There's a great deal hype in the SEO industry probably because it is a techno field plus is very competitive so everyone is attempting eyebrow everyone else and get the upper edge.

Being in my antiquated 40's - hippy 1965 baby to be exact - I have been around the IT industry well before most of the current players were out of diapers. I was there in our computer room when they unveiled the latest hard drive - it looked like a modern day top-loader washer and was the same size! All up it held a 'breath-taking' 40 Meg of data. Yes that is right 40 Meg! When we saw the new micro PC's come out we felt they would never take off (we must have had IBM blood in us!) and the IT journey went on from there.

Today my 'long teeth' dip in my beer and my eyeballs roll back in their sockets when I hear some of the hype plastered around the SEO playing field.

Yes Search engine optimisation can be specialized but only usually when you got it wrong from the outset - your website that is. If you did not hire an Search engine optimisation advisor to give you the rundown BEFORE you started building then you probably finished up with a site pierced with a zillion Search engine optimisation holes. Websites like these normally takes some fixing without a doubt. Most web designers don't know anything about Search engine optimization and what they do know they rarely put into practice because they aren't requested to by you! Not selecting an Search engine optimization advisor is like building a 3 storey residence without using an architect and engineer and expecting the contractor to get it right - no way.

I run into a great SEO site once in every 100 web sites. It is a terrible track record for web-developers. Almost every other single site is a ship full of holes sinking in the lower regions of page 196 of Google!

So apart from adding some colorful pros to this piece I guess I should add some substance. Well here it is - short and simple (well maybe not that short!)

Content is King

Google uses backlinks a lot at the moment to judge a web sites popularity. However, it is now very easy to create back-links of good quality in significant amounts to unbalance the ranking game. Google knows it has to find a way to balance this out. When it does, most people's position will certainly come crashing to the ground overnight.

On the other hand, Google always wants High quality content material - the very best it can show. If you have this, then because content is the only reason why we have search engines in the first place, your website will invariably excel regardless of what twists and turns Google puts its search engine algorithms through.

In no way ever overlook that content is king within the Search engine optimization jungle. Ignore at your peril.

We battled to get content on customers web sites for so long until we built it into our SEO ranking packages. We now offer a content and back-linking service (SEO.SIMPLE.) that solves this inherent problem. Now our clients get fresh unique content on their websites weekly and gain ranking results from it seeing it is SEO optimised as well.

Your content delivery engines needs to be well tuned

Don't think that anyone can merely add content to a web page and miss out on the platform you happen to be adding it to. Google wants to be sure that the content material is not only the best for the key phrase requested, but it also delivers the best user experience. So be sure you cross your T's and dot your SEO eyes when it comes to making certain your site provides the very best experience such as doing these :

Ensure your server is fast - Google not long ago added this one - upgrade right now if it takes too long to download your pages

Ensure ALL images have ALT tags WITH purposeful content material

Make sure every page has a UNIQUE page title relevant to the content of the page

Fix Canonical issues (were http://www.yoursite.com and http://yoursite.com and http://www.yoursite.com/index.php etc all resolve to the same page but have different addresses. Instead they should all redirect to a single page and that page should be used throughout the site in all links. If you are on a UNIX based server this can be fixed quickly usually through the htaccess file)

Make sure there are at the least 300 words of meaningful text on any page - the more the better for Google

Make certain that if you are utilizing a Website cms that the URL's are fixed so only phrases appear (and preferably keywords) and not funny programming expressions and numbers

Whenever you create a link use a keyword(s) and not the notorious 'click here' as the anchor text

If you cannot add content to your site (maybe you have a flash site), then at the least add a blog attached to your site - this helps a whole lot

When you next renew your current domain, renew not less than 3 years - of course longevity exhibits maturity and raises trust

Backlinks and more inbound links

And of course do not cease back-linking. Right now it is the powerhouse for Search engine optimisation but do not rely on this for the long term.

So I hope this has helped 'de-hype' a few of the Search engine optimisation materials out there and assisted you along the SEO highway a little bit further.

Discover more SEO tips and tricks. And if you need a great SEO Consultant we are based in Singapore (so our rates are great!) but we work globally. This article, SEO Hype Log is available for free reprint.

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