In an ideal world, SEO would be taken into consideration from the earliest stages of a new website design process, and "baked in" to the site from the start. (Okay, Okay, I take that back; in an ideal world we'd all have movie star looks, be in Olympic athlete condition, and have the net worth of Larry Page , so none of us would worry about arcane things like SEO. But I digress.) In the real world, however, SEOs While that obviously reduces flexibility and makes certain steps impossible, the site's search performance can still be improved using this 12-step process. 1.

It can also be a useful exercise for existing sites from time to time; content changes, search patterns change, and a minor content and SEO face lift may be just the thing to reinvigorate traffic growth. Trellian's Keyword Discovery is an excellent tool if you can justify the cost; if not, Google Suggest (and the AdWords keyword tool if you have an existing AdWords account), the SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool and Yooter are helpful, free tools. It's critical, when starting work on a new website, to develop a list of the most productive keywords and phrases to work into the content and structure of the site.

SEO is dead? Judging by the number of high-quality articles and blog posts still devoted to the topic (so many I had to split this category into two posts), SEO remains a critical component of online marketing success. It has certainly evolved; SEO is no longer about using clever "tricks" to manipulate search engine results, but rather about crafting relevant and compelling content, writing for searchers, and using best-practice techniques in content emphasis and meta tagging to help search engines find your content. Balderdash! Here are (part one of) some of the best posts

A company blog can also be used to give a (small) SEO boost to the corporate site. Blog RSS feeds can be syndicated across a large number of sites, providing exposure (and links) generally not applicable to a standard company website. ***** technorati tags: search optimize, on-site optimization, generate search traffic, SEO boost, marketing events calendar, social bookmarking sites, Digg, Del.icio.us del.icio.us tags: search optimize, on-site The most difficult websites to search optimize are those of small or new companies, in a market with larger and more established players, focused on a highly competitive set of keywords.

They aren't quick or easy, but with patience and persistence, these techniques can create not only high-quality links for SEO purposes, but also new professional connections and even long-term friendships. Those personal connections are the most rewarding links of all. ***** technorati tags: SEO link building top spot on Google advanced link building techniques link bait social media release PitchEngine blog comments blogger outreach blogger relations techniques guest posting del.icio.us Basic link building involves getting your website listed on partner sites, quality online directories and do-follow social bookmarking / social networking sites.

In SEO `Best Practices' Are Bunk , Adam Audette rants about the supposed uselessness of these tactics, and by extension the concept of best practices in any realm. In SEO, best practices would include but not be limited to: Conducting keyword research to identify high-volume, low-competition search terms. That's why virtually all successful SEO professionals use those practices, but don't constrain their Audette writes that "`Best practice' is a stale buzzphrase that offers zero competitive advantage...best best practice in the enterprise?

Utilize SEO best practices , and use free online tools to track and improve your results. Two tools that automate this process are: Search Engine Rankings from Mike's Marketing Tools Search Engine Keyword Position from SEO Tools To optimize your rankings, your most important keywords should have a density in the range of 3-5%. To check keyword density, use this tool: Keyword Cloud from SEO Tools Page content is the single most important determinant of your search engine rank, Optimizing your website for organic search is a matter of doing the right things, and doing those things right.

0160; Google does its best to figure out which pages are duplicates, but if they can’t, this may hurt your site's SEO.   0160; Let me know some of your B2B SEO concerns, why you wish you attended, or just say hi.  Tags: Search Engine Marketing B2B Marketing B2B Search Engine Optimization B2B SEO Duplicate Content Search Engine Marketin Last week I attended Search Engine Strategies in San Jose and joined in on a session about Duplicate Content.  0160; This session was very interesting, but since it was not part of their B2B track, was not focused

But sometimes, a catchy headline and eloquent phrasing may fall short of helping your client from a marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) perspective. I realized that my company's press releases was an ideal opportunity for SEO.  MarketingSherpa Keywords: Collaborate with your client to understand what their key terms are for SEO. The Press releases are an important component of PR. Typically, I focus on writing the right headline to catch a reporter's attention, while crafting intelligent quotes for my spokesperson.

And after the thousands of articles and blog posts written about search engine optimization , SEO is no longer the black art it once was. Yet there are still a surprising number of sites that violate some of the most basic principles of SEO, and pay a penalty in poor search position. Here are a few still-common mistakes that are easy to avoid. Header Tag Abuse: Although header tags have declined somewhat in SEO importance , they Every company wants their website to show up well in search engines, and their marketing teams understand the importance of search engine optimization.