my basic SEO checklist..

Checking the track record isn't always easy as SEO's who are achieving specific rankings for clients are not likely to tell you what they are - if they are doing their job properly. Conversely I always think a real tell tale of a poor SEO is when a company bleats about a SERP conquest on their website. Quite often when you research the so called success story you'll find the SERP is for a phrase with very little competition.

d

Disagree there is nothing more attractive to someone contemplating an SEO service,than seeing that the company has acheived high rankings across a wide range of products and industries.

Any company not publishing there results is missing out big time unless they are of course poor results.

And companies claiming client confedentiality as a reason for not publishing is a tad suspect as the results for any company are there for all to see on the search engines.


Earl

 

[RedEvo]

Disagree there is nothing more attractive to someone contemplating an SEO service,than seeing that the company has acheived high rankings across a wide range of products and industries.

Any company not publishing there results is missing out big time unless they are of course poor results.

And companies claiming client confedentiality as a reason for not publishing is a tad suspect as the results for any company are there for all to see on the search engines.


Earl

Thanks for clearing that up Earl..........just to clarify, so I understand correctly.....

If my client pays us to carry out SEO and we find some great key phrases that his competitors haven't found and this gives him an advantage and generates business for him we should - by way of self promotion - tell the rest of the world so they all know how clever we are, so removing our clients advantage that they paid us to establish.

That's what you meant?

d

 

Thanks for clearing that up Earl..........just to clarify, so I understand correctly.....

If my client pays us to carry out SEO and we find some great key phrases that his competitors haven't found and this gives him an advantage and generates business for him we should - by way of self promotion - tell the rest of the world so they all know how clever we are, so removing our clients advantage that they paid us to establish.

That's what you meant?

d

are these going to be hidden text keywords.? cause if not they are going to be there for all to see,or am I missing something.?

and any half decent SEO will have taken the first page apart ,and tested all the keywords.

Earl

 

[RedEvo]

are these going to be hidden text keywords.? cause if not they are going to be there for all to see,or am I missing something.?

and any half decent SEO will have taken the first page apart ,and tested all the keywords.

Earl

You're missing something.

d

 

You're missing something.

d

I am missing lots of things.

I will tell you David that in the past ,as soon as a potential client has seen a list of my results.They bow and ask where they sign.

99% of clients are interested in how much money they will make and little else.


Earl

 

[RedEvo]

I never said I didn't share sensitive data with a potential client

d

 

I never said I didn't share sensitive data with a potential client

d

OK handbags away.

I am just saying that by publishing you excellent results.you are more likely to attract new clients via your website.

Earl

 

[adventurelife]

I really do enjoy the disagreements on this place As always the correct way is often a mix of both opinions.

As a potential buyer of SEO services I would not just like to see but demand to see the track record of previous work.

I would expect any SEO company who has achieved outstanding results not to take on any other client in that sector as their would be a conflict of interest and hence I then cannot see any issue with using the outstanding results that were gained as a route to more business for the SEO company by using it as a advertisement ( with clients okay of course)

I would expect a SEO company to have high rankings across a range of industries for various clients.

More controversial amongst you SEO guys is that I also like to see a SEO company ranking well for their own site. I just do not buy the often repeated phrase " I am spending to much time on my clients sites to worry about my own"

I also worry about SEO companies that are one person run or are a few people but all the know how is in one persons head. Things happen in life that are not planned and being left high and dry is not good for a client.

Just the thoughts of someone who has just got a 5 figure quote in for a site that is already ranking very well

 

I would expect a SEO company to have high rankings across a range of industries for various clients.

More controversial amongst you SEO guys is that I also like to see a SEO company ranking well for their own site. I just do not buy the often repeated phrase " I am spending to much time on my clients sites to worry about my own"

I also worry about SEO companies that are one person run or are a few people but all the know how is in one persons head.

1 spot on

2 possibly right but not neccessarily .I don't want to be ranked highly for SEO
as I don't want to be bombarded with work I have no interest in,and stick to a top ranking in my geographical area.

3 I do not wish to share the deeper levels of SEO with anyone on this planet.
but it may all go in my will .

Earl

 

[jimmy555]

Page Description with specific keywords for each page
- Meta Keywords, and Meta Description tags

This is important

- H1 headers containing specific keywords for each page

H1 has lost its popularity and google treats is even less than <strong> tag

- Good quality unique content for each page (how keyword dense should this be??)

Good . Keyword density should be natural and not artificial (5-10)

- submit to Dmoz.org and Yahoo Directory (any other recommended directories?)

If you have plenty of budget, then submit in Yahoo ($299). As far as DMOZ is concerned, it can take more than what it takes to visit Moon surface from planet earth. However you should submit, but do not rely on it. It is both good ( google relies on dmoz), and bad ( slow as a snail).

- try and request links from 5 relevant sites every day - should I request all links pointing to home page?

Get deeper links instead. There is no fixed criteria whether it should be 5 or more. A similar video of Bill Clinton would have fetched 100,000 back links in a single day

MOst of the points have been covered.

 

[jimmy555]

With respect, this is the worst onpage SEO advice I have ever seen. (IMO)

After your title tag the correct use of <h> tags, and especially the <h1> is the next most important part of onpage SEO (again IMO)

I would not indulge in mud-sliging :| just like you did in this post, but I am having an experience of more than 8 years in SEO field. I do not formulate my theories on the basis of what is "WRITTEN" on other blogs, but I am writing on the basis of my personal experience while working on live SEO projects.

I have personally observed H1 loosing its popularity. The person who keeps tabs on SEO industry day and night knows which way it is heading.

If you think H1 is better than <strong>, then try doing it, and I am sure you would be dissapointed with results you receive on google

 

[Spiderden]

H1 header can trigger extra google filters. Better avoid it if your website is a new one.

Just an advice. <Strong> tag will yield better results than using <h1>.

<h1> is more like hot cake of every spammer and google knows that for sure :redface:

You appear to have extensive experience in this field. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:59.176.40.59

 

You appear to have extensive experience in this field. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:59.176.40.59

now I know how to get on Wiki.

Earl

 

[An Oasis]

You appear to have extensive experience in this field. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:59.176.40.59

Woooops Nice find...that's quite funny, first time I've seen a WIKI spam bust. They don't pull any punches do they.

 

[jimmy555]

You appear to have extensive experience in this field. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:59.176.40.59

Somebody can easily submit your url 100 times in WIKI and create a similar response page

We have faced this issue where client websites were submitted without their knowledge and we had hard time removing them from wiki.

 

Somebody can easily submit your url 100 times in WIKI and create a similar response page

.

was this person Prince Phillip,of course when he was not to busy planning Princess Diane's murder with MI 6.?

Earl

 

[RayB]

If you think H1 is better than <strong>, then try doing it, and I am sure you would be dissapointed with results you receive on google

I do use the H1 tag - and I'm not disappointed with the results - but then I've been taught by one of the best on-site SEO's in the industry

 

[jimmy555]

was this person Prince Phillip,of course when he was not to busy planning Princess Diane's murder with MI 6.?

Earl

Wikipedia is an open book where anyone can post. Ironically we receive request to remove fake articles posted by their rival competitors. Most of the multinational/big companies have their listing in wikipedia. Rival companies which are jealous of their success posted their fake articles on wikipedia.

We had a hard time removing those articles from wikipedia with false information. Finally wikipedia agreed and removed those articles with false information.

 

[RedEvo]

You should use H1 tags to help users not search engines. If you use them effectively in this way the search engines can use them too. It's not exactly rocket science

d

 

[seo_uk]

Big thumbs up for proper use of Header tags from me. It's normally the simplist things that have the most dramatic effect in SEO and "in my experience" Header tags can have a significant benefit if correctly used.

 

[JustOneUK]

but then I've been taught by one of the best on-site SEO's in the industry

Cheers





James.

 

[RedEvo]

On this theme of using tags correctly it's pretty much across the board. People talk about these things as if someone has figured a way of using tags in some special 'SEO' way. It's a case of using tags for the purpose they were created for. SEO work often involves the correction of the misuse of tags as much as anything else. It's also the misuse of tags that's caused some of them to become all but deprecated.

Write great content, tagged in the way the HTML standard intended, seek out good quality links to your content, or create content that simply attracts them, and you are well on your way.

Fret about the whole thing, spend more time looking for short cuts than providing something useful and yours is a long and lonely path

d

 

[JustOneUK]

H1 tags are there to put your main heading into.

I would use therefore them for that

 

[seo_uk]

H1 tags are there to put your main heading into.

I would use therefore them for that

I know this seems like something a chimp could work this out, but I have lost cound of the amount of times I have seen an email address or a phone number in a H1 tag.

Anyway, thats why I have clients so I shouldn't really be moaning...

 

[JustOneUK]

I know this seems like something a chimp could work this out, but I have lost cound of the amount of times I have seen an email address or a phone number in a H1 tag.

Anyway, thats why I have clients so I shouldn't really be moaning...

Ditto - somethings are far too hard to understand.

Customer: "I'm trying to rank for the term Pressure Washing"
Me: "Why does your H1 tag say [email protected]"

 

[seo_uk]

Ditto - somethings are far too hard to understand.

Customer: "I'm trying to rank for the term Pressure Washing"
Me: "Why does your H1 tag say [email protected]"

lol, this is sad, because it is so very true.

 

[RayB]

Also, correct use of <h> tags is the W3C compliant method of constructing a web page.

If an SEO gets better results with <strong> or <b> headers instead of <h> tags it simply means they are overdoing the KW's in their headers and have to resort to watering down the SEO by watering down the tag. Whereas you'd be better off watering down the words and keeping the <h> tags.

All, as ever, IMHO

 

[SEO Services]

If anyone wants a free review send me a PM, will tell you what you have or need

 

[infiniteseo]

The discussions here are really interesting and Interactive if I must say. At any rate, just some additions on Matt's List:

- create killer content article for link baits
- submit articles around, just make you point back to the source (your website) for link juice

my 2 cents

 

[Pet Nanny]

I don't know if I should be here at all, since I know NOTHING about SEO. However, the post regarding flash not doing well with google often pops up on this kind of post. I have flash on my home page and my visitors and I really like it. In fact my site is currently being freshened up and moved, but I stressed my need to keep the flash on my home page.

I have a great rank on google for pet sitters and pet sitting, so surely flash is not as bad as everyone makes out! :|

 

[Spiderden]

Your site uses Flash as the header so it'll have little effect on the SEO of your site. It's sites that are made entirely of Flash or use it for navigation that suffer SEO wise.

 

[Pet Nanny]

Ah, I see. Also, what is javascript. Do I have any on my current website?

 

[JustOneUK]

Google can read flash (if it's set up properly). Having a BIT of flash on your page is OK, never known an issue with that as your content can make up for it. Personally I'd only steer clear of sites that are completely made in flash.

James.

 

[Spiderden]

Ah, I see. Also, what is javascript. Do I have any on my current website?

JavaScript is a scripting language that runs on your browser after a page has be loaded into it. Yes, your site uses JavaScript for the LHS navigation menu which isn't good because spiders can't read the sub menu items so won't be able to spider the site easily. Creating HTML alternative for the links would help greatly.
While looking at the site, I noticed a few missing images on this page that you may want to fix.

 

[RayB]

JavaScript is a scripting language that runs on your browser after a page has be loaded into it. Yes, your site uses JavaScript for the LHS navigation menu which isn't good because spiders can't read the sub menu items so won't be able to spider the site easily. Creating HTML alternative for the links would help greatly.
While looking at the site, I noticed a few missing images on this page that you may want to fix.

Hopefully Nina is moving the site to wordpress, thus fixing all this stuff in one go