Over the past 12 years, I’ve watched SEO (search engine optimization) evolve.
People often ask me to do an updated video on SEO to talk about what I do differently now. (My last SEO video was published in 2008.)
I hate to disappoint you, but my SEO strategy really hasn’t changed much over the years — mainly because it hasn’t had to. So I’m not sure I’d have anything new to tell you.
I don’t use numerous SEO plug-ins on my blog. I don’t fuss much over dofollow vs nofollow, nor do I sit and count page keywords, count backlinks, submit to article and regular directories or stress over meta tags. So why does my search engine traffic keep increasing?
The first reason is my site is mature and has a lot of backlinks. That gives me a clear advantage. The second reason is that I continue to earn more voluntary backlinks from people who generously link to my site.
So the engines look at the big picture when deciding how “relevant” a site is for a particular keyword phrase. So it’s not just about content or just about backlinks. It’s a mixed bag of criteria.
SEO in 2010 and Beyond
The present and future of SEO is all about authentic popularity. What do I mean by authentic? I mean getting voluntary links from relevant sites that are credible and popular in the eyes of the search engines.
If your site is about home decor and a popular home decor site decides to feature or link to you in a blog post, that’s the kind of authentic backlink you want. Or perhaps you write a guest post on a popular blog in your niche. Now that’s what I call an authentic, quality backlink.
Too many people are still trying to fake their popularity by haphazardly submitting to worthless sites/directories or going on link exchange hunts. The search engines have caught on to the tricks and ignore many of the backlink schemes people use to falsely inflate their popularity.
There have been many SEO tricks and tactics used over the years. Sooner or later people find a way to exploit and abuse them, so the engines have to adjust their algorithms.
My Pet Peeve
What really irks me is all the bad information out here that confuses and misleads.
One problem is there are too many marketing blogs that talk about SEO, but they are authored by people who don’t have the traffic to back up their information and tutorials. They are just paraphrasing information from other wrong/misleading sites, but have no proof that these tips actually work.
So you have a bunch of people with no SE traffic writing about how to get SE traffic because they read about tips on other blogs that also have no SE traffic. Ugh!!
New webmasters and bloggers read this information, adopt these same strategies, write about them on their blogs and the cycle of bad information continues to infect the Web.
How many blog posts have you seen touting the best SEO plugins that supposedly boost your traffic when the publishing blog has little or no traffic? Hmmm…
For the record, I have nothing against SEO plug-ins. In fact, I use one myself. I’m just not convinced that using 15 SEO plug-ins is any better than using one or two. I think they can be helpful when it comes to getting your pages indexed, but I have absolutely no proof they improve your rankings. And until I have some, you won’t see me writing much about the effectiveness of such plug-ins — at least not from a traffic standpoint.
The Engines Keep Getting Smarter
Any SEO tactic/strategy that involves deceiving the engines in regards to your popularity will have little or no effect on your rankings. For example, anyone can create a bunch of backlinks by going out and submitting to a gazillion directories. The same goes for link exchanges.
So it’s natural for Google to put less emphasis on these links when they calculate a site’s rank. In fact, they even removed the directory submission tip from their SEO guidelines as explained in the video below.
Matt Cutts is very clear that if there is no discretion involved with the sites offering the links (meaning anyone can get listed if they pay/submit) then Google immediately devalues the backlink. That’s important SEO information that too many people ignore.
SEO for the Long Run
If you want to make an impact with SEO, spend time coming up with ways to stand out so people will feature/link to you voluntarily. You’ll be amazed at how many generous people will be when it comes to featuring you on their sites, etc.
Write guest posts for as many relevant, popular blogs as you can. Use social media to network with people in your niche. Be bold and get creative. Dare to be different from your competition. Read up on “pillar content” and make sure your site has plenty of it.
When you become authentically popular, you won’t have to stress over the next PageRank update, meta tags, finding dofollow sites or how high your keyword density is on a page.
They’ll be no need to jump every time the engines make major adjustments. Your rankings will likely remain stable (or even increase) because you’ll have authentic votes (quality backlinks) for your site instead of fake popularity through numerous directory submissions, link exchanges, etc.
I’m not saying you should ignore basic SEO techniques like keyword-rich page names, using major keywords in your domain, keyword-focused content, etc.
Of course you should still create your pages to target certain phrases, interlink your pages with relevant anchor text, create a sitemap, etc.
However, I think it’s a waste of time to spend your days hunting for backlinks and link exchanges. A few relevant exchanges and directory submissions are fine, but no need to get excessive with it.
I’m convinced that if people spend half as much time coming up with creative ways to present their information as they do hunting for worthless backlinks, it would make a world of difference in their SE traffic.
When you focus on quality and are unique with your delivery and presentation, your followers will do a lot of the marketing for you and the search engines will reward you accordingly.
But Wait…
I know what you’re thinking. Sure, Lisa. You’ve been out here forever so you have a mature site that has benefited from good rankings for a long time.
That is certainly true, but how do you explain the people who have gained good rankings for fairly competitive terms in the past few years? Notice that they never credit directory submissions or link exchanges as a top strategy for building traffic to their sites?
I’ve yet to read a book or article from a successful website owner where they credit link exchanges or directory submissions as their primary traffic building strategy. I honestly never have.
Usually they give credit to guest posting, social media strategies, or they are excellent communicators and draw in an audience with their awesome writing skills.
Sure they use and understand basic SEO strategies like using a sitemap, creating keyword-focused pages, etc. but the emphasis is never on chasing a bunch of dofollow links from various sites.
I apologize if this post is too harsh or critical. As I said earlier, I’ve been out here a while so I am looking at this from a different perspective.
Nevertheless, it’s hard to ignore the numerous emails, forum posts, and FB fan page questions about gaining backlinks quickly in order to get traffic. It just reminds me of how much misleading information there is on SEO.
I’m getting a little tired of all the poor, irresponsible tips that leave people spinning their wheels when they could be using that time to do more productive things that will truly impact their SEO in a positive manner.
Your Thoughts?
I’d especially love to hear from those of you who got started within the last few years. If you have decent search engine rankings for competitive terms, what techniques and strategies do you credit for those rankings?
And if you truly believe in using 50 SEO plugins or submitting to countless directories, what proof do you have this truly has helped your rankings?
I’d really love to squash a lot of the SEO myths and hype out here for the newbies who read this blog. Let’s discuss!
Great Articles sharing. I think this type of articles have to benefits every website SEO person. I apply this rule in my online shopping site askbazar.com
Your articles are great. You are 100% right. A lot of people writing articles about search engine optimization seo with really no knowledge about it. I have spent hours reading all your articles great job
Couldn’t agree more! My strategy has always been to post, post and post some more and create a lot of content that people will link to due to the quality and quantity.
Building a good page rank takes time and effort.
Lisa,
It is good to hear that SEO basics have stayed pretty much the same and the being authentic counts for good backlinks.
It is also good to know that there comes a point when you mature and have plenty of backlinks. You are a good example of quality and unique views.
lisa i read in one of the article online about many seo tips but i don’t know they are good for my blog or not.So, i just hear my heart and google seo tips.According to me my content is king and my seo is queen.
I love your insight on authentic popularity. I have learned new things here thanks for the post.
Well its really difficult to find right seo techniques every time i something new keeps on coming every time.. currently learning about backlinking site..
truly said by Leo the easier to get back link the less the value of backlink as the juice is distributed all sites…
Good post Lisa, even if I don’t totally agree with the context in which you present the facts. All your advices apply mainly if you target highly competitive keywords, BUT most websites with a few hundred pages will get more traffic from “long tail” keywords, so for these a couple of links from “not so super” directories or links exchange can still help for their SEO.
Now if they do want to target competitive keywords, directories and link exchange (2-way, 3-way etc…) should be down the link building todo list, but allow to add keyword variations that may not be possible otherwise.
If anything, site owners doing link building should remember that: the “easier” the link is to get, the less impact it will have on rankings.
I think you said it all Lisa and I have to admit that when I first started some two years ago, I was in a “hunting” mode for everything that one can do to improve rankings. At a certain point and time, I came to realize that my main goal was almost “rankings” and totally forgot about the rest. In due time, I corrected those mistakes and started to really “build” something else. I’ve done it all, from link exchange, directory submissions, ad exchanges, and blah, blah. What works are “natural” links, period. The problem here is that to get those links, you must be found and there are a lot of ways that you can do that. Once you have generated “enough” buzz (on a positive side), then it becomes much easier.
Lisa, First off thank you for the wonderful article. I just recently started my first “official” blog. You always give such great advice and that’s why I frequent here so often. I was thinking this morning on my way to work about how bad I want my blog to be what I know it can be. Then tonight I read your article and confirmed my thoughts on it. While I feel that SEO is an important factor in getting up in the rankings. I feel that getting that pillar content in place is a lot more important. I think that there is a natural cycle that people want to surpass especially when venturing into the internet. They want the overnight success, but it’s set up for in the beginning is when you have the time to set up your pillar content, and get things right before the readers arrive. Just my two cents, thank you for the content.
Most people haven’t a right SEO plan and just building backlink for their website but get a little effective. It’s total wrong !
Wow Lisa, great read! I use 1 SEO plug in and that’s it. I have read so many conflicting posts on SEO and link building my head spins. Lately I have been looking at the traffic of those sites and checking out their links…and guess what? Just like you said, barely a thing. I started out in 09 but bought into the “hype” and failed miserably….so I began again in October of this year and have become more educated and aware of what works.
thanks for a great article!
Lisa
I guess we just have our own strategies in driving traffic going to our website. As for me, I’ve been doing seo and social media marketing techniques and I am happy and satisfied with the results.
I have to agree with your overall opinions however you seem to stress that paying attention to detail isn’t important. You say you “should always set up meta-tags” but not put a definite amount of keywords in. This doesn’t make sense – why spend time targeting your keywords if you don’t take a second to refine your title? I have seen with my own eyes the value of a properly ordered meta-title for example.
I started SEO in the past year and meta-tags were a vital part in me achieving high rankings for several major keywords in the niche – with no backlinks! Of course backlinks are vital, but I think you have become hypocritical – you say there is too much bad advice out there, but your’s is flawed too. What works for one might not work for another, and so on.
Thanks for the insight tho.
Hypocrite? Ouch, that one stung a bit. LOL I always use meta tags. The meta title tag is still important because it plays a role in SEO and it also helps draw attention to your site in the search engine results. I always put major keywords there.
But I personally believe the meta keyword tag is worthless for rankings, but I still use them because it may help with AdSense or other contextual ad programs. But I certainly don’t spend time counting and stuffing that tag like I used to. I’ll put one or two major phrases and that’s it. But if you’ve seen results to prove otherwise then that’s wonderful!
Maybe I should say from my experience, I’ve found it to be a waste of time to load up on keywords in the meta description and keyword tags (especially for competitive keyword phrases) but I always welcome other varying opinions. That’s what makes for great discussions! (The name calling is not cool, though.) 🙁
One important fact here CA, is that the Title tag is not a meta tag. The Title tag is required in an HTML document and should include your keywords. Meta tags are for providing metadata and are optional. Google has gone on record stating that they ignore the keywords meta tag and that the description tag has no weight in site rankings. As far as I know Bing hasn’t made such a direct statement however the general consensus is the same.
The description tag should be written to promote click through, and if your keywords are in your description and match words in the search query those words are bolded.
Matt Cutts of Google:
“Even though we sometimes use the description meta tag for the snippets we show, we still don’t use the description meta tag in our ranking.”
“Google doesn’t use the “keywords” meta tag in our web search ranking”
googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/09/google-does-not-use-keywords-meta-tag.html
Tom, you beat me to the punch. LOL I was just going to add that statement about Google going on record stating they don’t use the keyword tag but couldn’t find the post or video. Glad you referenced it. Thanks!!!
It’s right. Google don’t using the meta keyword for ranking website anymore. However, there’s still no confirmation from another search engines such as Yahoo or Bing. And we still need the traffic from them.
Tony, I like to stick my preferred anchor text in the meta keywords in the (possibly vain) hope that anyone linking will use the keywords instead of something as useless as “click here.”
Also helps me remember own keywords, which helps me stay on point in my writing. Just in case I wander off point…
Man!
I feel I need to comment on this enlightening discussion. Realistically, if anyone read Google’s rules in their Webmaster’s tools, they would of know Google no longer look at “keywords” in meta tags as a measure to acquire ranking in the search results.
First of all and far most, marketers ruined this process for ranking by abusing the privileged Google gave them when using “keywords” in meta tags to help in search results… So! What’s the fuss and purpose of focusing on trying to achieve ranking with “keyword” meta tags, although I do use them myself for just in case purposes.
Correct me if I’m wrong. I learned that your title tag should reflect on the URL of your site, as well as in the description tag of your site. The description tag should reflect on targeted “key words” that will help on search results… as far as meta tags are concerned… there OUT!
The content of your site should be written where your target “key words” are included. This allow for Google’s spiders to recognize the specifics of targeted keywords within your site and its content… Correct me if I’m wrong.
Lisa, someone should stand with you on the misuse of language… The measure of “judgement” one applies to another will be the same measure of judgement applied to back to them… The name calling is unprofessional and unnecessary!
Always valued, and greatly appreciate your well stated input. LOL!
I love it! And you make a great point, your site is mature. You cannot fake that. Your site has been around for years and that’s going to give you a huge leg up against a lot of newer sites, I am quite jealous I don’t have sites that were launched in 2002! Would be very useful.
A very nicely written thoughtful post….
If I follow even half of the things you have mentioned here, the effect would show for my blog 😉
Thanks a lot for sharing… 🙂
people just want the good and correct applicable seo technique.. but sometimes we don’t know exact place to learn it instead from misleading SEO
SEO is not an exact science. Even if you go the right way, there is no guarantee most of the time. “Getting backlinks” is not enough most of the time. They have to be relevant to your content and not a whole bunch at a time. There’s also keyword research, meta-tags and the most important quality content to be taken into consideration when you’re building your blog.
spending time bombarding a blog with plugins is a waste of time, not to mention the detriment you are causing to its infrastructure from a coding perspective. the seo all in one pack, or something similar suffices.
focus on fundamental SEO, from keyword research, to page titles, metas and keyword density. ensure the pages are interlinked well and all else should take care of itself as long as you provide valuable content.
Agree, the All in One plugin is all I use.
Happy New Year!!! Happy 2011! 🙂
Wow Lisa you have opened up my eyes, you are like a mother, an angel that says the right words at the right time. I have been trying to figure things out when it comes to seo, and which way I wanted to go, and you just let me know the best way is the right way. Thanks for the encouraging words and that’s why I submitted to your rss feed because I know you are going to tell the truth no matter if it hurt. Like they say the truth will set you free, thanks again and I look forward to following your lead in the internet business. Happy New Year
I agree with you, I think nowadays it is the authentic links building that rules, those voluntary links that we get from our blogging friends and our readers and the links we get from guest postings are the best backlinks that will help in boosting our rankings in search engines. Submission to directories do not help much SEO power nowadays. So it is really important to have a good communication skill and help other bloggers in the blogging world
I keep trying to submit my website to google, but the program I use – Site Build It – is a block by block builder. It won’t authorize the site. I’ll figure it out eventually I guess, but all this code and crazy business is confusing to say the least. I just like writing articles and posting pictures of gardens.
Hi Julie, I dont know what you mean by your statement about something is not authorizing your site, but your site is indexed by google. To see this just type, site:gardeningwithjulie.com , into Google search and you will see the pages of your site that Google has indexed. Once Google has crawled your site, you don’t need to submit any more. Google will determine how often they crawl your site. As far as notifying Google of site changes, you could create a sitemap.xml file for your site, set up a Google webmaster tools account, and you can submit your sitemap when you change or add pages.
You have a lot of great info on your site, but may i make one suggestion? Your home page reads more like an About page than a Home page. A lot of info there about you and your history which is good for an About page, but your Home page needs to quickly show your visitor that you have the information they are looking for, and Google is looking for your keywords in that content for ranking as well.
Take advantage of your page title and heading, as I mentioned to Carletta in reply to her post. I’m pretty sure that your most important keyword to be found for in the search engines isn’t “Gardening with Julie”, but if it is, you have it just right!
Thank you!
About a year ago a guy with a fairly new site (less than a year old) — on blogging tips, no less — wrote a post with a title along the lines of “The Best SEO Tip in the World” or something. I pointed out that, given his current traffic and ranking, he might not be at a point to make such a strong claim. I suggested a “softer” title.
I wasn’t trying to be snarky. But, like you, over the years I’ve seen so many people hurt by bad advice. And more often than not it comes from people who simply do not have the expertise they imply.
Wow. Did that tick him off. Then he created a post just to rant about me. Mature. I wrote a response post that I never published. I forgot all about it until now.
Reading your post reminded me and I popped over and published it. It’s called (if you’ll forgive the link) How to Deal with Negative Blog Comments.
Lisa, kudos for telling it like it is.
I am a victim of an SEO scam. I actually paid a company to do this for me. That was a mistake. A few dollars later, the website is no longer active because even after paying the company, I still did not get much traffic nor did I get “picked up” by Google for my targeted keyword. I put too much energy into something was not worth it. There is a lot of info out there about search engines. There are many that are just waiting to take others money. People should really be careful.
i’ve always stayed away from seo companies, have always studied the top ranking sites on google, yahoo and bing. you find a small site ranked on the 1st page or 2nd of all 3 than that site is doing something right…just have to study, research and understand, and replicate to a certain extent.
When I started my blog 3.5 years ago (I can’t believe it has been that long), I knew nothing about SEO or anything related to the topic. Like many new-comers, I read websites and blogs on the subject, but didn’t really pay attention to who was actually doing the writing. I did end up doing things that I wouldn’t do today, mainly because I have learned much in those 3.5 years.
There are a few posts on my blog that generate a great percentage of my traffic, and those posts have been for a few years. The interesting part is that I didn’t do anything related to SEO for those posts – including generating backlinks. The reason for this is others did it for me. Those few posts have more domains linking to them because others have linked back to them in various forums, naturally, and over time those backlinks have enabled those posts to appear at the top of the search results.
This didn’t happen overnight, however, as it took years to climb to the top. If you write content that your visitors value, then much of what is needed to succeed will come over time. Website development isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon.
This post certainly came in very timely for me but 1 thing I have decided to do is to learn how to properly configure the all in one seo plugin and leave the rest alone, I have always that unique content is king and promotion of the content is prime minister…thanks
Excellent article, Lisa. I agree with you one hundred percent.
Actual results are King, and they are only “actual results” if they remain over time.
One could always try and keep up with changes in Google’s algos, which is very hard considering changes those variables are not disclosed to the public. Doing so, however, would keep you chasing the “new thing” over and over.
Sure, your SERPs may change somewhat from time to time, but I am a firm believer that sticking to good old common sense works on the web as it does in real life. Write good content and people will link to it, and traffic will increase over time as more people notice that you have something valuable to offer.
Keep it simple. A unique meta title, a good meta description, and a decent H1 header will do. When you write an article about a subject, it follows that it will naturally include words that are relevant – all the keywords you’ll ever need. Use descriptive anchor texts, and not “click here”.
I have read many many articles about SEO over the years, covering topics such as link farms, directories, social sites, article submission, optimal keyword percentages, latent sematic indexing, starting blogs with the sole purpose of linking to your own site – and the list goes on and on. Yours is about the best I have ever read. It is straight to the point, and agree with it wholeheartedly.
I have personally used the same strategy for clients, and lately for my own sites, and I have decent results to prove that it does work, which, as you mention in the article, is the ONLY thing that counts.
Keep it up, Lisa. Keep it real.
Hi Lisa,
Happy Christmas and new year. Great post and information again.
Been a newbie to marketing it is always tempting to buy links and also in to directories, but your article makes a lot of sense and I like the idea of guest blogging, as it is also a good way of starting an Internet relationship with readers.
I have a quick question, how do I get my photo on your comments, I feel like I have a bag over my head lol.
Stephen.
Very down-to-earth advice in this post. But my experience is that people like mechanical formulas that promise to accomplish some goal. So there’ll always be people ready to fall for whiz-bang SEO techniques or turnkey affiliate websites. Whereas the truth is that creativity and perseverance result in a much higher chance of success. But that is lot less concrete than “get into this directory”, “get that backlink” etc.
Thanks for the post. Here is my input:
I think basics SEO skills is needed to understand how search engines work. I had good results in SEO(link building) to rank for my e-commerce sites by targeting good keywords with high search volume and low competition and it worked. But i had little or no success at all ranking my blog using the same strategies. I’ve noticed most of my blog traffic come from links from my comments and posts in other websites ,visitors who read my articles or comments and are interested in checking out my website.
So I think Lisa you made a good point here.
As always you offer good avice. There is so much bad SEO advice out there, thankfully I only seek out tips from a few sites like this one. 🙂
There is even a plugin doing the rounds that boasts about helping you gain good rankings in SERPS but it is a very dirty plugin that should be avoided. 🙂
Hi Lisa…
You’ve made some very good key points about SEO and how new marketers have to be mislead by incorrect insight about SEO. I actually had one site that ranked number 7 on the first page of Google… boy! it was tough getting there.
The Website was a digital product site that offered PC games and downloads… my main success with the site was that I had connected with a distributor that had many others sites linked to it because of the type of product they provided and I offered.
I personally believe that in order to get ranked “ethically” is to build your site with good content that entices the readers and allow them to link… voluntarily… “authentic popularity” to you.
“So you have a bunch of people with no SE traffic writing about how to get SE traffic because they read about tips on other blogs that also have no SE traffic. Ugh!!”… I agree 100%
This is not a business that you take from someone else experienced or from what some else may have said… but you learn to be creative and offer experience to your niche that in turns build your credibility.
Much said and I commend you on your success and the desire you have to help others that has a desire to grow.
Thank you for this post, Lisa! I could not agree with you more about the internet marketing blogs. So much of what I’ve seen on blogs about internet marketing and social media is the same information regurgitated from site to site. There are no new ideas, new angles for presenting those ideas, etc. I now only follow your blog and one or two others regularly.
As for directory submissions… I don’t know. There is a newer website that has risen very quickly in my niche and is even right on my heels, that has done very little to get back links other than submit to directories. I have checked the back links and there are many, many directory links.
I am in Yahoo directory now, and have been thinking about whether or not I should submit to some others. I am still trying to figure out that end of it.
Hi Carletta,
I definitely think it should be a calculated decision and some rhyme or reason behind it as in your case. You’ve done your research and it could be that Google holds some value to the particular directories this site is listed in. So it may be worth getting listed in a couple to see if it has any impact — especially since you see proof that these links are being “counted.”
Hi Carletta,
Most of my past experience has with corporate websites, intranets, database apps etc, where search engine rankings were not a high priority, but over the last year and half or so i have been doing a lot of research and study on the subject, and sorting the wheat from the chaff. Like Lisa says, there’s a lot of bad information out there.
From what I see, a lot of people miss some ranking opportunities by not getting the most out of ON-page SEO. I took a quick look at your site and I have a couple suggestions just from looking at your home page.
I don’t knowing the exact keyword(phrase) you are trying to rank for the most, but i’m assuming its more than just the word Homeshooling, but that’s all you have in your page title. Take advantage of your title and put your most important keywords near the beginning.
The same principle applies to your heading. What you have there may be ok if your targeting “successful homeschooling”, but a google adwords search on that phrase shows approximately 110 US searches on that keyword per month. Pretty low. You might consider rephrasing it to something like “How to homeschool successfully” which gives you the phrase you already have and gives you “how to homeschool” which has 14,800 searches/month.
Another thing is while there are no hard numbers on keyword density, I think it’s still something to pay attention to as a guideline. Your density for school, home, homeschool, are over 10%. This is getting a little dangerous as far as Google might think you are keyword stuffing and be a penalty. I dont know of any solid research on that, but seems to be the general consensus.
Hope this helps. Good Luck.
Thank you, Tom. This is very helpful information!
Another great blog post, Lisa. You touched on something that I have thought about a lot but I might use different words and that is the incestuous nature of a lot of SEO.
SEO types promote SEO to other SEO’s who promote it yet to more SEO types, but nobody is doing any real search engine optimization.
I’m just beginning my SEO adventure for my site. Thank you for this post and the responses ~ It saved me what could have been a lot of wasted time…..
Could one of you more experienced bloggers tell which affiliate network I should pick between the Google AdSense, Amazon and Commission Junction for my website at http://www.affiliateprogramchaser.com?
I hope Lisa doesn’t mind me stepping in here. I like Google adwords most because people don’t have to buy anything for you to make money. They just have to window shop by clicking on Google Ad. But my guess is Lisa will suggest eventually turning to products that have recurring income like hosting companies or using product from Clickbank.
I use all three. It’s not so much about the networks as much as it is about what is appropriate for your individual site. For example, certain products I like to promote use CJ so I use them for some products. If I find a product I want to promote on Amazon, I’ll use them. So it’s about finding the products you want to promote and then joining the appropriate networks.
Thanks for the information. I was wondering if I should pay for a directory listing. Yahoo’s listing is $300, and that’s just for 1 year.
I have a pie recipe site and it has been tough to get traffic. What I noticed is that I get more hits for pages that support recipes but are not recipes them self, like how to freeze pumpkin pie.
For 2011, I will focus on expanding supportive subjects to pie baking and not so much on just providing recipes.
The cute Pie Guy
Hi Warren,
Six years ago I would have said definitely “Yes” to the Yahoo directory because it really did help get better rankings in Google. However, now it’s possible to get great Google rankings and traffic without a listing in Yahoo and I wonder if Google values the link so much as they used to.
I always tell people that if you can afford it, then go for it but please don’t go broke or use your last $300 on a listing. There are many, many people doing just fine without the listing. I don’t think it has the weight it once had.
You only should have to pay once as long as your site falls into the “non commercial” category. I’ve never had to pay more than the one-time fee.
I work at moving local businesses into the top 7 search results and I achieved top rankings for scores of businesses and have never used the Yahoo directory. I have to admit that local is easier. It’s like taking a short cut to the front of the line, but still many traditional SEO techniques still apply.
When I first started out, it felt like i was being pulled in about 30 different directions with blogs and websites telling me that I had to focus on what THEY were preaching about…..
boy am I glad I didnt give them that much attention!
They were basically saying that SEO is what will skyrocket you to the next level and send you the traffic you have been waiting for.
I’m just glad I found your site, which keeps it 100! and tells it like it is!
Preach girl!
You’re awesome an awesome mentor. Thank you.
Hello Lisa! Thank you for your blog, site and videos.
Do I need to tell that you inspired me to start my own blog 😉
I do not post often, but I am going to change it soon.
For now I want to ask you. Could you make a short look at my blog and tell me what changes can I do to make it better?
Hey Lisa,
glad you wrote a post on this subject. I have read many SEO posts lately and all of them promise a lot and don’t really deliver.
As you said, people are giving tips on something they are not experiencing themselves.
I am kinda glad I learned my first lessons from SBI and that their tips are the foundation to my online “knowledge”.
You are completely right about the misleading info out there and I am sure that people will learn the hard way.
Hope you had a great Christmas 🙂
Lisa,
You’ve made some great points here. I especially agree with your “pet peeve’ about misleading information about SEO. It’s unfortunate that SEO has become such a buzzword that some bloggers almost feel compelled to regurgitate info they’ve read and offer it as advice. It’s even more unfortunate that their readers follow this advice.
True SEO experts are few and far between. Those that are really experts are most likely making their living consulting and working for large and profitable companies (both big and small). Google seems to be constantly modifying their rules and most of us can’t begin to try to keep up with them.
Like you, I think my best strategy is to write meaningful content and include keywords when they make sense. Thanks for a well thought out post.
When I did a blogathon my search engine traffic skyrocketed. Had I did a blogathon for a week straight I would have had around 2,000 page hits by the end of the week. The downfall was I hadn’t been doing keyword research for my articles so many of the terms that people were finding me for wasn’t what they were looking for. but what I learned was having fresh updated content is extremely effective for boositng search engine traffic.
Hi Lisa,
I feel you on this – I’m going to be honest, when I first began I started by letting keywords guide my writing, but that was such a creativity-stifling process – I eventually got frustrated and stopped worrying about SEO altogether. I don’t think that’s the best thing to do either, but the traffic still came, but here’s why: I’ve got tons of guest posts on popular sites and at the time I was posting about 5-6 days a week.
What I’ve learned to do, is to lightly optimize – what I mean by that, is that I write the post, first, then if the mood strikes, I’ll take some time to do a little research and choose the best title and tags based on my findings.
I use only one SEO plug-in on each of my blogs: Platinum SEO for one and All-in-one-SEO pack for the other.
Hello Lisa,
Content writing is one of my major concerns as I am starting out with a new website. When it is launched the only things I can do is guest posting.
Newspapers work in similar methods to guest posting as they accept companies writing good information on a product or service/subject. This works good for both parties as newspapers (at least smaller ones and in earlier days) didn’t have a lot of money so this helped them to fill the pages. In addition the company got great free publicity.
How? Well they gave great advice.
So this brings me to my next point, a lot of people may be starting out and I certainly want to do it on the right note, but writing tacky articles will NOT help you.
Here’s a golden rule I have set myself: If I am not happy to host said article on my own site I will definitely not have it published on another.
So I think you can clarify this in a next post of yours as you have a lot of experience with this. Additionally as I am starting out this is probably the only thing I can do as I too, have failed in the past and I do not believe in directories etc. For a brand new website it is important to write excellent content and target the right keywords, but content and off-page SEO (I.E guest posting) is the way to go.
I have my goals, and I’m working toward them. My greatest concern is my content. Nobody can write my column for me. It’s a serious craft. Of course, this means that I overlook building traffic. I’d be glad of any help from the masters here. If I can succeed by steady plowing and pleasing readers for a few years, then I will be happy. I guess to me, success is making people happy. But I’d like to help merchants sell their products, too. That’s a good thing.
Hey Lisa,
Thanks for clarifying some major points here. I’ll give you some insight into my experience with my blog which is only about 10 months old.
I only use one seo plugin to help with adding and customizing titles, descriptions, etc for various pages and posts.
Currently, search engine traffic accounts for up to 50% of my site’s traffic for specific keywords. When compared to similar websites of similar age, the average one does not experience that. I attribute this greatly to guest writing. I was regularly guest posting on one of the most popular blogs on the web and they were very generous with allowing me to link back to relevant posts on my blog. Since this experience, I have seen a massive increase in relevant search engine traffic.
I think the problem with most new bloggers is that they want to make it to the top quickly with little “authentic” effort. So they don’t focus on creating awesome content that will truly attract the genuine backlinks and interest. Instead, they listen to the hype and engage in useless, distracting, time consuming practices.
Excellent reminder Lisa 🙂
Seo is very complex to the average person, and people really need to realize stuff really haven’t changed over the years..its all about being you and people will link back..
“Black Seo Guy “Signing Off”
@TrafficColeman Antonio this is true because it recently happen to me I had wrote an article called “Free .edu Backlinks to Boost Your SEO Website Search Engine Rankings” and my friend and blog follower Mikayla linked to my article in one of her articles, because I give away free .edu backlinks in that article. Mikayla is one Lisa’s blog commenters thats how I met her and became friends. I was so excited whe she linnked to me because I was myself and I was adding value.
I appreciate your post. As I have been doing my research and preparing my journey in affiliate marketing, I often run into sites claiming to have back-link tools. By using these tools you will never have any idea of who you’re linking too. By building authentic popularity and credibility you will have followers who come to your site because they believe in the goal/mission of your site. I don’t see how it could work otherwise.