it’s all about the golden rule in action. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Or perhaps, “What goes around comes around.” Some get it when put in this context, but many don’t. These are what we would call the “what can you do for me crowd.”
They are so blinded by their own wants or needs that they can not believe there is an actual benefit to helping others for free.

They don’t understand that an educated consumer can be your best client or your best word of mouth advertisment. I talked extensively with a business coach at one of these mixers. I had me laptop and gave him a quick SEO 101. We covered simple Page Title and Page Descriptions and the need for him to geo-target for Tucson.

I meet him two months at another large mixer where he joined our table. He explained how he implements what I had told him. He stated that he was now #3 and #4 on Google for the keywords that he had targeted. He then looked around the table of seven stating to each “This guy knows what he is talking about.”

He then turns to me, and say’s now how do I get to #1 and #2? I wryly replied “for that, it’s gonna cost ya.” I stated that since I gave so freely to him that it was now his job to go tell others.

I was retelling this story later in the evening when a friend from the table pointed out that that’s exactly what he did after leaving our table. She told us “I’ve been watching him every since we left our table, and he has been telling everyone about you and how you helped him and that he even pointed me out in the crowd.

I was blown away, I only jokingly suggested that we go tell others. Apparently he was so grateful that he felt obligated to tell others about “this guy who knows what he’s talking about.” You simply can’t buy this kind of endorsement.

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Geo-targeting SEO is catching on slowly

April 25, 2008

Geo- targeting is slow getting the attention that it deserves. We have offered this service since this business opened. Tucson SEO Solutions business model is based on location of the websites market. Like many small business owners their market is local. So they have much less competition than those that play on a national or international stage on the Internet.

Since search engine optimization is a numbers game the website that uses Geo-targeting vastly improves their odds of success. Having less competition offers you the opportunity to reach high search rankings, if you optimize your web site. There is a very good chance that your competition has not optimized their web sites. Almost any web site can be optimized, but usually this is the arena of the larger serious players. When the small business owner optimizes his web site he usually goes to the front the line.

Many web designers only think of GIS software when they here the words Geo-targeting. GIS is the acronym for geographic information software. This software is used on information and on e-commerce sites to assist you in finding information by city.

When we apply Geo-targeting in the optimization process, we are asking the search engines to index your website by a geographic area and by your products or services. So if your website provides carpet cleaning services and you live in Tucson, then we would optimize your website for carpet cleaning in Tucson.

This is a simplest form of optimization available today. It is also the most overlooked aspect of the SEO industry. When you optimize your website by the location that you actually serve you place your business in a winning situation. You can finally use the leverage the Internet to grow your business.

Before you begin any optimization program you need to evaluate your website to make sure that everything works. It doesn’t do much good to bring traffic to a broken website.

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