Learn me: SEO

Hello fellow GRMers. From the category of "GRMers know all kinds of things" I ask to be educated on SEO.

I'm working on launching a startup company (I'll leave the shameless plug off since it will be a for profit company) and I'm doing so by self funding, bootstrapping... aka... being cheap. I've worked very hard, and spent a good amount of money getting to where I am now. I'm not afraid to spend money, but it has to be money well spent.

I am about to launch my product to the world. I think I have a great product that will help a lot of people be successful. My concern is that no one will know about it. Obviously I will leverage my personal and professional networks, but I only know so many people. Today, when people need things, they "google it". Which means I need to be discoverable on all the major search engines.

I know a few things. But what do you guys know? What should I do to raise my ranking and appearance in search results?

I'll dump my SEO knowledge here:

• Link spamming can get you blacklisted
• Quality inbound links raise your rank
• Search terms need to be present on the destination page
• Slide sharing sites seem to be a preferred manner of obtaining a quality inbound link
• The people selling 10,000+ "likes", "followes", "clicks" are not worth the time / money / effort

Any help or experience you can shed on the subject?

Thanks, Brad

Once you get past all the SEO voodoo: the search engines are looking for sites with good content that get updated frequently. That's it.

So do that. Put good stuff on your site. Update it regularly. Our "projects in the shop" feature is fun for people to see and visit so it attracts both human and machine eyeballs. Don't concentrate on SEO, concentrate on making a good site.

Use words you think people will search for but don't make the language more awkward because of it. For example, if you're selling control arms but want to make sure people will also find a-arms or wishbones, you can use verbiage such as "Our control arms - also known as a-arms or wishbones - are superior to all others because they are blah blah blah". Don't keep changing the term you use in each sentence or just pad the page. The search engines are getting smarter all the time.

SEO = Search Engine Optimization?

carguy123 wrote: SEO = Search Engine Optimization?

Yup. The blackart of internet marketers. The rules are secret and changed frequently.

I like what Keith said.

I used to believe SEO was the secret formula. I figured, heck it's just a big machine. I've got to be able to out-wit it. I no longer believe that.

The goal, nay the holy grail of search engines is to provide good content. It's what drives their business. To accomplish that goal, they have 10's of thousands of really smart programmers writing code and changing algorithms daily to try to insure quality content.

What makes me think I can out-wit them with a few vocabulary tricks?

Besides, it is stinkin thinkin. It is really a form of get-rich-quick thinking.

There is, however, another aspect that is really important.

I'd focus a lot less on the SEO, and a LOT more on social media. When you engage people through FB, Twitter, Pinterest, or whatever the heck they happen to like, THEY become your best advertisers. The key is THE PEOPLE, not the machine.

Become the pro. Focus on quality. Build a good website. Update it regularly. Engage people where they like to hang out (even if it is not your thing), and THEY will create the traffic, and optimize it for you.

Oh, and expect it to be a heck of a lot if work.

Off topic.

Will this little product of yours help me in any way being successful with beating you on Wednesday night's?

In reply to nicksta43:

No. It is, however, the reason I haven't been able to race in a long time.

Yeah, I have a subject matter blog that is updated frequently. I also use a social media tool which has an owl as a mascot to engage and manage social media pages on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

I agree that people are the key, but being discovered and building that audience are the areas I am concerned with currently.

I'm assuming you mean the Suite of Hoot in terms of your social media efforts.

SEO isn't just making good content and updating it regularly. Sorry, but there are lots of good sites out there that don't come up in searches. Why? Because nobody knows they exist so they don't get any votes AKA LINKS.

Backlinks are what make SEO work, which is why SEO is REALLY tied into social media, especially since the book of faces is rolling out graph search.

Basic rules: Meta titles: 65 characters (including spaces) get the keyword you want to show up for in there, but don't be spammy or load it up. Make sure people can read it. EVERY META TITLE MUST BE UNIQUE.

Meta description: People say Google doesn't pay attention to this. BullE36 M3. Look at any search results page and you can see the great Googs highlighting words within the meta description. Advertise what's on the page and get a keyword in there. Keep it under 165 characters or less.

Homepage text: Well written and not just a damn graph. Make sure people can read it nicely and use it to link to pages (in the text) within your own site with relevant keywords. Less is more in terms of links, but less can also be less. Think one per graph.

Sub-Pages: More text. Again it needs to be well written. One link from each one within the text going back to the homepage.

That's about all I'm giving away for free since this is what I do for a living. It's not voodoo, it's just hard work. Get people to share things you've written (with a keyword link in it) and you'll see your site grow in relevance ie in the search rankings.

Of course you should track where you stand every step of the way to track progress. Make sure you submit a sitemap to Google and get Google analytics too.

Oh yeah, if you have a physical address make sure you're square with google maps listings and every other listing site you can think of: YellowPages etc.