SEO Exposed

below is some of my early writing on traffic management, its pretty outdated but new stuff is coming

link to content management power software power point presentation How do I use SEO techniques for propper search engine marketing (SEM)

SEO and SEM are two of the catch phrases of the web 2.0 new millennium. You will hear the term thrown around a lot, often because its definition is broad or ambiguous and constantly changing. Basically it means, techniques used to boost your search engine “ranking”,  or where your website appear in search engine results. Also using your ranking and other factors to properly market yourself and increase visibility on the web. Studies show that around 80 percent of Google users do not go past the first ten-fifteen results. This has created an extremely aggressive market for obtaining this top position. Many SEO “experts” have often been given a bad reputation by the unethical use of what is called “black hat” techniques (taken from old westerns where bad guys wore black hats). They try and fool search engines through various methods into ranking them higher. This may have worked years ago to some extent, but currently this almost always hurts your ranking, as Google has been programmed to look for these tricks. This should be avoided altogether. The best idea is to stay up-to-date on what the “best practice” is for SEO, and stick to these guidelines. This is often called organic growth, because it is similar to watering a plant. Slowly and surely your work will pay off, but it will not work overnight. Any company that claims to be able to do this instantly is a fraud! Google warns against this, but many people get tempted by the allure of quick results. This never works and these people stole your money. As with everything on the internet and the business world itself, one must use discretion as to how to market and who to work with. The two most important practices of SEO follow.

Quality Written Content

Google as well as most respected SEO agencies agree that QUALITY CONTENT, is the number one way to boost your site. This means lots of relevant, original TEXT as well as rich media. Most importantly, lots of written quality TEXT. Relevant and original text is the most effective for boosting your ranking. Quality content is like food for search engines, they gobble it up when they see it, displaying you in their search results. Often an experienced SEO who also has talent in writing can help provide this content. It is good to keep in mind many things when writing this material. In addition to relevancy, the KEYWORDS and KEY PHRASES that the text will be centered on and keyword density is also important, though a mistake is made when this becomes the focus of the article. This begins to detract from the quality of the content. Usually if one is writing quality content that is focused on the subject, it will naturally have an acceptable keyword density. Google uses extremely advanced mathematical algorithms to look for this kind of content. They keep the heart of these mathematical expressions top secret, though much of it is revealed to the public. There are also many other white hat approaches to working with text including, using bold, italics, the use of heading or h1 tags and other titles. An experienced SEO will know all of this. Again, it is wise to only use the most current and ethical best practices for search engine optimization as this has proved to the be the most effective. There is no substitute for hard work to create a rich and deep site, with quality, relevant well written content.

Links, and Link Building

Another Central SEO theme is the use of linking and Link Building. Generally speaking Google and Yahooconsiders a link from one site to another as a vote from site A to B, though Search Engines do more then tally up all the votes for one specific site, they analyze the quality of the site the inbound link is coming from, its relevancy to the subject and so many more factors kepy top secret in Silicon Valley. Search engine robots often find sites by “crawling” from site to site using links as the web that connects sites together. Inbound links are considered to be the best for your search engine ranking, as they are viewed by search engines as a “vote” from that site for yours. Many factors come into play as to the “importance” of this vote, including whether this link is reciprocated (viewed as link exchange, still very good but not as good), as well as if the site is a good or “bad neighborhood” , if this site is a very low ranking site, spam site or link farm this will not mean much. Another thing to consider when reaching for inbound links is whether or not the linking web page is relevant to your site. If you have a site about computer chips and a gardening site is linking to you, it will not carry as much weight.
Now that we have inbound links covered, link exchange and outbound links are also worth mention. Link exchange can be implemented by sending out emails to other webmasters requesting link exchange, “I’ll link to you if you link to me” type of deal. You will be surprised how often this is successful, boosting both site’s ranking in the process. Another way to encourage this is by setting up a link exchange partnership program on your website where people can come to you with proposals, this can also be automated with the use of JavaScript. Simply having a large database of relevant links, to “important sites” will be good food for search engine spiders, as they view your site as a valuable resource or directory in which people can find good information.. When doing this, a good idea is to not make this page extremely visible or flashy on the site so people don’t go directly to it and leave your site. Another good idea is to have any outbound links on your site open in a new window.
That’s it for now folks, I use many tools in SEO in addition to morals, quality writing skills, and in-depth knowledge. I also use the Fire Fox add-on SEO Quake, Web CEO, and Google Analytics. These are basically the industry standard of SEO tools and most anything outside of that is not only extraneous but dubious. Pat yourself on the back for reading this through to the end, I tried to make it concise and dense with valuable information. There is still much left uncovered, and this section will be constantly evolving as the internet constantly involves as well.

Here is Googles advice on choosing and SEO

Talk to many SEOs, and ask other SEOs if they’d recommend the firm you’re considering.
References are a good start, but they don’t tell the whole story. You should ask how long a company has been in business and how many full time individuals it employs. If you feel pressured or uneasy, go with your gut feeling and play it safe: hold off until you find a firm that you can trust. Ask your SEO firm if it reports every spam abuse that it finds to Google using our spam complaint form at http://www.google.com/contact/spamreport.html. Ethical SEO firms report deceptive sites that violate Google’s spam guidelines.
Make sure you’re protected legally.
For your own safety, you should insist on a full and unconditional money-back guarantee. Don’t be afraid to request a refund if you’re unsatisfied for any reason, or if your SEO’s actions cause your domain to be removed from a search engine’s index. Make sure you have a contract in writing that includes pricing. The contract should also require the SEO to stay within the guidelines recommended by each search engine for site inclusion.
What are the most common abuses a website owner is likely to encounter?
One common scam is the creation of “shadow” domains that funnel users to a site by using deceptive redirects. These shadow domains often will be owned by the SEO who claims to be working on a client’s behalf. However, if the relationship sours, the SEO may point the domain to a different site, or even to a competitor’s domain. If that happens, the client has paid to develop a competing site owned entirely by the SEO.
Another illicit practice is to place “doorway” pages loaded with keywords on the client’s site somewhere. The SEO promises this will make the page more relevant for more queries. This is inherently false since individual pages are rarely relevant for a wide range of keywords. More insidious, however, is that these doorway pages often contain hidden links to the SEO’s other clients as well. Such doorway pages drain away the link popularity of a site and route it to the SEO and its other clients, which may include sites with unsavory or illegal content.
What are some other things to look out for?
There are a few warning signs that you may be dealing with a rogue SEO. It’s far from a comprehensive list, so if you have any doubts, you should trust your instincts. By all means, feel free to walk away if the SEO:
owns shadow domains
puts links to their other clients on doorway pages
offers to sell keywords in the address bar
doesn’t distinguish between actual search results and ads that appear in search results
guarantees ranking, but only on obscure, long keyword phrases you would get anyway
operates with multiple aliases or falsified WHOIS info
gets traffic from “fake” search engines, spyware, or scumware
has had domains removed from Google’s index or is not itself listed in Google
If you feel that you were deceived by an SEO in some way, you may want to report it.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) handles complaints about deceptive or unfair business practices. To file a complaint, visit: http://www.ftc.gov/ and click on “File a Complaint Online,” call 1-877-FTC-HELP, or write to:
Federal Trade Commission
CRC-240
Washington, D.C. 20580