Free Expert SEO Advice

[rickjonesmedia]

I am happy to share my knowledge with anyone free of charge doing what I tell you enhances the internet as a whole so everyone wins of course you could always ask me to do it for you, that’s not free

In a nutshell: "White Hat" search engine optimisation techniques add true value to your website and that is where the cost is, you should only pay for work that you can see and that ads real content to either your site or the internet. The rewards of higher rankings are a result of the extra value you have created. NO GUARENTEES.

"Black Hat" techniques are ways in which the search engine is tricked into giving you higher rankings. Websites are heavily penalised with instant removal from the search results, the following link is well worth reading (all 3 pages of it) Help, my site has been banned by Google

If anyone would like to know how to optimise their website in a 100% ethical "white hat" way then just ask, I will be more than happy to share my knowledge.

Initially e-mail me with your project, web address etc and I will reply with a full report and a step by step process of how to optimise your site, I can offer some telephone support after that. rickjonesmedia@yahoo.co.uk

Rick Jones

[fonzee666]

Brilliant report! Throughly reccomended everyone, if your looking into SEO you should definatly take advantage of him :-)

Thanks very much there!!!!!!
we are brewing up ideas for our blog as I type

thanks again

[cpq007]

Hi Ricky,

I just wanted to say a big thank you for your advice and taking the time to look at my individual questions. Your thoughts were clear, avoiding techno speak and will help me immensely.

Thanks
Chris

[TrickyB]

Hi Rick,

Quick SEO question for you. I am about to register a couple of domains and it offers automatic, annual, search engine submission (to over 100 SEs). The cost is £20 pa.

Ive read that automatic submission like this can get you black listed (or your page rank reduced).

Also, as google has 80%(?) share of UK SE market, submitting to google and yahoo would probably be nearly as good?

What's your take on this?

Many thanks

[rickjonesmedia]

Dont do it, its not worth taking the risk. I have always submitted by hand Add your URL to Google takes 1 minute. You only need MSN, LIVE, YAHOO, but just as important are the directories DMOS etc there are hundreds of them do some research and find the ones that are relevant to your industry.

There are few basic rules to optimising a web site
1 Ensure the site is optimised (use IBP or similar software)
2 Off site and onsite blogs again make sure they are optimised (make sure the sites and blogs have xml and html site maps)
3 Link exchange with as many sites as possible DO NOT BUY LINKS
4 Write relevant posts linking back to your site and submit them to as many relevant Blogs Notice boards, Forums. Etc.

In essence search engines like quality content and will reward you with higher rankings if you giving them it. Matt cutts (google webmaster has a great blog and worth keeping an eye on for its and advice. Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO

[MickeyFinn]

Rick - how long you been practising SEO for?

Some of the suggestions here are a bit off the mark. There is no need to submit your site to Google. Even though it only takes a minute it is wasted time.

1. IBP - OK if you do not understand very basic site building principles.

What do you mean by point two? I have read it a couple of times and it makes no sense to me:
2 Off site and onsite blogs again make sure they are optimised (make sure the sites and blogs have xml and html site maps)

3. Reciprocal links are virtually worthless.

4 Is probably the best suggestion - but have you considered duplicate content penalties?

Mickey

[rickjonesmedia]

Hi Mickey

Thanks for the post I must admit I joined freelanceuk after reading some of your post

I must clarify that I never intended to give in-depth advice as this would really pee off my fee paying clients, I did assume that the advice would be for people with limited knowledge (as the replies have show I was correct)

In direct reply to your questions: I have been using seo techniques for 6 years (although for the last 4 years I have outsourced all the leg work) and as I am sure you are aware it is a job where you are constantly playing catch up to the search engine algorithm.

Depending on who you talk to the advice varies as to whether you use an on or off site blog so I use both. There is a chance that google will disregard one blog so it is always advisable to have varying content on both avoiding duplicate content penalties.

Whilst google will find your site (it can take up to 3 months) adding your url will speed the process up. I have recently read an old article from matt cutts about this but sods law I have not been able to locate it again.

I do believe the last paragraph sums up the essence of SEO and any following that will not go far wrong.

Thanks
Rick

[MickeyFinn]

Hey Rick,

Cheers for the response. I must admit that one of my main reasons for probing was due to the fact that you are using a yahoo email address to promote yourself. Alarm bells start ringing for me when I see these types of address! This reflects on you and while your advice is good this would really put me off contacting you. Sort it out

I agree with not wanting to give everything away but these days there is so much information on the web on how to achieve rankings that SEO really is not the black art that is used to be. This is not the disadvantage that it could be though. With so much information it can spin the uninitiated into a whirl, old sites and forums (even from Matt Cutts!) can give advice that is not on target. A lot of people also comment on things they really do not understand, leap to conclusions because of things they observe while not knowing the whole picture. This helps those of us with experience of multiple sites and years of experience.

With 6 years experience you certainly are no newbie! I know what you mean about the legwork and keeping on top of things...

Get you on the on or off site blog now, cheers for clearing that up. A lot of issues here, do you want content on the main site, good if you have a good PR and not many pages on main site. Do you want a brand-new domain if off site and the issues of building page rank etc. Nightmare, can see why individual advice should be sought on this.

If Google takes 3 months to find your site or you feel the need to submit it manually then there is something wrong. Like I said above, good of Matt Cutts to muddy the waters.

In essence search engines like quality content and will reward you with higher rankings if you giving them it.

Search engines don't care that much about the content. Extrapolate quality content to... Hmmm, it is late and I feel I have said too much already!

Wicked to have someone here to discuss SEO with Rick, look forward to future banter

[timhoward]

Hi,

I’ve been reading up on seo for a while now and i have come to the conclusion that the most important thing to think about first is making your site user friendly/ understandable before worrying about seo.

If your site's main objective is to make sales then your content should reflect that first, then you can integrate your SEO strategy. (i viewed a few websites which looked crap because they had put the keywords in every other sentence which just did not flow at all, which consequently would lead to potential customers bouncing off the site. (Searches can penalize for keyword stuffing too . . . . I think??)

I was told by another expert that optimizing for 2-5 keywords on any given page would be best.

The strategy i have come up with is as follows:

Link building (reciprocal links are fine if they are relevant and may benefit your users), never use these link building services where they say they will get you 000's of links for next to nothing as Google will penalize you for these poor quality links and ranking will drop.

Unique, Relevant content.
Search engines love new updated content and will visit your site on a regular basis, thus more pages will be indexed, which may lead to increased traffic. Also gives you a chance to include your keywords into these articles.

Submit articles to article sites
this is another good way of 1) getting your name out there 2) including one way links back to your site if possible 3) providing good info about what you do 4) wacking your keywords in the articles.

Anchor text
The text of the actual link is important too. e.g. if you sell sports gear, put the keyword "sport" in the link text as searches take this into account too.

i am no expert whatsoever, however using this strategy i have seen positive affects on my website.

Experts feel free to scrutinize my approach....

[TrickyB]

Can I just everyone's opinion on link exchanges. Is it correct that as long as the links are relevant, they are good for SEO. I was shot down on another forum for suggesting that, so I wanted to gain other people's opinions:

Google webmaster pages say:

"However, some webmasters engage in link exchange schemes and build partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking, disregarding the quality of the links, the sources, and the long-term impact it will have on their sites."

Link schemes

As much as I hate building reciprocal links through link exchanges; is it worth my while?!

Cheers