This is what the search for traffic can do to you if you aren’t careful…
If you feel that you’ve been taken for a ride once too often because of believing and buying software and services from so called internet Gurus, that’s OK because I think nearly everyone has to some degree in this game. Don’t misunderstand me, there are the good folk out there too. However, they seem to be a minority when it comes to quality instruction and know-how relating to SEO and organic traffic generation. Often poor knowledge leads to desperation, frustration and an urge to try things that we ought not. You have probably been on the receiving end of statements like, “The search engines have done it again…changed their algorithms!” Well this has mostly all come about by people trying to cheat and you perhaps already know this. None the less, you can end up sitting in front of your computer each day wondering where to start today and every day. You’ve paid good money for software and eBooks on traffic advice only to learn that the results were temporary, or false or the algorithm change blew everything out of the water that you had worked so hard on. All of this stress, disappointment, lost faith and other countless negative elements can lead to you doing things you might not normally do. Later, this can and most likely will affect health, your relationship with your family and friends and definitely your future.
I mentioned family because of the valuable time I lost by working my rear end off each day reacting to problems and with no planning to assist or minimize errors, I was always on the edge. Making money sure but not what I was used to earning and certainly not enough to keep my family the way I would prefer. I was getting tired of the poor quality information that led me nowhere and it was stressful. I knew that was not a good path to continue along but it was hard to stop because there didn’t seem to be a good alternative.
When I mentioned the term future I was referring to my realization that I couldn’t keep this up forever and something needed to change and fast. It seemed to me that the Guru’s ‘short term magic in a bottle‘ was based on their above average selling ability compared with the low quality or in some cases, non existent solutions. At this stage there was no one who I believed knew anything about search engine traffic or page positioning. Getting on the first page with a competitive site seemed unattainable anywhere in the future never mind the foreseeable future.
Sleeping at night became difficult due to my mind racing through the days experience and new problems. You may have or are experiencing the same restless activity. If you have then you know how fatigued it leaves you the following day. I was always on the edge of buying yet another search engine eBook and I was on nearly everyones list which left me with little time to be constructive anyway.
To add to all this, I discovered my mentor of many months had little to no SEO knowledge (which he purported to have) but was an incredible marketeer. I realized that he was mostly successful getting traffic because of the many years he had been working on the net together with his marketing skills rather than his ability to attract clean, targeted new traffic. I still take note of his marketing advice but he’s way behind on SEO. Lesson here is be careful not to confuse the two. SEO (search engine optimization) and SEM (search engine marketing) are completely different activities. Few people are highly skilled in both. If you take anything away from this article, it should be that first and foremost.
How is it that we have so much false information?
Here’s a few of the main reasons this occurs…
– Because they too believe that all solutions are short term and so they do business on that basis
– To make money no matter what and couldn’t care less about who they hurt along the way
– Copy Cats – meaning someone sees everyone else doing it, so they copy the product and also put it out there not knowing or caring if it’s up to date or true
– Here’s the most common – old useless ineffective automated products or services that are still sitting up there on the net that haven’t been removed because some poor unsuspecting ‘newby’ comes along and still buys it not knowing any better.
The ‘black hat’ operators will tell you “Why remove it if it’s making money? There is a lot of this attitude on the net, so beware! As a result, people go away misinformed with old and outdated SEO knowledge and proceed to waste their precious time.
How do you rank well or get on the first page?
You may be surprised to know that ranking well in Google isn’t that difficult. I am only two years into this internet business arena, and two of my sites are on the first page of their preferred keyword and many other sub keywords. One of these sites has over 250 million competing sites.
Why have I mentioned this? Because I only learned several months back the correct method for search engine acceptance and ranking from a reliable source. I am going to give you these sources too! It is much less difficult than fighting to maintain an existing and poor income by buying products or services to stay in one spot and suffer the stress and frustration (not to mention wasted time) that comes with it. Hence me writing this article. The remarkable thing is that you end up with a quality website no matter what platform you use and one that you can be proud of if you follow the system. Googles motto of “Do no evil!” becomes more meaningful.
Why is this so?
When most people start out on the internet they are most often limited to computer keyboard knowledge and many don’t even have that. The first exposure they have is with adwords with well worded advertisements promising them an enviable lifestyle etc. They really haven’t yet learned that the search engines have a job to do and a worthwhile job at that. If they could first learn that the engines can be your friend and supporter, I’ll bet most would still be around today or at least making a decent income from internet marketing. Instead they are indoctrinated that they must beat the search engines because they will be their hurdle. This can and does create a mindset. I should also say here that some people are successful doing this but they most often sell their product to the people they convert or who have already been converted to working against the search engines. There are of course those who don’t even know they’re doing this because they are told that their service or product is search engine friendly.
Listen up! What you do with this information is up to you but do yourself a favour and at least think about it every time you take up a new venture or want to upload something new to the internet.
Everything that has been devised to be a shortcut or a method of cheating to getting to the first few positions on the relevant pages on the internet has been discovered, is being removed or has been removed. If it hasn’t yet, it will soon – everything! The search engines’ objective is not to hold you back but to deliver to surfers what they are searching for. If you help the search engines do just that, would the search engines want to keep you away – no, of course not. If you are delivering tightly focussed information to those who are seeking that information, wouldn’t the engines promote your site – yes they would and they do! Of course you must do other things such as on-page optimization (once only). Promote your site a little (not much, just a little). The search engines have a vested interest in giving searchers or surfers what they are searching for in the smallest amount of time. This is what keeps a search engine popular. No one continues to work with an engine that has a whole pile of junk and Spam turn up every time you do a search. I’m sure you’ve had that experience.
So what does this boil down to? – Quality, original content built around the theme and structured in what are often called silo themes. That’s it! You must make the content relevant and ‘reader rich’ – a term I use meaning that it contains theme based content or information first with good spelling and grammar. It must be worth reading. It must be sticky too! Google is now monitoring how sticky sites are, measuring of course the length of time surfers stay on a site. That one sentence tells you heaps.
Is there any longevity in planning for traffic?
If you want to build or rebuild your site once only, planning is paramount. If you want a position in the top 10 sites then planning is paramount! If you want user ‘stickiness‘, then planning is paramount. You might be thinking “Oh but planning takes time“. Of course it does but NOT much and if you want good and on-going returns, so what if it takes you an extra day or even a week – think about that! If you’re thinking that only a technocrat or a masters degree student can plan for that sort of thing, then you’re wrong. It just takes a bit of guidance and common sense. If you can make a shopping list, you can plan your website.
What are the best tools for search engine optimization and why?
1. Don’t buy anything that doesn’t have a successful history of achieving what they say they can do for you. I don’t mean ‘scraped’ shots of clickbank statements or Ad sense statements either. Make sure you get to see the results of their work. Some testimonials are real, some aren’t. They are not that reliable a source of verification. I must admit that anything you buy on clickback has a guarantee which has been infallible for me. However, it’s still a waste of time if you don’t get what you’re looking for or worse, what’s been promised to you.
2. Also look for operators who are prepared to give you free short term trials or samples – that always says a lot. Most good SEO operators or experts offering a service, give you information as well. Granted, it might be to ‘wet your appetite’ but if it’s quality and it’s going to improve your knowledge and future, ‘don’t look a gift horse in the mouth‘. Read it and make a judgement – easy!
3. See if you can contact the owner of the site. That’s always a good test on customer service. The good ones deal with you personally and almost straight away (within 24 hours). The take a ticket scenario leaves most of us wanting though! I have learned that there are only a few honourable operators who have in-depth experience in SEO and also boast great customer relations and I have mentioned these on my site at https://the-seo-site.com under the sidebar heading, Reviews. In addition, if you think that you would like to know more on the finer steps of achieving a site that can be on the first page of Google without having to base it on some incredibly rare ‘long tail’ term that no one uses, you should look for SEO tutors or mentors who take pride in what they do and offer quality advice and training. That’s the safest way to medium and long term success in this slippery industry.
Author Ray Baker. Ray has provided more relevant instant access to details on understanding Themes including LSI (latent semantic indexing), Silos and relevant tools on his site at Latent Semantic Indexing, Themes, Silo & SEO Tools
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