I think that SEO overlaps with usability engineering in various aspects.

If you write a headline that accurately describes your content you will help the user as well as the search engines -- think "Top SEO tools" instead of "Untitled Document."

Links:

• http://www.w3.org/QA/Tips/good-titles
• http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors#f3

posted July 25, 2007

I am not an expert, but even basics make a big difference. I did some optomizations aimed at Google that made a difference of first versus third page.
- For your target search terms, make sure they are used multiple times in the page body in context (and NOT abbreviated or referred to as IT or some other pronoun).
- Include it in the captions of graphics
- Make sure links from other sites to your site use the search terms
- Make sure they are in the Metadata tags

I do know that if the optomization is misleading, Google will manually adjust the results to discount it, if they discover it.

Good luck

posted July 25, 2007

Bill's company does SEO and only SEO. He would definitely be able to give you some great insights.

posted July 25, 2007

Tools are not the way to go. SEO techniques change quickly and placing total trust in what a software developer thought was a good SEO strategy 6-12 months ago is a great way to get your site penalized.

* Focus on writing good, useful content in the site's area of interest
* Link and get links from website related to your target keywords
* Make sure all of your internal site pages are within 2-3 links from the homepage.

These are just basics to get your started. Whether or not they get you into the top 10 on Google depends entirely on how competitive your market is. To be number one you don't have to have perfect SEO, it just needs to better than the other 1M websites you're competing against.

Which is another reason why software SEO never works...

posted July 25, 2007

Here is the answer directly from Google's web site. It sounds as good as any I have ever seen and I have colleagues working at 24/7 Real Media, Doubleclick, Sony, and the New York Times online.

What's an SEO? Does Google recommend working with companies that offer to make my site Google-friendly?

SEO is an abbreviation for "search engine optimizer." Many SEOs provide useful services for website owners, from writing copy to giving advice on site architecture and helping to find relevant directories to which a site can be submitted. However, a few unethical SEOs have given the industry a black eye through their overly aggressive marketing efforts and their attempts to unfairly manipulate search engine results.

While Google doesn't have relationships with any SEOs and doesn't offer recommendations, we do have a few tips that may help you distinguish between an SEO that will improve your site and one that will only improve your chances of being dropped from search engine results altogether.

Be wary of SEO firms that send you email out of the blue.
Amazingly, we get these spam emails too:

"Dear google.com,
I visited your website and noticed that you are not listed in most of the major search engines and directories..."
Reserve the same skepticism for unsolicited email about search engines as you do for "burn fat at night" diet pills or requests to help transfer funds from deposed dictators.

No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.
Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a "special relationship" with Google, or advertise a "priority submit" to Google. There is no priority submit for Google. In fact, the only way to submit a site to Google directly is through our Add URL page or through the Google Sitemaps program, and you can do this yourself at no cost whatsoever.

Be careful if a company is secretive or won't clearly explain what they intend to do.
Ask for explanations if something is unclear. If an SEO creates deceptive or misleading content on your behalf, such as doorway pages or "throwaway" domains, your site could be removed entirely from Google's index. Ultimately, you are responsible for the actions of any companies you hire, so it's best to be sure you know exactly how they intend to "help" you.

You should never have to link to an SEO.
Avoid SEOs that talk about the power of "free-for-all" links, link popularity schemes, or submitting your site to thousands of search engines. These are typically useless exercises that don't affect your ranking in the results of the major search engines -- at least, not in a way you would likely consider to be positive.

Choose wisely.
While you consider whether to go with an SEO, you may want to do some research on the industry. Google is one way to do that, of course. You might also seek out a few of the cautionary tales that have appeared in the press, including this article on one particularly aggressive SEO: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002002970_nwbizbriefs12.html. While Google doesn't comment on specific companies, we've encountered firms calling themselves SEOs who follow practices that are clearly beyond the pale of accepted business behavior. Be careful.

Be sure to understand where the money goes.
While Google never sells better ranking in our search results, several other search engines combine pay-per-click or pay-for-inclusion results with their regular web search results. Some SEOs will promise to rank you highly in search engines, but place you in the advertising section rather than in the search results. A few SEOs will even change their bid prices in real time to create the illusion that they "control" other search engines and can place themselves in the slot of their choice. This scam doesn't work with Google because our advertising is clearly labeled and separated from our search results.

posted July 25, 2007

I really like WebCEO. I use it on my sites and it really helps.

I don't think it's the ultimate answer, but it has helped me get the basics right.

Links:

• http://www.websiteceo.com/
• http://deepthought.davidrcollett.com
• http://webgeneration.com.au

posted July 25, 2007

As an SEO expert, I know of all the tools available. And there are new ones being developed everyday. Some are not good, some are ok, some offer some good options. But the point is, they are not complete and can be used as a guide, but without the knowledge needed to know what is really needed or missing you can easily be mislead.

For example, it is known that having a Google xml site map is needed, as is having a sitemap for your site. as is a robots.txt. If you did not know that, there is no diagnostic tool that would tell you so. We know that the green google tool bar is not indicitive of a sites popularity nor does it mean that the site has top rankings. Yet, some seo software will use that as a guide. Some will use Alexa search engine as a guide and that to is not useful. I can go on and on...

I do have some top tools listed at the below page. The 3 most important ones are at the top and I do use and recommend themto you as well

http://www.ontheavenues.com/free-seo-tools.html

Links:

• http://www.ontheavenues.com/free-seo-tools.html

posted July 25, 2007

Marketing Pilgrim has published a free downloadable internet marketing book. It's a collection of essays, each 2 - 3 pages long, on search engine optimization, pay-per-click management and social media marketing. This quickly got me up to speed with the key terminology, the benefits, the methods, the pitfalls. Here's the link:

Links:

• http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/internet-marketing-books/

posted July 25, 2007

Search Engine Optimization is just one key to successful online marketing and yes, if done right, it does work. A skilled and knowledgable professional has to design and implement search engine optimization techniques to influence “organic” a/k/a “natural” search results. If someone’s web site is not “optimized” few people will be able to find it.  You have to identify and research a short list of relevant keywords and key-phrases to draw quality traffic to a website. You also must have effective HTML tags (The “title” tag and the “meta description” tag) . You also have to make sure the code you use is compliant with the algorithms of all major search engines and is also “marketing” friendly - -

I can put you in touch with someone who can provide you the best tools - - let me know.

posted July 26, 2007

Dennis,

Yes, SEO really does work. My advice is to research carefully. If you do it yourself, or outsource, there's a lot of misleading information out there (even in some answers here to your question). It seems as if everyone and their dad claim to be an SEO expert nowadays, so when you do it yourself stick to dedicated trusted sources, and Jahann's answer above has it right on with the SEOmoz search ranking factors. This is your guide, stick to it. And remember, content is king. If you outsource, be weary, I'd say there's more people that don't know what they're doing and claim to be SEO experts than there are.

Links:

• http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors#f3

posted July 26, 2007

Get the foundation right first by using this simple guide:

http://www.sofer.com/research/searchmain.html

and then worry about tools later.

posted July 26, 2007