I haven’t written anything about Search Engine Optimization in a whole week. No, I haven’t lost interest. No, I’m not ready to stop hitting you over the head with how important SEO (or SEO Consulting if you don’t have the time to handle SEO yourself) is to your long-tail marketing plans.
Yesterday, I came across this piece. It’s simple. It describes some easily understood SEO ideas. And then it gets … even better.
I’ve included a snapshot of the page I’m talking about, because I’ve got something important to show you. It illustrates just how simple, and also how difficult, good Search Engine Optimization can be. I’m also showing you the comments that come underneath the post:
Look at the first picture. See that date? The post was written on May 10, 2011. Now look at the comments. MY comment was written after the post, but all the others carry dates that actually precede the date the post was written. Since time travel has not yet been proven possible, I think we can assume that some SEO shenanigans are afoot here.
Here, by the way, is my full comment, since in light of the stuff you can see in the pictures we don’t know for sure that it will be staying on the post (it’s currently addressable directly at http://www.blogtrafficexchange.com/principles-of-good-seo-for-your-blog/comment-page-1/#comment-99335 ):
Analysis for your Search Engine Optimization edification; start here:
- First, the author of the post made a very important point about SEO: there’s no element of Search Engine Optimization that’s more important than the links that point to your work. Since you can’t make others write about you and point to you, you need to make those links happen.
- Second, comments on your work add to your SEO Juice. Comments posted over a period of time are even better.
- Third, if those comments include elements that include the words that matter to your post, once again, you’re doing well in your Search Engine Optimization efforts.
- Finally: if you are going to post comments that point back to yourself (as I have), then you need to accept comments of the same sort that others post (hence my words about how I’m testing the author). I’ve written about this topic a few times before.
The tricky thing here, aside from the matter of whether you practice what you preach, is the whole “dates” issue. It’s not kosher to edit the dates on your posts, or the dates of the comments you receive, and the author of the post I’m showing you has clearly done one or the other.
What do I mean by passing judgment that way? Simple: sooner or later, Google will figure out that you’ve cheated. Black-Hat SEO is not OK.
See? Simple choice, wide-ranging ramifications. Search Engine Optimization is easy. Except that because it’s comprised of so many choices, SEO becomes hard. And we never even addressed coopetition!
Looking for help with your Search Engine Optimization? Just reach out.
Interesting enough. What do you think is the greatest way to promote a business online now? Ultimately, I’m trying to find out what the best profitable method would be. Any advice would be fantastic. 🙂 Search Engine Optimization seems far too regulated these days to really make an impact without huge sums of money Also, do you offer an RSS subscription feed? I couldn’t find it but that might be just my machine. Thanks.
In the interest of drinking my own Kool-Aid, I’m letting this comment through even though it clearly points back to a SPAM solicitation for a piece of software that does dirty, nasty, naughty, Google-forbidden stuff–and was flagged as spam by our comment-policing system.
Why? Because the author stayed on-subject, or at least did the best impersonation of on-subject I’ve ever seen. And the subject of this post WAS traffic and how you get it, after all.
Again, folks: gotta practice what you preach.