When people refer to “organic SEO” (search engine optimization), they almost always use it as a blanket term to describe the unpaid, algorithm-driven results of any particular engine.

Below are the two approaches as “organic SEO” and “artificial SEO” for the sake of clarity.

There’s an “old” saying in the SEO industry that “content is king.” but actually good content is king. People use search engines, they are primarily seeking one thing: information. They are not seeking to be impressed by fancy flash sites. A search engine optimization company that is truly practicing “organic SEO” recognizes this fact and will refuse SEO work when prospects insist that content addition is not an option. Certainly, there are acceptable (from the engine’s standpoint) technical aspects that any good search engine optimization company will use, such as relevant page titles and meta tags. But there are many more unacceptable technical methodologies than acceptable ones, including cloaking, redirects, multiple sites, keyphrase stuffing, hidden links, and numerous others.

Inbound links are critical to the success of an “organic SEO” campaign. But there are different ways to go about it. Firms that practice true “organic SEO” will look at the website itself and say “How can we make this site something that other sites would want to link to?” A search engine optimization company using “artificial SEO” will ask, “How can I get links pointing to this site without adding anything of value to it?” The latter approach usually leads to reciprocal linking schemes, link farms, the purchase of text links, and more.

There is a stark contrast between “organic SEO” and “artificial SEO.” Of course, any decent search engine optimization company will make certain that a site is listed in all the popular directories, such as the Yahoo Directory, the Open Directory Project, and Business.com. A good search engine optimization company will also continually seek any industry specific directories where your site should be listed. But truly using “organic SEO” means evolving your site into something that holds actual value to your prospects.

Search engines change algorithms frequently, and for two reasons. One is, of course, to improve their results based upon their most recent user studies. The other is to remove sites that are ranked artificially high. It is not uncommon on the search engine forums to see the owner of such a search engine optimization company threatening to “sue Google” over a recent update. Not uncommon, but always amusing.

There is, with only a few exceptions, a common denominator in the websites that remain highly ranked throughout these algorithm shifts. They offer something of value to their visitors and are considered a resource for their industry.

Taking advantage of “organic SEO” to make your website an industry resource provides a tremendous natural boost to your rankings for your individual product or service pages. This means that with “organic SEO,” you’ll get the best of both worlds. You’ll reach people early in the buying cycle, educate them, and steer them toward your solution by using your website instead of your sales personnel. You will also reach the low hanging fruit because your individual product or service pages, which are intended for people who are ready to buy now, will get a significant rankings boost.

Labels: seo_guide

If your website doesn't comply with the basic rules of search engine friendly web-design, then all your attempts at achieving any success in the engines will be a waste of time.

The importance of building websites so they're search-engine friendly is still widely underestimated; too many webmasters still think that a few meta-tags and a search engine submission campaign is all they need to be successful.

All the internal navigation links should be coded as plain HTML links. Links coded using JavaScript are not followed by the search engine spiders. The same is true for links embedded in Flash objects. If the site has JavaScript or Flash based there should be an alternative navigation bar in plain HTML.

All internal links pointing to the home page of the site should link to "/" or "http://www.seosapien.com/". Any sort of "index.html", "default.asp" or "main.jsp" in the URLs of those internal links introduce unnecessary problems like the duplicate content problem and split page's authority. It's been reiterated and discussed thousands of times all over the SEO forum circuit.

Dynamic URLs are not necessarily bad, though static URLs are, of course, better. Important rules, often neglected, which would be "no "id" letters in parameter names" and "no session ID parameters for guest visitors". The naming convention of dynamic parameters is the easiest thing to fix; the only thing required here is to know and remember about the rule.

Another way to scare a spider away is to require that the user-agent supports cookies - and refuse to serve any content unless cookies are enabled. Since the engines' bots don't support cookies, they will just go away.

Labels: search_engines

Deep linking is the linking of information to another page from a website page instead of the actual home page itself.

Deep linking improves the usability of a website for their visitor, new internet users or users less knowledgeable in the ways of web world are most likely to easily find what it is they are looking for by going directly to a page within a site by clicking on a deep link. Imagine for a moment you were searching for a particular recipe, chicken casserole for example, when you click on a link that promises a chicken casserole recipe, not a whole lot of other information with little or no clue of how to find that cherished chicken casserole. Allowing your site visitor to go straight to the recipe they are looking for ensures that you will have a returning visit, confusing and disappointing your visitor is not the best way to create interested visitors.

Certainly there are even more advantages for allowing deep linking into your website. Allowing deep linking makes it far easier to follow your website visitors viewing tracks. Your website stats will display exactly what pages and information your website visitor was interested in viewing when they entered your website. This will clearly define what you have that is of value and know the true popularity of your website content.

Deep linking also greatly improves your websites attractiveness for search engine rankings. Take for example a website devoted to dogs that provided links to each specific breed of dog from the homepage, when someone searching the internet is looking for Husky information the search engine will include this website and the person looking easily find what they are looking for on your website.

Labels: on_site_seo

The Meta tag is not nearly as popular with search engines as it has been, however since meta tags are at the top of your code you should always take advantage of them and include your main keywords.

Meta tags are most often found between the and tags. The Meta tags allow you to tell the search engine spiders a bit more on how you would like them to display your site. When a user enters a search string and the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) returns your site, if the Meta Description is declared, it is some times used this on it's site.

The title tag is used by the search engines to provide a title for your URL in their search results. It is the most important tag and absolutely all sites and pages should use it and include the targeted keywords.

The meta description should include a factual description of your site.

The keywords tag was used to further assist the search engine spiders in indexing your site. You should only use keywords in the meta tag that are also in the body of your website.

Labels: on_site_seo