Practical SEO: SEO Guidelines and Techniques that WORKS!

This is the summary of my presentation at the internet millionaires mastermind session.

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(oh, I was sweating :P )

The topics covered are:

  • What is SEO
  • The correct philosophy of SEO
  • The FORCE is strong with this one: “choosing side”
  • Get real! Practical method that works!
  • The kiss of death: things you shouldn’t do in SEO

What is SEO?

Search engine optimization is maximize the potential of the website to be found by targeted audience through search engines.

The Correct Philosophy of SEO

1. Who Controls The Search Engine?

  • The search engine people (Larry, Sergey and company) controls the search engines - not us, not SEO, not the webmaster, not anyone else.
  • It is important to realize that we are not control; but we can make the best of the situation (SEO is all about maximize the potential, remember?); then only hope for the best will happen.

2. Build your website for Human or Robot?

  • A lot of people build their website with search engines in their mind. They built it for robots (search engine bots, to be exact).
  • Build your website for your users, visitors, the people. The reason is simple: because search engines want to think like people too.

The FORCE is strong with this one : Choosing Side

1. Black Hat SEO

  • exploiting every possible loop holes from search engines; and make a fortune before search engines realize it.
  • The SEO artist of the dark side: must be perfect and cautious in all execution. One careless mistake is fatal.
  • Conclusion: not recommended for everyone because of its high risk and high learning curve.

2. Grey Hat SEO

  • this is where most of the people are. They do not know what is right/wrong for search engines: a mixture of black hat and white hat.
  • but lightning can strike anytime: a simple Google Dance or changing of algorithm can wipe out your entire army overnight.
  • Conclusion: this path is going nowhere, and you can easily lose sleep every night.

3. White Hat SEO

  • adhere the search engine guidelines: do what search engine wants you to do.
  • slow and steady wins the race.
  • Conclusion: this is the recommended ’side’ for everyone.

Get real! Practical methods that WORKS!

These are the simple ‘four steps method’ that I use to perform for my clients for the past years.

Step 1: Research Your Keyword

  • Use keyword research tool (Google Keyword Tool is highly recommended)
  • Brainstorming.
  • Think from the users standpoint (what they will type if they are looking for you).
  • Focus on certain keywords (don’t spread your bullet too far too wide).
  • Strike the balance between “difficulty” and “traffic”. Go for the mediocre keywords that are not so hard to rank and have average traffic. Don’t shoot for the star, because you probably end up with nothing.

Step 2: Keyword Mapping

Now that you have a list of relevant keywords, map (’assign’) these keywords to the following tags/section of your website:

    • Meta Tag (description, keyword)
    • Title Tag
    • Anchor Text
    • Link Title
    • Image Name
    • Image ALT
    • URL  (search engine friendly URL)

Step 3: Content Creation

Make no mistake: content is the king, still is, and will be.

  • Try to have a “content section” on your website: be it a blog, knowledge base, articles section, forum, white paper or report.
  • Encourage your users/visitors to contribute content in any sort of way.
  • If it is really IMPOSSIBLE to have a “content section”, provide ‘useful tools’. They are a great replacement for content, and a great addition too (why not have both?)
  • Uniqueness is CRUCIAL. (copy and paste, then you’ll be punished)
  • Spend time/money to create contents.

Step 4: Link Building

  • Spend 2x more time doing this (in comparison with content creation).
  • Social bookmarking websites submission are GREAT (reddit, del.cio.us, digg etc)
  • Participate in forum. See my ‘principles here’.
  • Public relation: Know the people of your industry/niche well. Don’t be shy/afraid to email them about the great piece you have written.
  • Partnership: a better word for ‘link exchange’. Exchange link with blogs/websites in the same niche as yours.

The Kiss of Death: things you shouldn’t do in SEO

  • Don’t buy links. If you need to do it, buy it under radar (don’t do it using a text link network, or a script, or a system).
  • Don’t hire an SEO or somebody to build links, without knowing how they are going to do it. They can ruin your website by getting links from spammy websites / link farms.
  • Don’t SPAM (this should be common sense).
  • Don’t join a link network. We should have learn from the lesson of many horrible story of link network (DigitalPoint Coop, Link Vault..thank goodness they are all dead now).

That’s it ;) Hope it can benefit you guys, and those who came for the mastermind session, thank you for listening and your active participation.

Lim CS on May 5, 2008

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