Research Your Way To Better Seo

Author: RickLondon
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Word Count: 1200
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I wear many hats. For a long time I have been a cartoonist. In my mid-40's I went back to college and studied business and Internet technology. Suddenly I was an IT Professional and a cartoonist. The conflict was deciding if I should just be an IT pro, or continue my cartoons. After all, I had spent a decade on the cartoons and built numerous gift stores, some megastores with inventories of 100,000 products. What to do? Now I had some new tools, a major one known as SEO (Search Engine Optimization). I decided to utilize that skill to work on my cartoon and cartoon gift sites. It was a good decision. I am learning new things about SEO every day. I am hardly a guru.

I have found that most authors of ebooks simply gather information from another ebook or ebooks, thinking it must be good information because it came from an "Internet guru" and copy it. That is sad. It usually is bad information. Most the ebooks I've seen show you how to get to page one of Google, and fast. That is not the way you want to do it. You may be there a few weeks or even months, and then you are off the map. Patience and building your name with white hat seo is the key.

I do not write or sell Ebooks at this time. Why? Because I don't consider myself a guru or an expert. A lot of people shouldn't who do. I am very good at it, and I am one of the few who has SEO'd my own cartoon website into the Alexa Top 100,000 websites (as low as 65,000), but that still does not make me an expert. I am pursuing more education before I use that word to describe me. Let's just say, for the most part, I believe I know what I'm doing, and people pay me to do it, generally before they pay "an expert". And there is a reason. I research, I read, I double read, and I triple read, not just sites on the Internet, but scholarly books in our university library.

Should I use PPC? Should I blog? Article marketing? Keywords? I get asked that daily, sometimes hourly.

Using one form of SEO only such as good keywords, or incoming links is not a good idea at all. The search engine algorythms are changing and now they are looking for a combination of factors.

When launching your website, look at it as a store in an empty mall in a part of the North Pole where no man has been before. Your job is to find a way to attract people to visit there, and eventually make it a major tourist attraction. Not such an easy task. But very do-able.

Can we expedite this process? Of course. That is, if you want to get kicked off most of the major web engines. You simply start spamming and spamming is a numbers game. The problem is spamming is bad net-etiquette and even illegal in some states. And you will be spinning your wheels. That is not just email spamming but blog spamming, article spamming and any other kind.

The first key is patience and to take things one thing at a time. Keywords are a basic. Overture and others offer keyword services. Find out what the most appropriate keywords are for your tags and metatag and use them. Don't overdo it. Simply use the most targeted ones.

A lot of webmasters overlook blogging. They think it is just for kids. Kids love it but adults need it too, for business. Get your own blog using your own URL name if you can. Remember you are also branding your product or service and you want it to be your blog, not Myspace, or some other swanky big name social blog. When you blog with them, which is okay for meeting people, socializing etc., you are branding them If you feel so charitible then do so. I have blogs at many different sites, but I use my main blog with my company's name on it the most often. That is my "focus blog". I always ping my blogs at Ping-O-Matic or some other free service.

I still believe article marketing is king, that is, if you are a good writer. If not, there are places to find them all over the web. It can be worth it to pay for a few good articles and let them submit them, but be sure to get it on Ezinearticles and maybe Isnare, as those are the most read.

Some SEOs use article submission software and online services that prevent spamming, and can write and rewrite your article and allow you to use targeted keywords that prevent it from pinging unwanted blogs.

Be aware of bad information and products though, when using these softwares and services and make certain they do what they say they do. A good place to start is Tucows or Download and read some of the reviews. Cnet gives reviews too. There are many good products and services out there for good SEO. You just have to find them.

Again, be patient. You will have written at least dozens of articles most likely, before you notice a change in your ranking and difference in the numbers of site visitors. Also, in article marketing, as in any other kind of SEO, "Its a jungle out there" or even a war, and everyone is vying for the top position. So for heaven's sake don't just write an article and put your link. Google is on to that and can see through it pretty fast. Write something of value and substance that people can and will use.

Pay Per Click often comes up in conversations. I use pay per click engines, as its inexpensive and a good idea. But before using it, read the tutorial or knowledge page that the service offers. I have used most of them and find Google Adwords to be the easiest interface and most flexible. MSN Adsense, though not as big, offers some fun surprises too. Both offer quality hits.

I tend to overlook the smaller ppc engines as their traffic is bustling, but generally not very targeted.

With so much to know and learn, you may ask yourself, "Where do I start"? Start just where you are. That's where I started, knowing little or nothing (how to turn on a computer was a big challenge at one time) A decade later I have learned a great deal more and will share share it as I learn it, and try it, making certain it works. I know appropriate basic SEO works in my own Londons Times Cartoon stores, and I have seven of them. If I didn't use it, I would simply have seven desert islands with seven "future Hiltons".

About the Author

Cartoonist E-Entrepreneur Rick London started with nothing and now owns the top cartoon site on the net and several Two Of Rick's Gift Stores Are At, Guru-Free SEO Marketing By Rick London Cartoon Gift Stores, and