Beginner’s 5-Minute Guide to SEO:

seo is Search Engine Optimization.

You want to reach the number one spot on Google (and Yahoo and Live, but we’ll just say Google, because it’s easier). By using the correct keywords in all your alt tags, title tags, h tags, class names, image names, meta tags, etc. That is called on-site optimization.

Off-site seo

Off-site optimization consists of getting other quality sites to link to you. Each link must have relevant link text, and it helps if the site has a high PR (pagerank) and a small number of outbound links. Traditionally, people would hoard PR by getting tons of websites to link back to them, but by refusing to place links on their own site (they were afraid of what we call “pagerank bleed”. But anymore, I don’t believe pagerank bleed is something that anyone should concern themselves with. The use of “nofollow” on external links is becoming worthless, and after boiling everything down to its elements, the bottom line is to give out links to sites only if you think your human audience would find value on a given website.

You want to avoid buying backlinks.  The general consensus is, if you create quality content, you will get links naturally.  In the beginning of the Internet days, before Google, webmasters would put links of to pages that were of interest.  Then the search engines started using inbound links as popularity votes, and it became high school all over again.  Now we are out of college, and more mature, and the best way to go about things is to link to sites you personally like, because they are interesting and you have something in common, not because you are getting something out of it (in other words, don’t buy links, don’t join reciprocal link farms, and don’t sell links! Targeted advertising is one thing–but paying $100 to have your link displayed on 100,000 completely unrelated spammy sites will not do you any good!  Don’t do it!

What’s our mantra, class?

content is king.

Think of it this way. You build a site, and it starts with no PR. Then Google rolls out an update 3 months later and they saw that you have 15 quality sites linking to you, and your site has 50 really good articles, and a good mix of relevant inbound and outbound links. You might skip PR 0 and PR 1 and be blessed with a PR 2. Very few sites have a PR 10. Pagerank is not something to obsess over, more of a general guide to see how important Google thinks your site is. The theory is that a high PR page will get more traffic because it will be listed higher in the SERPs. (SEARCH ENGINE RESULT PAGES) but don’t waste energy worrying about PR when you could instead be writing an article or making a video!

White hat, Black hat…

That’s some Bad Hat, Harry!

There are tons of ways to increase your SERP position. But it is a very competitive field. That’s where black hat and white hat come in, they are terms that describe the ethics used by the seo experts. If you use tricks that are designed to fool the search engines, using spammy tactics, that is black hat. Quality honest seo consultants use white hat methods, like article submission, social bookmarking, and manual submission to quality directories like DMOZ.

I hope this hasn’t confused you too much. It just all kind of spilled out. If you are interested in the 30 Day Challenge, for your promoting your website, it’s a really awesome free course that covers all of this stuff and shows you how to make your first dollar online. My mom is doing it, which shows how accessible it is to beginners. Stop by our google group for Team Rockstar if ya want to join the discussion. My brother and I started it to help our friends and family who want to learn this stuff, and who are going to take part in this year’s 30 Day Challenge.

Oh it’s free too? Of course. Ed Dale’s cheesy slogan is “There’s no charge for awesomeness!”

Chris
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I was trying to think of a way to approach link building that would be both fun, and useful, to both beginners, and veterans.  So for this post, I will do a quick case study of someone I think you might like to read about;

…his name is Eric Ward and he’s a Link Building Expert.

I don’t know the guy.  I promise. Although I did know an Eric Ward in St. Louis/O’fallon who used to throw wicked cool warehouse parties.

Anyway, what can we learn from Eric Ward?  First of all, he has been a professional link builder since 1993. He was arguably one of the first “Web promoters” in the world. He charges $500 per hour for coaching and training.  Up to $50,000 a year for complete publicity campaign for a new site.  I am getting nothing in return for linking to his site; he is not paying me.  He obviously doesn’t NEED me to link to him, I mean the guy is pretty famous. I just think you should take notice of him, because he is THE authority on link building.

I was reading this page and laughed when I got to the end.  He says:

“Is an etiologic approach to link building and content publicity effective? Yes, but don’t take my word for it, read below, then see for yourself.”

I clicked that link that says see for yourself. I am convinced now.

So, he knows his stuff. But you say you don’t have $50,000 to spend on promoting your new site?  Don’t worry.  We can still learn something from his site, without shelling out hundreds or thousands of dollars.

1. Make your content meritorius.
2. Make your linking strategy etiologic.
3. Focus on long-term results.
4. White hat.
5. Don’t waste time/effort on worthless links.

What do these mean?  I told you it would be fun, we are learning new words!  Meritorious content is content that has value.  Not fluff, not spam, not splogs, not script-generated (or any type of) nonsense.  Etiologic links are ones that are trustworthy, logical, and efficient. What is an example of a non-etiological link?  How about when you are on a forum and certain words are underlined, and when clicked lead to some sponsoring site.  I would not have a problem with this (Adbright allows any webmaster to add inline ads like this) , EXCEPT FOR THE FACT THAT 90% of the time these ad-links are irrelevant and UN-targeted.  A site about Dog Rescue ends up having inline ads for words like adopt, but the ads are not talking about adopting puppies!  Even worse is when your “Home” link in your navbar gets linked to a site about real estate.  These links are annoying and actually HURT you.

Let’s not confuse the issue by making this about inline ads, though; the point is, this is the WRONG way to give links, so it is also the wrong way to go about GETTING them. Link text should be relevant; the purpose for having a link there in the FIRST PLACE should be obvious.

When you write your content (or have it written for you), pick out something that is likely going to be considered USEFUL or IMPORTANT.  Ask yourself, who NEEDS to read this?  WHO DOES this HELP?  Choose that one sentence and figure out WHO would benefit from reading it.  Then figure out where that person hangs out online.  And go after THAT site for links.

Why are we doing it like this?  Because, signing up to be included in a zillion web directories will not ever get you any SUSTAINABLE traffic.  But if a friend of mine has a site about helping moms live beautifully, comfortably, and abundantly, then instead of adding her link to some crappy directory, an etiological linking strategy would make me choose instead to focus the effort on getting links back from places where her audience most likely hangs out:  Boudica.com or even EmpoweredAndFit.ning.com.

See how this starts to become fun?

We aren’t paying for links, we aren’t creating useless blogs with keyword-crammed SPUN articles, we aren’t employing any black hat techniques.

What we are doing is figuring out who needs to hear our message and then getting the most relevant, useful content that we have written for those people, into their field of view.  Whether that is a forum, a ning community, a popular blog, a news portal, bookmarking site, whatever… it depends on your content.  The fun part is that we will actually become involved with the people who we are targeting, by joining them where they go.  Instead of just shouting at people, “HEY! COME OVER HERE!  SEE WHAT I AM GOING TO SELL YOU AT MY PLACE!”

We will be better off saying, Hey, mind if I join you here for a bit?  I have something I would like to contribute, that you might like, and I would like to hang out with you here, on YOUR turf, thanks for having me as your guest.

But whatever your niche, it all starts with having QUALITY content that people will actually WANT to read.  Without that, you are just spinning your wheels.

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