SEO that works?

[TeamRobertson]

OK I have had 3.8 million people tell me they and only they can optimize my website to be top of the listings and drive tons of traffic to my website, etc.

I wanted to know from you guys who have you used to do SEO, what was the cost, and did you notice a signifigant increase in traffic and converted leads?

Thanks in advance

David

[VegasRealEstate]

99% of those companies are most likely not legit. I get all those calls to.

Its funny because they start out by saying, I can't find your website in the search engines, so you are losing money. I say thats strange, what search engine and they respond with Google. Then I ask what search phrase and they usually respond with Las Vegas Real Estate (http://www.senasellsvegas.com). Then I say thats funny because I am looking right now and I am #5. They go oh, Im sorry not sure why I didn't see that and they hang up. I get a kick out it.

You can pretty much do most of the search engine marketing yourself. But if you don't want to, there are a few good guys on this website that offer these servcies.

HHI_Golf_Guy, SiteTutor, Mert to name just a few!

Good luck!!!

[Codythebest]

I get phone calls too but that's companies selling the top advertising links.
For me, the 3 way links is best so far. But it's not free. I had a trial for a month and got from #33 to #8 for a specific keyphrase. And I was working hard to get to #33!!

[HHI Golf Guy]

HHI_Golf_Guy, SiteTutor, Mert to name just a few!


Thanks for the mention, buddy!

Unfortunately we are not taking on any new clients right now. I may have one or two openings in the first quarter of 2008.

Aside from taking care of our existing portfolio, we are finishing up a new CMS based web package that we will be offering to anyone (currently we only provide web design for our SEO clients). We're also working on a number of local real estate / vacation rental portal sites that will merge data into regional and national sites.

TeamRobertson There are a lot of people out there that are more than willing to take your money for SEO services. Unfortunately, I have found that most of these companies don't truly understand SEO, especially when it comes to providing long term success strategies.

This forum is a good source to learn more about what to look for in SEO services. If you think some SEO company is blowing smoke up your wazoo, but you're not quite sure, drop me a PM and I will give you my opinion on what they say and how they plan to optimize your site. I'll do my best to give you a prompt response.

Good luck!

Update

I just took a quick look at your site, inbound links, and whois information. My advice is to NOT buy into SEO services at this time. Spend the next 5-7 months building links to your site, then look at obtaining SEO services. Your site is relatively new, and it usually takes 9-14 months for sites to have competitive Google rankings. Some will say that is because of the Sandbox, some will say it's the age of the site, and some will say it's the age of the links. And yes - you can get a new domain to rank well in Google quicker than 9-14 months, but most agent sites are not equipped with the resources and capital to do that.

There are some decent link building posts on this forum to get you started.

[Mike Taylor]

I agree, you can do a lot of it yourself. When are getting your links just make sure they reputable and relevant to your topic.

[AAO]

OK I have had 3.8 million people tell me they and only they can optimize my website to be top of the listings and drive tons of traffic to my website, etc.

I wanted to know from you guys who have you used to do SEO, what was the cost, and did you notice a signifigant increase in traffic and converted leads?

Thanks in advance

David

I know a site. Its http://www.webdesignersofusa.com. You put in your request. and get several quotes from website marketing sites. Then compare and decide.
Do not go for one that promise instant results. SEO requires patience, especially white hat SEO techniques.

[Greg]

Everything you need to know is on the web. Google is your friend, start asking questions and you will be overwhelmed with answers.

[spanishproperty]

Google is your friend

And your worst enemy!

SEO is a time consuming job and as it has been said by other agents and members here there are so many rip off companies out there that promise everything under the sun and don't deliver.

Be careful, go on recommendation if you know anyone else that has had a good experience with a certain company. Or in your spare time do a bit of research yourself.

Another option is to get someone in house so you are able to monitor what work is being done on your site.

[doogers]

If you have time to do it yourself then that is the way to go. Just start reading and asking questions.

[Honeycomb Properties]

We like to design/redesign the website when we perform SEO because the onpage factors are the easiest to control, but it's not always necessary.

HHI Golf Guy was right when he told you to go out and start getting links. You may want to do some keyword research before you jump head first into getting links and optimizing your site. Once you know what keywords you want to target, make sure you use them in your anchor text.

There is a ton of information out there regarding SEO, just make sure you check the source so the information isn't just linkbait or bad info. Remember that getting your site to rank will take time and hard work.

[netrambler]

If you do select a company to do your SEO be sure to ask for some reference sites sites so you can see what kind of ranking they get. Ask what site and what keywords they optimized for. You can learn alot from checking out the source of the top ranked sites, too.

[Cedar City Utah Realtor]

Im going to give you some recomended reading.


www.seomoz.org
www.seobook.com

Both of these blogs offer more then enough information to get you started on your path to #1. I would say you should start by doing some on page optimization then move on to link building.

If you need more tips let us know we can point you in the right direction.

[the-ref]

www.seobook.com is definitely a nice resource. While it is long, it really does provide a lot of quality information in the field of SEO.

[DBQ]

Everyone here has given you very useful information. I would reccommend you read everything they've given you twice and make sure you implement ALL of it into your website.

If you're not prepared to do this and need some sort of consultancy or basic level SEO to get going until your domain and backlinks reach a relatively repuatable level then I could offer you consulting services.

I'm new to the forums so not much reputation to share with you here but I am the online marketing manager for one of the largest financial services networks on the web. We rank on page #1 for "mortgage" :).

Anyways! I would love to take a look at things and NOT charge you an arm and a leg just to get you going in the right direction. Anyone who calls you to do your SEO is who you avoid, anyone you call and they put you on a waiting list is where you want to be.

Let me know.

Sincerely,

Tyler

[Mert]

Sorry I just saw the mention here by Tony. Thanks for the mention buddy.

My advice to all realtors.

Stay away from people who offer you cheap SEO services through link exchanging.

If you are thinking of a long term SEO plan
1) SEO is about permanent links
2) SEO is about one way authority links
3) SEO is about anchor text
4) SEO is about content
5) SEO can not be done in one day. Requires dedication.

[Alan Murray]

There is no reason why you cant do all the SEO yourself. Just make you read al the top blogs and forums.

[Mert]

There is no reason why you cant do all the SEO yourself. Just make you read al the top blogs and forums.

If you are a nurde like me, fully agreed.

[RobM]

read and listen and ye shall recieve...there is enough to read, and enough people talking to listen so you're good to go

[reinman]

Yes do it yourself. It's all there on the net, everything you need to be successful over time. The only thing you can't get on the net is time and patience.

[the-ref]

I would have to agree on the fact that is best to do it yourself. There are so many junk SEO companies out there that it makes it very difficult to find one that will provide you legitimate SEO versus just putting up an AdWords ad or shotgunning your link to as many junk directories as possible. On top of that, doing your own SEO will teach you what works and what doesn't so you can know what to use in the future. In addition, there are also a ton of resources out there that provide some great SEO tips from people who spend a living doing it. The only problem is aside from Aaron Wall's SEO Book, a lot of the newest technique kind of stuff is going to cost some money to obtain.

[Orlando MLS]

Most of the guys that are dominating the market through SEO aren't calling you on the phone. Why? Simple, because their websites are optimized for them to get their own clients...they have the luxury of choosing who they want to work with.

Not only that, but other people in their market are looking to see who the top sites are in their specific segment. When a site shows up on top, they will contact the SEO firm to solicit their services.

HHI Golf Guy is one of the REAL companies out their offering good quality SEO services. How do I know? Because his client dominates my market for Orlando Real Estate. Did you notice that he's booked out and not taking on new clients.

I would try and get referrals from other agents that are having a lot of success with their SEO firm. Don't go with the companies that have to use telemarketing to get their business.

Anyway, that's my two cents. :)

[HHI Golf Guy]

HHI Golf Guy is one of the REAL companies out their offering good quality SEO services. How do I know? Because his client dominates my market for Orlando Real Estate. Did you notice that he's booked out and not taking on new clients.

Thank you for the kind words.

Speaking of Orlando, I bet I get 50-60 calls a year from Orlando agents asking me to take on their sites. Unfortunately for them, I have an unwritten rule with my company that I will not compete against my own clients.

Sure, I may lose a chance at a few accounts. But I think in a way it reassures my clients that I am dedicated to their success and not just chasing dollars. There are plenty of other markets in the country for me to help agents.

I will say that there is one exception to this rule. I do have 2 clients in my market, but one is my Dad. But he's only targeting Sun City and not the rest of the market. I will even ad a third client in my market - my wife. I don't really have a choice there, either :)

[Executive Home Buyer]

If you ALL want to know how SEO works, then send me a private message and I will provide you with some POWERFUL and incredible resources!

Cheers,

Jean

[Orlando MLS]

When the wife says jump, my advice, "How high honey?" :D

[reinman]

This is a perfect example of thinly veiled or covert spam.

[Executive Home Buyer]

This is a perfect example of thinly veiled or covert spam.

HUH?????????

Perhaps you should look me up here on this board .... I DO NOT SPAM IT, I have give tons of advice to help people!

The reason why asked people to PM me was that I was hoping to exchange information with other folks.

Meaning, I have access to tons of SEO, PPC, Google and other invaluable information, which include turtorials via audio and videos, but I need help in other areas!

Therefore, I share with them and they help me!

I hope I have clarified the reason for my post!

Have a prosperous year, Reinman and Orlando MLS!

Jean

[ExtraArm]

I think its better if you just posted links to information you want to share instead of asking people to PM you. In the latter case, the community here doesn't gain anything from your solicitation.

[FlatFeeKing]

Almost everyone on here says, "do it yourself" "do it yourself" can you honestly say that everyone out their should do SEO themselves? These people you are talking to are Realtors. They should be out doing real estate, networking with humans, showing property, and letting their websites work for them. Instead, you are recommending that they work for their website. Realtors easily and often make the mistake of trying to be a dog chasing 6 rabbits, just because they are not on a leash.

[ExtraArm]

These people you are talking to are Realtors. They should be out doing real estate, networking with humans, showing property, and letting their websites work for them. Instead, you are recommending that they work for their website.

If you got money to burn, there's no reason to do everything yourself. Time is money. Whether you do it yourself or have someone else do it, one way or another it is going to cost you. But if you don't know the ropes, you may just end up paying thousands for something you could have gotten done by paying just a few bucks.

[FlatFeeKing]

You would be better off if all the agents in your company paid the broker $50.00 a month to make the best website he can in your target area. Why compete with all the other realtors in your office, get a feature and function rich site through economies of scale, and have your broker pass out the leads evenly. Every single agent doesnt need their own website. its just the hot thing to do right now, not necessarily effective. make a myspace page

[ExtraArm]

Every single agent doesnt need their own website. its just the hot thing to do right now, not necessarily effective.

Agreed, though IMO its working for companies like MichaelSaunders.com, where hundreds of agent sites link back to the main company site, padding its authority and link equity.

[jessiesc]

IMO, doing it yourself is a disservice to your real estate business.

It's not that you CAN'T do it, the question really is WHY would you want to? Unless of course you plan on becoming an SEO expert and giving up real estate.

If you are a real estate agent, isn't your time best spent on selling real estate and making money? Isn't there enough to learn regarding your current profession: RE Law, conversion, lead generation etc.

SEO/SEM/SEP as many have mentioned is a very time consuming effort. Let's not forget about the learning curve required, it's extensive!

Sure, the information is all there on the web. However, having the information and applying it effectively is the trick! That's what the professionals do.

If you apply the information and techniques incorrectly, you get banned. Is that worth the learning curve? IMO, it isn't.

It's my suggestion, if you are not already extremely familiar with all aspects and techniques of SEO, hire a professional. Just like you do for anything that requires knowledge you do not have.

Example: When my car breaks down, I don't fix it myself. I don't know jack about cars, so I take it to a mechanic and it get repaired correctly. There is no way I am going to take the time to learn how to fix my car just to save a few dollars. In actuality I wouldn't be saving money anyway as the costs involved for learning are far greater then what it would cost me to have a professional do it.

Professionals can do it quicker and with just a few sales from their techniques and expertise, you can pay for their services.

Best of luck.

[Executive Home Buyer]

I think its better if you just posted links to information you want to share instead of asking people to PM you. In the latter case, the community here doesn't gain anything from your solicitation.

Did you not read or understand my post?

Like I said, IT WAS NOT A SOLCITATION! (Again, look me up here, I have NEVER SOLICITATED ANYONE OR ANYTHING ... bleep!).

I guess the only thing left to say is that I should have posted this in the Barter/Trade area, as you don't seem to understand the premise of MY post!

Perhaps that's why YOU'RE as lonely as the Maytag Man .... You DON'T LISTEN, COMPREHEND OR UNDERSTAND NETWORKING / INFORMATION SHARING / HELPING!

P.S. I DON'T HAVE LINKS ... JUST PURE UNSOLICITED INFORMATION TO SHARE WITH LIKE-MINDED INDIVIDUALS AND WHO CAN HELP ME WITH WHAT I'M STRUGGLIN WITH! It was also intended to weed out folks like YOU! OPPORTUNITSTS who don't give back to the community! Just info junkies!

[ExtraArm]

Lol, what is with all your CAPs?

" Like I said, IT WAS NOT A SOLCITATION!"

Oh, yes it was. Admit it and get on with your life :D

[tina.anderson]

I think the problem with doing your own SEO is not that it's difficult to learn, but that it's so time consuming. I would say find a company with a good reputation and reasonable prices and outsource it to them. Sure it will be extra money out of your advertising budget but it will be worth it. You get what you pay for. If you do it yourself, the work might not be as good and you are eating up time that could be spent running your business. That's my take on SEO from what I've read and researched, but to be honest, I've never dealt with these companies myself so maybe the initial post had some truth to it, that many of these companies are charging too much money and making unbelievable claims.

[ExtraArm]

You get what you pay for.In the SEO industry, that's not always the case. Reputation is often based largely on perception, not past performance. For example, I hired a well-known link baiter at $1000/link bait. The link bait generated around 40 diggs, never made it to the front page, end of story. Maybe I should have cut a better deal, but still, unlike paying for a Pasma TV, you don't necessarily get anything for the money spent.

Also because SEO consulting isn't scalable, the best SEO companies usually are all booked. It requires a competent team to run an SEO campaign. Hiring an SEO consultant for quick advice cost anywhere from $100 to $1000/hour, and at the end of the day, you'd need to actually implement all the suggestions that an SEO consultant may hand out to you. Of course you can outsource web dev to an indian company at $5/hour, but that also has its limits. At the end of the day, SEO is about networking, creating compelling content, and attracting attention - that requires in-depth knowledge about the real estate industry and off-line/online business connections, neither of which most SEOs have at his/her disposal.

I'm definitely not recommending you to do it yourself. There are effective SEO companies out there; they're just not always easy to find. There are also some things (e.g. blogging) that are best done by a seasoned realtor instead of an SEO that knows nothing about the industry.

[itsallpc]

I am a website builder and seo is part of my job. As has been said in this forum SEO is expensive but a lot of the time it is something you can do yourself.

You might ask if i am in seo then why say this? Well because i read so much bad information written by half hearted fly by night companies who just give SEO a bad name and also because it takes so much time. A full seo campaign can take 18 month to bring in the REAL results that the client wants. But the basics any user with basic knowledge can do without paying through the nose.

Here is a list of the basics everyone needs to know.. +3 = the most important and - = never do it!!!


1
Keywords in <title> tag
This is one of the most important places to have a keyword because what is written inside the <title> tag shows in search results as your page title. The title tag must be short (6 or 7 words at most) and the the keyword must be near the beginning.
+3
2
Keywords in URL
Keywords in URLs help a lot - e.g. - domainname.com/seo-services.html, where “SEO services” is the keyword phrase you attempt to rank well for. But if you don't have the keywords in other parts of the document, don't rely on having them in the URL.
+3
3
Keyword density in document text
Another very important factor you need to check. 3-7 % for major keywords is best, 1-2 for minor. Keyword density of over 10% is suspicious and looks more like keyword stuffing, than a naturally written text.
+3
4
Keywords in anchor text
Also very important, especially for the anchor text of inbound links, because if you have the keyword in the anchor text in a link from another site, this is regarded as getting a vote from this site not only about your site in general, but about the keyword in particular.
+3
5
Keywords in headings (<H1>, <H2>, etc. tags)
One more place where keywords count a lot. But beware that your page has actual text about the particular keyword.
+3
6
Keywords in the beginning of a document
Also counts, though not as much as anchor text, title tag or headings. However, have in mind that the beginning of a document does not necessarily mean the first paragraph – for instance if you use tables, the first paragraph of text might be in the second half of the table.
+2
7
Keywords in <alt> tags
Spiders don't read images but they do read their textual descriptions in the <alt> tag, so if you have images on your page, fill in the <alt> tag with some keywords about them.
+2
8
Keywords in metatags
Less and less important, especially for Google. Yahoo! and MSN still rely on them, so if you are optimizing for Yahoo! or MSN, fill these tags properly. In any case, filling these tags properly will not hurt, so do it.
+1
9
Keyword proximity
Keyword proximity measures how close in the text the keywords are. It is best if they are immediately one after the other (e.g. “dog food”), with no other words between them. For instance, if you have “dog” in the first paragraph and “food” in the third paragraph, this also counts but not as much as having the phrase “dog food” without any other words in between. Keyword proximity is applicable for keyword phrases that consist of 2 or more words.
+1
10
Keyword phrases
In addition to keywords, you can optimize for keyword phrases that consist of several words – e.g. “SEO services”. It is best when the keyword phrases you optimize for are popular ones, so you can get a lot of exact matches of the search string but sometimes it makes sense to optimize for 2 or 3 separate keywords (“SEO” and “services”) than for one phrase that might occasionally get an exact match.
+1
11
Secondary keywords
Optimizing for secondary keywords can be a golden mine because when everybody else is optimizing for the most popular keywords, there will be less competition (and probably more hits) for pages that are optimized for the minor words. For instance, “real estate new jersey” might have thousand times less hits than “real estate” only but if you are operating in New Jersey, you will get less but considerably better targeted traffic.
+1

[itsallpc]

12
Keyword stemming
For English this is not so much of a factor because words that stem from the same root (e.g. dog, dogs, doggy, etc.) are considered related and if you have “dog” on your page, you will get hits for “dogs” and “doggy” as well, but for other languages keywords stemming could be an issue because different words that stem from the same root are considered as not related and you might need to optimize for all of them.
+1
13
Synonyms
Optimizing for synonyms of the target keywords, in addition to the main keywords. This is good for sites in English, for which search engines are smart enough to use synonyms as well, when ranking sites but for many other languages synonyms are not taken into account, when calculating rankings and relevancy.
+1
14
Keyword Mistypes
Spelling errors are very frequent and if you know that your target keywords have popular misspellings or alternative spellings (i.e. Christmas and Xmas), you might be tempted to optimize for them. Yes, this might get you some more traffic but having spelling mistakes on your site does not make a good impression, so you'd better don't do it, or do it only in the metatags.
0
15
Keyword dilution
When you are optimizing for an excessive amount of keywords, especially unrelated ones, this will affect the performance of all your keywords and even the major ones will be lost (diluted) in the text.
-2
16
Keyword stuffing
Any artificially inflated keyword density (10% and over) is keyword stuffing and you risk getting banned from search engines.
-3


Links - internal, inbound, outbound
17
Anchor text of inbound links
As discussed in the Keywords section, this is one of the most important factors for good rankings. It is best if you have a keyword in the anchor text but even if you don't, it is still OK.
+3
18
Origin of inbound links
Besides the anchor text, it is important if the site that links to you is a reputable one or not. Generally sites with greater Google PR are considered reputable.
+3
19
Links from similar sites
Having links from similar sites is very, very useful. It indicates that the competition is voting for you and you are popular within your topical community.
+3
20
Links from .edu and .gov sites
These links are precious because .edu and .gov sites are more reputable than .com. .biz, .info, etc. domains. Additionally, such links are hard to obtain.
+3
21
Number of backlinks
Generally the more, the better. But the reputation of the sites that link to you is more important than their number. Also important is their anchor text, is there a keyword in it, how old are they, etc.
+3
22
Anchor text of internal links
This also matters, though not as much as the anchor text of inbound links.
+2
23
Around-the-anchor text
The text that is immediately before and after the anchor text also matters because it further indicates the relevance of the link – i.e. if the link is artificial or it naturally flows in the text.
+2
24
Age of inbound links
The older, the better. Getting many new links in a short time suggests buying them.
+2
25
Links from directories
Great, though it strongly depends on which directories. Being listed in DMOZ, Yahoo Directory and similar directories is a great boost for your ranking but having tons of links from PR0 directories is useless and it can even be regarded as link spamming, if you have hundreds or thousands of such links.
+2
26
Number of outgoing links on the page that links to you
The fewer, the better for you because this way your link looks more important.
+1
27
Named anchors
Named anchors (the target place of internal links) are useful for internal navigation but are also useful for SEO because you stress additionally that a particular page, paragraph or text is important. In the code, named anchors look like this: <A href= “#dogs”>Read about dogs</A> and “#dogs” is the named anchor.
+1
28
IP address of inbound link
Google denies that they discriminate against links that come from the same IP address or C class of addresses, so for Google the IP address can be considered neutral to the weight of inbound links. However, MSN and Yahoo! may discard links from the same IPs or IP classes, so it is always better to get links from different IPs.
+1
29
Inbound links from link farms and other suspicious sites
This does not affect you in any way, provided that the links are not reciprocal. The idea is that it is beyond your control to define what a link farm links to, so you don't get penalized when such sites link to you because this is not your fault but in any case you'd better stay away from link farms and similar suspicious sites.
0
30
Many outgoing links
Google does not like pages that consists mainly of links, so you'd better keep them under 100 per page. Having many outgoing links does not get you any benefits in terms of ranking and could even make your situation worse.
-1
31
Excessive linking, link spamming
It is bad for your rankings, when you have many links to/from the same sites (even if it is not a cross- linking scheme or links to bad neighbors) because it suggests link buying or at least spamming. In the best case only some of the links are taken into account for SEO rankings.
-1
32
Outbound links to link farms and other suspicious sites
Unlike inbound links from link farms and other suspicious sites, outbound links to bad neighbors can drown you. You need periodically to check the status of the sites you link to because sometimes good sites become bad neighbors and vice versa.
-3
33
Cross-linking
Cross-linking occurs when site A links to site B, site B links to site C and site C links back to site A. This is the simplest example but more complex schemes are possible. Cross-linking looks like disguised reciprocal link trading and is penalized.
-3
34
Single pixel links
when you have a link that is a pixel or so wide it is invisible for humans, so nobody will click on it and it is obvious that this link is an attempt to manipulate search engines.
-3


Metatags
35
<Description> metatag
Metatags are becoming less and less important but if there are metatags that still matter, these are the <description> and <keywords> ones. Use the <Description> metatag to write the description of your site. Besides the fact that metatags still rock on MSN and Yahoo!, the <Description> metatag has one more advantage – it sometimes pops in the description of your site in search results.
+1
36
<Keywords> metatag
The <Keywords> metatag also matters, though as all metatags it gets almost no attention from Google and some attention from MSN and Yahoo! Keep the metatag reasonably long – 10 to 20 keywords at most. Don't stuff the <Keywords> tag with keywords that you don't have on the page, this is bad for your rankings.
+1
37
<Language> metatag
If your site is language-specific, don't leave this tag empty. Search engines have more sophisticated ways of determining the language of a page than relying on the <language>metatag but they still consider it.
+1

[itsallpc]

38
<Refresh> metatag
The <Refresh> metatag is one way to redirect visitors from your site to another. Only do it if you have recently migrated your site to a new domain and you need to temporarily redirect visitors. When used for a long time, the <refresh> metatag is regarded as unethical practice and this can hurt your ratings. In any case, redirecting through 301 is much better.
-1


Content
39
Unique content
Having more content (relevant content, which is different from the content on other sites both in wording and topics) is a real boost for your site's rankings.
+3
40
Frequency of content change
Frequent changes are favored. It is great when you constantly add new content but it is not so great when you only make small updates to existing content.
+3
41
Keywords font size
When a keyword in the document text is in a larger font size in comparison to other on-page text, this makes it more noticeable, so therefore it is more important than the rest of the text. The same applies to headings (<h1>, <h2>, etc.), which generally are in larger font size than the rest of the text.
+2
42
Keywords formatting
Bold and italic are another way to emphasize important words and phrases. However, use bold, italic and larger font sizes within reason because otherwise you might achieve just the opposite effect.
+2
43
Age of document
Recent documents (or at least regularly updated ones) are favored.
+2
44
File size
Generally long pages are not favored, or at least you can achieve better rankings if you have 3 short rather than 1 long page on a given topic, so split long pages into multiple smaller ones.
+1
45
Content separation
From a marketing point of view content separation (based on IP, browser type, etc.) might be great but for SEO it is bad because when you have one URL and differing content, search engines get confused what the actual content of the page is.
-2
46
Poor coding and design
Search engines say that they do not want poorly designed and coded sites, though there are hardly sites that are banned because of messy code or ugly images but when the design and/or coding of a site is poor, the site might not be indexable at all, so in this sense poor code and design can harm you a lot.
-2
47
Illegal Content
Using other people's copyrighted content without their permission or using content that promotes legal violations can get you kicked out of search engines.
-3
48
Invisible text
This is a black hat SEO practice and when spiders discover that you have text specially for them but not for humans, don't be surprised by the penalty.
-3
49
Cloaking
Cloaking is another illegal technique, which partially involves content separation because spiders see one page (highly-optimized, of course), and everybody else is presented with another version of the same page.
-3
50
Doorway pages
Creating pages that aim to trick spiders that your site is a highly-relevant one when it is not, is another way to get the kick from search engines.
-3
51
Duplicate content
When you have the same content on several pages on the site, this will not make your site look larger because the duplicate content penalty kicks in. To a lesser degree duplicate content applies to pages that reside on other sites but obviously these cases are not always banned – i.e. article directories or mirror sites do exist and prosper.
-3


Visual Extras and SEO
52
JavaScript
If used wisely, it will not hurt. But if your main content is displayed through JavaScript, this makes it more difficult for spiders to follow and if JavaScript code is a mess and spiders can't follow it, this will definitely hurt your ratings.
0
53
Images in text
Having a text-only site is so boring but having many images and no text is a SEO sin. Always provide in the <alt> tag a meaningful description of an image but don't stuff it with keywords or irrelevant information.
0
54
Podcasts and videos
Podcasts and videos are becoming more and more popular but as with all non-textual goodies, search engines can't read them, so if you don't have the tapescript of the podcast or the video, it is as if the podcast or movie is not there because it will not be indexed by search engines.
0
55
Images instead of text links
Using images instead of text links is bad, especially when you don't fill in the <alt> tag. But even if you fill in the <alt> tag, it is not the same as having a bold, underlined, 16-pt. link, so use images for navigation only if this is really vital for the graphic layout of your site.
-1

[itsallpc]

56
Frames
Frames are very, very bad for SEO. Avoid using them unless really necessary.
-2
57
Flash
Spiders don't index the content of Flash movies, so if you use Flash on your site, don't forget to give it an alternative textual description.
-2
58
A Flash home page
Fortunately this epidemic disease seems to have come to an end. Having a Flash home page (and sometimes whole sections of your site) and no HTML version, is a SEO suicide.
-3


Domains, URLs, Web Mastery
59
Keyword-rich URLs and filenames
A very important factor, especially for Yahoo! and MSN.
+3
60
Site Accessibility
Another fundamental issue, which that is often neglected. If the site (or separate pages) is unaccessible because of broken links, 404 errors, password-protected areas and other similar reasons, then the site simply can't be indexed.
+3
61
Sitemap
It is great to have a complete and up-to-date sitemap, spiders love it, no matter if it is a plain old HTML sitemap or the special Google sitemap format.
+2
62
Site size
Spiders love large sites, so generally it is the bigger, the better. However, big sites become user-unfriendly and difficult to navigate, so sometimes it makes sense to separate a big site into a couple of smaller ones. On the other hand, there are hardly sites that are penalized because they are 10,000+ pages, so don't split your size in pieces only because it is getting larger and larger.
+2
63
Site age
Similarly to wine, older sites are respected more. The idea is that an old, established site is more trustworthy (they have been around and are here to stay) than a new site that has just poped up and might soon disappear.
+2

64
Site theme
It is not only keywords in URLs and on page that matter. The site theme is even more important for good ranking because when the site fits into one theme, this boosts the rankings of all its pages that are related to this theme.
+2
65
File Location on Site
File location is important and files that are located in the root directory or near it tend to rank better than files that are buried 5 or more levels below.
+1
66
Domains versus subdomains, separate domains
Having a separate domain is better – i.e. instead of having blablabla.blogspot.com, register a separate blablabla.com domain.
+1
67
Top-level domains (TLDs)
Not all TLDs are equal. There are TLDs that are better than others. For instance, the most popular TLD – .com – is much better than .ws, .biz, or .info domains but (all equal) nothing beats an old .edu or .org domain.
+1
68
Hyphens in URLs
Hyphens between the words in an URL increase readability and help with SEO rankings. This applies both to hyphens in domain names and in the rest of the URL.
+1
69
URL length
Generally doesn't matter but if it is a very long URL-s, this starts to look spammy, so avoid having more than 10 words in the URL (3 or 4 for the domain name itself and 6 or 7 for the rest of address is acceptable).
0
70
IP address
Could matter only for shared hosting or when a site is hosted with a free hosting provider, when the IP or the whole C-class of IP addresses is blacklisted due to spamming or other illegal practices.
0
71
Adsense will boost your ranking
Adsense is not related in any way to SEO ranking. Google will definitely not give you a ranking bonus because of hosting Adsense ads. Adsense might boost your income but this has nothing to do with your search rankings.
0
72
Adwords will boost your ranking
Similarly to Adsense, Adwords has nothing to do with your search rankings. Adwords will bring more traffic to your site but this will not affect your rankings in whatsoever way.
0
73
Hosting downtime
Hosting downtime is directly related to accessibility because if a site is frequently down, it can't be indexed. But in practice this is a factor only if your hosting provider is really unreliable and has less than 97-98% uptime.
-1
74
Dynamic URLs
Spiders prefer static URLs, though you will see many dynamic pages on top positions. Long dynamic URLs (over 100 characters) are really bad and in any case you'd better use a tool to rewrite dynamic URLs in something more human- and SEO-friendly.
-1
75
Session IDs
This is even worse than dynamic URLs. Don't use session IDs for information that you'd like to be indexed by spiders.
-2
76
Bans in robots.txt
If indexing of a considerable portion of the site is banned, this is likely to affect the nonbanned part as well because spiders will come less frequently to a “noindex” site.
-2
77
Redirects (301 and 302)
When not applied properly, redirects can hurt a lot – the target page might not open, or worse – a redirect can be regarded as a black hat technique, when the visitor is immediately taken to a different page.

-3

I am in the middle of writing an ebook about this that i will when it is ready give to all members of this forum who ask for a copy

Hope this helps and remember this is just a basic guide and there are a lot of other important things in SEO..

Just remember if the seo company you want to use is not on the first page of google then why use them proof is in the pudding!!!!:eek:

[Chief Tutor]

Thanks for taking the time to write this information. I like you get frustrated by seeing all the wrong information being touted in the forums.

The reality is that there are more people currently selling these services that don't know what they are doing versus people who do know what they are doing.

Even then, the costs associated with proper SEO are expensive. IT is a labor intensive industry which is is counter to the beleif that the internet is supposed to be a tool to make your life easier.

In general this is true, but when you are marketing on the web, the time and effort is no less than implementing your offline marketing. The key difference is that when you are successful with online marketing, you are reaching a larger audience.

I have focused on creating custom - SEO Friendly - website designs and then teaching the client how to market themselves on the internet.

Why you ask. Because unless you are a large company who can afford a full time position to promote your website, companies offering to outsource these services are too expensive given that to see a return on your investment on average takes 8-18 months.

It is a catch 22 situation, however if you really beleive and really focus on implementing the basics, the returns are tremendous.

Thanks again and good luck. BTW.... I would love to know when you finish your book. I am in the process of creating a website which will focus on being a central source of online real estate marketing information for people interested in learning on their own.

[itsallpc]

Thank you very much for the reply.

I appreciate your views and the thank you for the time. I whole heartedly agree with your point of view i also am a website developer and i work on my own i do SEO work for my clients implementing the basics and then informing them of how to properly use anchor text, for off page SEO.
Trying to let them understand that 100 good links from relative websites with a good reputation will always be better than 50,000 links you can buy from these spammers.
It is a very labour intensive job hours and hours of work must be placed into research and implimentation to get superb quality links.
Building a high standard and reputation for quality with quality content built for users not search engines is very hard and time consuming.

I have a few rules that i will be placing in my E-book when it is finished i have to write it inbetween jobs lol

Here are the basic rules.

1. Never buy links. If you cannot control your basic linking then you will just get bad neighborhoods linking to you left right and center. ( You cannot control who links to you but you can try not to link to bad places )

Use forums to link but be nice. Increase your rep for quality content and basic manners and principles. This will increase traffic because people know you know what you are talking about!

.EDU is dead so many spammers have linked to .edus that the SE's do not place any extra weight on these links I KNOW lets argue.. No dont this is my opinion Stop screaming at me!!!

Think this way ---- If you own a Real Estate website Would you rather have a link on a .EDU or 1 link on Realtor.com???

.edu = chump steak realtor.com= medium rare finest rib steak hmmm Yummy!

Most important check who you are linking to and from

2. SEO is not only about rankings it is about return of Investment.. yeah yeah i hear you all saying if i am top of google i get a return?? Do You? hmm i am not sure. lets see if i have 100 links on top websites producing 2000 quality targeted hits to my site and i have a position 5 on google for the same keywords do you think i will get 2000 hits? No way

So do your SEO work for ROI. Stop focusing on just the big G there are other avenues to go down and explore. Please understand I a not saying that you should not implement a stratergy to get to the top of google i say get to the top of everywhere be perfect in everything you do and rewards will come -- makes sense to me anyway.

3. FORGET GOOGLE PAGE RANK the little green monster means nothing NOTHING can you hear me NOTHING!!
this is googles big joke to people doing seo if you have a page rank of 7 a website with a page rank of 0 Yes ZERO can beat you to the top.... Get of this PR roundabout let me off i feel sick!


4. DO DO keyword research dont know how then use this https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal#groupAnchor_webpageTool_0 (http://mhtml:{595EEF38-02B8-4623-B9D2-FB6BA619C394}mid://00000007/!x-usc:https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal#groupAnchor_webpageTool_0)

5. Be patient test and test again but give everything time rome was not built in a day and SEO takes years do do properly!

6. Build your site content for humans and not SE robots! Robots eat websites humans spend money on them!

There is more when i have the time i will add.... Loz

Please everyone it takes time to write this stuff as a thank you could you sign up at the link below Unlimited backlinks thanks!!!

[itsallpc]

One more thing Valid code does not help your SEO it helps the spiders crawl your site but all this SEO BS that valid code increases your rankings it BS...

Why you ask well because of this goto google type in Las Vegas real estate in the search the first site you see is lasvegashomes copy the URL and go here http://validator.w3.org/ paste the URL then paste it into click validate you will see 44 errors..

BUT they are number one. I am not saying write sloppy code no make it as clean as you can but if you have a few mistakes it will not KILL YOU. The stress of validating everything will kill you. Especially if you have a website that users place comments into such as a blog forum etc.

Loz

[ExtraArm]

itsallpc, nice cut & paste job to inflate your post count. Next time, instead of copying someone else's content, just drop a link to the article.

[itsallpc]

hmmm now let me see forum rules.. ony 1 link allowed for first 15 posts. Oh i used that.... oh well!!! Thanks for the advice!:eek:

What always seems to amaze me is that when useful content is posted people always presume you have an agenda. Maybe some of us actually like to help others?? The information is there so others can access it in a place they know and can copy and paste it for themselves. Plus the 1 link rule. But i am not going down the route of flaming and forum trashing. Have a nice day!:rolleyes:

[ExtraArm]

What always seems to amaze me is that when useful content is postedIt's not useful to have content from another website plastered all over this site when you could achieve the same effect by linking to the article. You're either inflating post counts or you're a noob. I assumed you're not the latter, but maybe I was wrong.