Think SEO Many desire a simple step by step approach to improving web site visibility. In an effort to contribute to the community that has been good to us, we endeavor to perhaps help some develop a way of thinking about SEO.

First we must set the expectations for SEO, it is not an exact science (to say the least) and SEO's who claim guaranteed results are usually suspect in this industry. If your site is poorly optimized (or not optimized at all) the results of improvements will be more evident. This is not to say that you will immediately increase visitors or revenue, SEO done right takes patience and analysis. Many SEO problems relate to poorly structured web sites and sloppy coding so these kinds of improvements should be made regardless of the expectations.

Most mistakes are the result of lack of analysis and impatience. People hate to wait for things but if you are to be successful, wait you must. Be prudent with changes, in aircraft pilot speak, always make 'small corrections' and evaluate the effect before proceeding further, else, you might 'crash and burn'. Understand that many of the factors relating to your search engine positioning are outside of your control and occur within their time frame ... not yours.

Top SEO's agree that there is no 'Free Lunch' ... quality content, real value, continuous improvement and analysis will result in better long term conversion rates than SEO trickery.

Next, we frame the mindset behind search engine optimization: we feel the key is 'relevance' and this idea carries into future phases of the Internet, or "The Semantic Web" if you will. What we mean here is the representation of the concept of the page (Title tags and meta tags) should match the content, this would seem obvious enough but often web site optimization specialists end up targeting keywords for their traffic value without performing in-depth analysis of the actual content of the site. In other words, target/analyze the keywords you already have in your content, if you want to rank for particular keywords/phrases, you may need to re-write content but focusing on 'keyword centric' content has it's drawbacks ... you could diminish the uniqueness of your site. This is an iterative process, called 'design of experiment'. The point is; if you are thinking about the semantics of your website, then you are working WITH Search Engines, rather than against them. Think of keywords as 'keys' that unlock the meaning of your web site.

Recommended reading:

Adsense Arbitrage (Free)

Adwords Made Easy (Free)

Recommended Keyword Tools:

Keyword Elite (a Top Rated Product - not free)

Good Keywords (Free)

Keyword Explorer (Free)

Make or Buy: Ahhh! Finally we come to a topic that is of real interest to most of our readers. What do professional SEO's have that you do not? Experience does not actually have the weight you might think it would, this field is ever changing and research is paramount, still, there are constants as described earlier; well formed content and relevance, an SEO 'frame of mind' and ... an understanding (or mastery) of SEO toolset's. Some SEO Tools are uniquely developed in-house in order to facilitate a tactical advantage, or at least they should be if an SEO firm is to remain competitive, this generally comprises of both methodology (approach) and SEO software combinations, to coin a phrase, SEO is not 'rocket science' nor is there any 'secret handshake' involved in proper search marketing. The available website promotion toolset's are fairly easy to use, quite mature and relatively inexpensive.

Recommended SEO Software Products:

Internet Business Promoter (Best)

Web CEO (good value)

Top Optimizer (good)

Analytics: YOU MUST follow the results of your activity, observe visitor behavior, set and measure goals, to do this correctly, you need tools. There are many articles available on the web covering the use of analytics; we will add depth to this important search marketing element in later submissions.

Recommended Analytics Software:

SEO Elite (Top Product - not free)

Performancing Metrics (Best - low cost)

Google Analytics (good - free)

Web CEO (expert configuration required)

Yes, links are important these days but we do not necessarily believe in running around soliciting them or joining 'link farms', we have done plenty of this and find that links obtained naturally are simply more relevant and have much higher link value ... this strategy is not for impatient SEO's and requires quality content worthy of a link back. This area, link building, is probably the most abused or exploited by SEO's but we just don't find that taking 'short cuts' lead to lasting value/placement. In other words, the Internet equivalent of 'word of mouth' advertising converts better than all other forms combined.

Recommended Backlink Analyzers:

SEO SpyGlass (must have)

Internet Business Promoter (excellent Link tool)

Advanced Topics: If you are a regular reader of these posts, then you know that current SEM methodologies are to us, in a word, interim ... we understand the importance of ranking with the current Search Engines to drive traffic but the web is changing and allegiance to Google etc. might not be as significant going forward. We have been careful that the key concepts detailed here will cross-over to coming advancements in Internet Technologies. Topics regarding 'machine readable' content are outside the scope of this article but certainly warrant your investigation. Have a look around our site if you wish and learn more about the future of the Internet.

We find that most folks are not interested in SEO theory, while research is always at the top of OUR project load, we know that research without visible product is ... well, not very useful to our visitors. Most of the products we develop are built exclusively for our clients but we do publish mini-previews in our 'SEO Central' pages on occasion. In the past, we have made the mistake of throwing up tools without detailing the research that went into building them; hence the value of our products was not particularly obvious.