3 Indicators That SEO Advice Is Genuine Science

 (Published Article EzineArticles.com)

Most website owners are frustrated with their websites. They had been led to believe that a website would be the route to busloads of visitors who would become clients and the source of additional revenue. More than 90% of websites fail to achieve their objectives. The modern day Dick Whittington is learning that the Internet Highway is not paved with gold.

Website owners usually become involved, to a varying degree, with search engine optimisation (SEO) - the scientific application of techniques to increase targeted visitors to a website. In their first stage of research it all looks entirely promising. There are a multitude of books and Internet articles explaining SEO complimented by a vast array of SEO programs that 'guarantee success'. In the second stage, there is disillusion as nothing seems to work and closer scrutiny shows that most of the advice is, at best, disputed. So many trees but where is the wood?

In this, the first of a pair of related articles, I plan to put forward suggestions to assist those involved with SEO so that they can recognise good quality SEO information. In the second article there will be indicators of poor quality SEO advice.

The 3 indicators suggesting SEO advice is genuine.

There are three sets of SEO information that can be regarded positively.

Firstly, the search engines themselves provide information. Google, for example, provides Webmaster Guidelines, a blog and has an official YouTube Channel. Matt Cutts, who heads the anti-spam team at Google, offers a blog and videos that are informative, entertaining and accurate.

There are a number of authentic SEO experts who regularly produce high quality books and articles in peer reviewed internet directories. The daily SEO blog by SEOMoz is a valuable source regularly consulted by many optimisers.

Finally, there are observations you may come across that are verifiable - you can check them out for yourself. Three examples follow.

SEO advice that you can check for yourself.

Links to a webpage (off-page optimisation) are more important to positioning on search engine results pages (SEPSs) than the content on the page (on-page optimisation). The classical example relates to the keyword 'click here'. The webpage in #1 position is an Adobe page. 'Click here' does not appear either on the visible webpage or in the underlying page source code. The explanation is that this webpage has the most links from other websites with the keyword in the anchor text (the text with the link). There are a number of websites with the keyword in the domain name as well as the main on-page areas including the page title tag but Adobe remains in pole position.

The second example is the importance of the page title tag - the top on-page factor. If your targeted keywords are not in this tag, it is unlikely that your webpage will achieve top page positioning unless there are thousands of other websites linking to your website with the keyword in their anchor text. You can check this by searching for a short-tail keyword (no more than three words) and looking at the web pages on the search engine results page. The page title appears on the top line of the entry. Invariably the keywords or synonyms will be in the page titles of the top positioned webpages.

Finally, the author has published verifiable evidence that he has identified the top two factors in the Google positioning algorithm. The top factor is the HomePage PageRank (HPR) and the second factor is a hidden boost that Google gives to the effective PageRank of HomePages that are themselves competing for a keyword (G-Factor-2).

Knowing the requirements in SEO does not mean instant success

I would emphasise that knowing the top two factors in the Google algorithm does not provide the magic bullet to Internet success. As with most things in life, knowing what is required for success rarely brings quick results.

We have all taken the road to a profession, or participated in a sport. Before embarking on the journey we have a good idea of what is required but that does not bring immediate success. We would not expect to learn what is required for a great golf swing and expect to beat Tiger Woods the next day.

SEO is particularly difficult to comprehend because although the search engines reveal a great deal of the basic requirements they are skilled at hiding key elements. Understanding the top Google factors will not provide you with the means to top page positioning for cherished keywords: It will, however, give you the key into Google as it explains what is achievable with your website and what is not. This means that you can concentrate your efforts more accurately on the best niche keywords.

Meaningful off-page optimisation - backlinking

The positioning of webpages on the search engine results pages is dependent on valuable incoming links particularly to the HomePage. It must be stressed that the links must have real value.

There are three acceptable means to acquire valuable links - publishing articles in internet article directories, comments on blogs and in the social media and link-bait.

An article published in an article directory will be placed into a new page and when indexed a new webpage will have a PR0. The value of the link back to your website is calculated as the PageRank of the linking page divided by the number of outgoing links. This means that initially the linkback value will be zero. If the article has merit, it may acquire links which in time will bring 'link juice' and higher PageRank to your website. If your article is published on a high quality directory, it is likely to be seen by more people than if it is on a lesser directory. The more popular article directories have HPRs of 4 or more.

Comments on blogs and social media pages are usually subject to mediation before acceptance. Many of these websites apply a 'nofollow' attribute to the comment which means that they will not allow link juice to flow to your website.

Link-bait is typically a numbered list of desirable facts such as "10 key hidden facts you need to know about getting to the top of Google." The objective is to tempt other websites to link to yours. There is no immediate advantage for them to do so as it will send link juice and visitors out of their website to yours. However, visitors like websites that provide high quality information and the website giving the link to you may in turn receive incoming links.

If you approach SEO scientifically, or work with someone who does, your website will progress steadily. Failure to do so will retard potential website development and rewards.

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