I have been providing search engine optimization services since 1997. When I first got into the web development business (and that’s a story in itself – how a guy who had barely touched a computer in his life, working in law enforcement, and got started learning HTML), I figured I’d also better try to figure out how search engines work.
I figured if I was going to be creating websites, I had better know how they could be found when relevant keywords and phrases were typed in. Back then, there were a bunch of search engines competing with each other before Google came along, and some of the ways they used to rank websites are laughable today.
So I studied. And studied. I read. I tested the theories of others. I did my own experiments. And I have just continued since then, making adjustments as the now predominate search engine, Google, makes adjustments. And the websites that I am asked to provide SEO services for are doing well.
It does take a bit of patience though. No one can guarantee you a #1 ranking on page 1 of Google within days. If they do, run from them.
Today, there is so much rubbish being spouted by even published authors who are so-called SEO experts. Indeed, it’s almost as if they come up with a bright idea, turn into a theory, and then say “this is the way it is.” No wonder there are so many businesses out there that are utterly confused and who are trying to do their own SEO work.
One of the biggest myths I come across is to “only try to find backlinks that are ‘do follow'” This myth comes from the fact that this link “relationship” attribute came about as a way to tell the search engine that you wanted to pass on “link juice” to the site that you were linking to. It is especially important to use this attribute for links that are paid for, to differentiate them between being ads or another site trying to buy “link juice” from you. Google frowns on that.
So, the rumours began that you should only try to find links to your site that were not ‘do follow’. However, this is simply not true, and I’ve experimented with some of my own web properties to see if this were true: It’s not. Links are links (yes, some are definitely more valuable than others), but all of them have some value. And if all you do is spend your time on do follow links, then it becomes obvious to Google that you are attempting to game the search engine.
It just is not “natural” to not have a good number of ‘no follow’ links.
I’ll discuss more about what you can do, what you should do, in other posts.
What is Not Rubbish:
There IS such a thing as a “Google Dance.” This is where you modify some things on your website, or begin some SEO, and suddenly you find that your search engine rankings have actually dropped! Is this panic time? Absolutely not. I’ve seen this occur frequently and what I’ve noticed, and know to be true, is that usually, your search engine rankings will come back, stronger than ever. Sometimes it takes a day or two, sometimes it might take a week – but it is usually not long. Patience is what is required.Theories abound as to what causes the “Google Dance,” and I’m not going to get into them right now, but suffice to say, this is not rubbish.
But don’t believe everything you read out there; there are so many so called “SEO experts” who have just begun doing search engine optimization and really don’t know what they are talking about. Trust me – ask my clients if you don’t believe me.