In my last article 5 Ways to Measure SEO Success, I described several different methods of establishing the measurements you need in order to determine if an SEO campaign is successful or not. Despite the general variance in the different success metrics, the one constant was an absolute NEED to develop baseline metrics from which to compare future measurements of things like traffic and rankings.

Measuring hard baseline statistics is an absolute MUST. Should you ever wish to show success, you’ll be hard-pressed to prove it without actual (unquestionable) data to support your…

One of the biggest issues with running effective Search Engine Optimization campaigns today is the muddy waters that often surround whether or not the campaign is successful or not.

If you work for an agency, you’ll know about the rampant skepticism that usually accompanies the industry. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to be able to convey success through hard statistics rather than allowing a client to take your word for it (which often causes clients to cancel swiftly).

Additionally if you’re managing your own SEO, you’ll need to be able to analyze hard facts in order to determine where…

Images present a very unique problem webcrawlers. A search engine webcrawler doesn’t have the ability to view and image on the web and inherently know what that image is depicting. In other words, unless we (the webmasters and SEO’s) help them out, they are blind as a bat!

“Help Me Help You”

Like the famous quote from the 1996 movie “Jerry Maguire“, search engines want you to Help Them Help You. There are many benefits to optimizing your site’s images, including inclusion into the image directories (which sometimes get injected into search results), and…

In SEO, there are a lot of theories. Optimize this, optimize that, do this, do that. There’s white-hat, and black-hat, and grey-hat, and {insert color} hat to describe the different methodologies and philosophies that make up the practice of Search Engine Optimization. Lots of SEO’s say do this or that and tell you WHY you need to do something, but when you ask HOW they might very well clam up.

For example (and for the purposes of what we’ll be covering in this article), they might vaguely say that “For SEO purposes, You need to write better page titles.” Well…

I’ve learned a very valuable lesson over the past week. If you’re a practitioner of Search Engine Optimization, share your knowledge! Why, you say? It WILL help you not only win business, but keep current business, build trust, and enhance credibility in the eyes of current and potential business partners (and your peers).

Giving Away Competitive Advantage

A lot of SEO’s are guarded when it comes to giving away tidbits of their “super-secret” SEO knowledge. I say this is bullshit, and they might be hiding something.

First off, anybody can learn Search Engine Optimization and the information is right an…

I’ll start right off and say it. SEO is not magic, witchcraft, or anything you can pick up at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. There are no Harry Potters, Gandalfs, and definitely no Great and Powerful Oz! As an SEO, do you ever feel like clients want you to pull a rabbit out of a hat? As a client, are your SEO expectations realistic?

My good friend Eric Leslie, with whom I worked at Your Marketing Corner, often told me something…