Effective SEO Planning
Should you do your own SEO? There are some fundamental basics of search engine optimization and it’s not too difficult to figure out some of them. There’s a wealth of information online that you can easily access for free so you can start the process of understanding SEO. Many online SEO gurus have learned through experience via trial and error.
When it comes to advanced competition in your niche or in advanced SEO tactics when your competitor seems immovable from the top spot on Google, Yahoo and MSN you might want to call in the pros.
Everyone wants a good page rank when they are online. Everyone wants to be found on the top page of the big search engines. Do you know anything about social book marking, social networking, link farms, page rank or Alexa rank? Do you know how to use the SEO tools that come with your web design or blog software? Even if you choose to pay someone else to help you with your search engine optimization, you should learn at least the basics of SEO.
How do you learn more about SEO?
There are web based SEO courses that will teach you how to do your own SEO and there are videos you can watch in order to find out how to accomplish some of the techniques used. You can also read countless articles giving you tips and tricks about getting the right kind of deep links and about avoiding grey hat or black hat SEO tactics. You can also hire an SEO copywriter to help you optimize your home page and create content. There are some free SEO tools out there and some tools that you can purchase to help you with your online marketing.
You can hire an SEO company who helps small businesses at reasonable fees or you can hire big companies who might charge you thousands. One thing is for certain though, SEO is ever evolving and the average person does not know the exact formula behind how Google, Yahoo and MSN rank websites because these big three search engines continually change the rules so that the system maintains integrity. If someone uses underhanded tactics or spam they will be found out and might even be banned from the search engines. Companies who make it their business will keep up to date on the techniques and the rules and will help you, their client, stay near the top of the results. Do or Do Not Do It Yourself?
If you are a DIY personality you might love taking seo courses and managing your own SEO and playing with all the tools out there that can help you. Or, you might find the process cumbersome and frustrating though and if so, it’s best to hire someone to help. What some online entrepreneurs do is start out on their own and learn as much as they can and then solicit some help later on. The bonus here is that you gain experience and exposure and this can help you choose the right professional to help when you no longer have the time or desire to continue the process. If you find that you enjoy doing your own optimizing and are quite good at it, all the better for you!
If you have your own websites, there will be all sorts of people asking you to place a link to their site on your site. You have been approached by link buyers, link sellers, and brokers. Every one out there believes that getting links is the be-all and end-all of search engine optimization.
On the one hand I have to agree that getting links is important, on the other, I am not comfortable with some of the methods used. And to add to the already grey area of buying links for the purpose of altering your search engine ranking is a directive from a major search engine, the most major one actually, that they will be lowering the valued of sold links!
So, let us look at some of the basics of getting links that will, quite likely, be the smart way to get links.
First of all, I think that it is not natural to have many sites giving you sitewides. Why would a normal site want to give you a link from all of its pages? Ok, for a coupe of sites there might be some reason, but for the most part it is unnatural. The moral of the story is that, if you buy links, buy them on a specific page, probably the homepage, and not on all pages of a site.
Second, make sure that the sites linking to you are of all types. If your link building campaign revolves only around directory submission, or article marketing, or high PR pages, or the like, search engines might figure it out and lower your value.
Third, make sure that your links are added slowly and not all at once, unless your destination page is newsy. I am not saying that getting a thousand links in a week is too many. But a thousand links in one week and close to no links for the next few weeks might look strange.
Fourth, and this one is well known, make sure that you are not being linked to from a page that is virtually a link farm.
Fifth, ensure that your links look like natural links. How would that be? Well, on the one hand, try to have varying text in the link (this text is called the anchor text). On the other, you can try and get links to the main page as well as to other pages. This will make the links appear “natural.”
Sixth, focus on the topic or theme of the page that is linking to you. Focused links are quite likely more valuable. At the same time do not go overboard with this one. Unrelated links have value too. But the one thing that you should avoid is getting links from pages that link to a lot of “bad” pages. True you cannot control who links to you. But at least avoid knowingly getting links from “bad neighborhoods.”
Finally, stay away from reciprocal linkage. Reciprocal linkage is common in the world of blogs and may not be the poison pills that they are often known to be. All the same make sure that you do not have too many reciprocals. Surely you would not like to have the reputation of a spammer.
