|
Welcome to SEO Results. I built my first website (for a paying customer) in 2001 — complete with all the worst SEO practice available — at no additional charge, of course.
It’s called Black Hat SEO these days - keyword stuffing, hidden text and doorway pages — search engines were easy to manipulate. It was a great time to be in the game — anyone doing SEO in those days will tell you how easy it was.
Since then search engines have become much more sophisticated; and they are changing all the time, updating their algorithms, fine tuning their filters. The nerve of them — insisting upon relevant content to match a search query and making us work for rankings. Google, especially, has led the way, challenging us with every update. That, of course, is what makes the world of SEO so interesting — that challenge to learn more and to perform better and to keep one step ahead.
For about four years now I have been the in-house search engine optimization expert for Register.com. Among other initiatives, I have been involved in the development and delivery of a unique SEO consultation process with Register.com customers. Built around a series of modules that deliver the best practices of search engine optimization, it is an unusual service in that it very much involves the client in the process. There are many success stories but each and every one of them is a result of the website owner making a commitment to do the necessary work involved to gain those rankings.
Over the course of time, I hope to make this an information resource site for anyone who is looking for knowledge about search engine optimization, from the novice SEO to the advanced practitioner. As I add new material and articles, I will also be posting them to a blog where I welcome your comments and feedback. We all can learn from each other. And even though there are many other websites out there built around search engine optimization theory and practice, I believe that I can offer a unique contribution.
I have spent literally thousands of hours consulting with clients who have come looking for help to compete with their online businesses. For the most part, they are from the sector identified as small to medium sized business enterprises. They all know their businesses very well; when they came to us, they all knew next to nothing about online marketing and how search engines actually work. They know a lot more now. I have also spent hundreds of hours training SEO consultants to work with this same group of clients. Throughout it all my philosophy and guiding principle has been to take the mystery out of search engine optimization and to make it understandable to just about anyone.
This site is a response to the many, many questions I am asked almost on a daily basis. It is also an attempt to discuss these principles in everyday language — to simplify the mystery of SEO. Contrary to popular belief, search engine optimization is neither a system of magic nor a body of esoteric secret knowledge available only to a chosen few. It is not an exact science by any means, but it is relatively straightforward in its logic and principles. Search engine optimization is an art as much as a science, with the ultimate aim to unravel the secrets of search engine ranking systems. Put another way, it's an attempt to decipher the method to the madness that we call Google search results.
There are many factors which determine search engine rankings. Matt Cutts, an official Google spokesman, admits that there are over 100 algorithms in place. Yahoo and MSN are not so sophisticated and may employ fewer algorithms. Although search engines differ, the main variables used in determining placement are the same. These variables are a good place to start in discussing SEO Basics.
|
