One of the great things about Web 2.0 is all the different media choices we have to access information. Not everyone enjoys reading blog posts even if they have the time, so I thought I might list a few other ways that you can get information about search engine optimization, SEO.

1. Books – there are some great books out there. Which you should choose depends on your particular interest.

• For those interested in Marketing Strategies and who have a fairly advanced amount of knowledge on internet marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Inc.: Driving Search Traffic to Your Company’s Web Site by Mike Moran is still my favorite.
• For those whose knowledge is more basic, the “For Dummies” series is coming out with a new book this month which will have the most up-to-date tips for the beginner.
• If you’re a programmer or web developer with fairly advanced technical skills, Professional Search Engine Optimization with PHP: A Developer’s Guide to SEO by Jaimie Sirovich and Cristian Darie and its related book for ASP can be invaluable.

2. Videos – while this hasn’t quite caught on as much as non-readers might like, if you’re one of those that likes to view your content, Google features a few videos on YouTube about SEO. We expect that with the rise of video online, this can only increase in future.

3. Podcasts – these can be great if you have a long commute and want something to do while idling away your time stuck in traffic. Webmaster Radio features podcasts on a wide variety of topics relevant to internet marketing.

4. SEO Webinars – there are many resources online that offer webinars that explain all about various aspects of search marketing. Morevisibility is especially proud of our great series of search marketing and optimization webinars.

5. Blogs – well, naturally, blogs can still be a good source of SEO information, but if you don’t want to take the time to come visit us every day to see what’s new, feel free to subscribe to our feed and let us come to you.

Of course, as our client, we’re always ready to help out with any questions or concerns you might have, but if you’re looking for alternate ways to learn about SEO, these tips might be helpful. Enjoy.

People may think, “If I build it, they will come.” Why then the need for SEO?

Other people may think, “Once they found my site, my job is done.” Consider that if they see your site in the search engine results page, but don’t click on it, the job is not finished. If they actually visit your site, your job could be considered half done.

After that, the next important thing to consider is visitor loyalty. As with appearing on search engine results pages and with gaining visitors, loyalty can be measured, and measuring is a must if you’re serious about your online presence.

But how can you actually improve loyalty? Before I discuss that, let me first say that loyalty must be a high priority for your site’s long term success. If you’re looking for a book retailer and if you type “books” (without quotes) in Google, currently Amazon.com will be the first paid result. There will also be plenty of other sites vying for your click, however (both paid and organic results): “borders” is in the “Related search” line at the top and Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and Powell’s are organic results on the first page. Simply put, Google tells us that this search has over 1.5 billion results. That’s a lot of competition!

It’s clear from this Google results page that Amazon firmly believes in SEO and SEM, but it’s also notable that they highly value loyalty. I’ve seen colleagues go directly to Amazon.com and search for a name of a CD album they were talking to me about. They wanted me to hear a song by the artist. So, they knew that Amazon.com had that CD-sample feature by previous experience and thus it didn’t take more than five seconds for my colleague to run the search, navigate in the search results page, and use the CD-sample feature. (This ease of use can also be due to great usability design.)

Of course, you can increase site loyalty by offline means including better brand recognition. To increase site loyalty using an online method, try usability studies. It was once thought that the best way to do this is by using focus groups. If you’ve never conducted usability studies, let me suggest user testing with just one or two well-selected people. Chances are, it will cheaper than a group, take less time to manage, and possibly more comfortable for the person being tested. However, I suggest keeping the study formal in an attempt to ensure your data is accurate.

The real benefit to a one or two person usability study is a deeper understanding of how your site or parts of your site answers the user’s problems. Let me explain. Internet users are seeking solutions to problems they have, whether the problem is finding a replacement cell phone for their friend by next Monday, finding a group of people whose input about trade show venues can be trusted, or finding the most effective charity organization to donate funds for the Far Eastern natural disaster relief. Having to study the interaction between the user and the site for the one test user and responding to their interaction with further questions about how aspects of your site’s design helped solved their problems will be much easier compared to the difficulty of creating questions that could apply to the entire group of test users. Aspects of your site that you might focus on could include information design, usability (including content targeting/amount), visitor involvement, and customer service.

I must sound like a broken record when I suggest (much too weak a word) that my clients follow all of the above, specifically with respect to the big players in the industry: Google, Yahoo and MSN. Search Engines are smart; real smart. You might be able to pull the wool over their eyes in the short term, but eventually you will get caught if you try to utilize Black Hat techniques to gain better traction within the organic (free) results. Everyone wants to be #1 in Google for their core keywords, however, there is no way to get there (and remain there) other than by making your website as search engine friendly as possible. What does that really mean? In the simplest of terms, there has to be a high degree of correlation between the keywords you want to show up under and the actual content on your website. The more targeted and relevant the content, the better chance you have of achieving natural positions for the keywords that are mission critical to your business.

All of that being said, one of the most frustrating things for marketers is when they optimize their site for natural search, while strictly following the rules and guidelines set forth by the engines and employ White Hat techniques yet they (A) do not see significant progress being made and/or (B) see their competition showing up under their core keywords. Even worse, the competition is not following a Best Practices approach. In other words they are doing things that are heavily frowned upon by the engines, such as: keyword stuffing, duplicate content, redirects, etc. A couple of important things to consider: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) must be viewed as an ongoing process and it can take several months to reap the rewards of optimizing your site. The search engines are always changing their algorithms and therefore, it is crucial to view SEO as a long term commitment. Your competition might not follow a Best Practices approach and utilize Black Hat methods to “get ahead”. Just because they are not being penalized at present, does not mean that they will not get caught eventually. I recently had a client who saw their competition using Black Hat techniques and achieving great organic results. They decided to utilize the same techniques and were banned from Google as a result. The moral of the story is that the best things come to those who wait. If you optimize your site and “make nice” to the search engines, you will maintain a long term presence in the engines.

Title: Being White Hat Pays Off in the Long Run!
Description: Discussed the importance of following a best practices approach
Keywords: White Hat, Black Hat, Best Practices, Search Engines, Marketers, keyword stuffing, duplicate content, redirects, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, Google, Yahoo, MSN.