I believe this could be a very good move as it seems this industry often exploits peoples lack of knowledge. When providing a service to a business they may not want to know how everything works but I believe it a positive to offer them the tools carry out their own on line marketing strategy and best of all not be baffled by science!

Why shouldn’t SEOs be open and forthcoming with techniques – yes I know people want to work out the best strategies and stay ahead of the competition but by offering the everyman (or woman) the comprehension of what needs to be done and more importantly why and the potential affect on their business! Isn’t this above and beyond what most agencies offer?

I know this overt approach is definitely something I have not experienced working within agencies. Most SEO Managers will be reading this thinking “surely this approach makes us obsolete?” — no I don’t think so. Open and honest advice is the name of the game here so it can only excel our reputations. To long we have been tarred with the same brush as the cowboys out there (and there’s a lot of them with a copy of Dreamweaver thinking they can do SEO) I say lets take a different approach and embrace Search Marketing Consultancy’s ethos and values.

It seems too many online marketing and SEO agencies are out to take hard working peoples money and relish in the fact that not everyone understands search engines which is a shame – surely we can share this knowledge with them and help enhance their marketing from all sides.

I think this is a refreshing approach to SEO and Search Engine Marketing Consultancy.

What is a Subdomain?
A subdomain is just as it sounds, a sub or second-level of a domain. A standard domain looks as follows: www.mydomain.com. A sub domain would be http://prefix.mydomain.com. Subdomains do not take on the “WWW”.

Subdomains will rank as well as regular domains however Search Engines will treat each subdomain as a new, individual site. This will mean new work on building PR and links.

It is a good idea to adopt subdomains if site is large and convoluted although there is alot of extra work involved in terms of SEO in order to get that subdomain ranked well.

Each subdomain should reflect a section of the site (used as an alternative to folders) but If the site is easy to navigate folders will be a better option as any back links, page rank optimisation can be inherited from the main domain without having to start again.

An advantage of subdomains is that If you were to submit to directories (i.e. Dmoz) you could submit each subdomain as its own individual category and not get penalized.

However it is worth noting that If a subdomain becomes banned will it will affect the main domain
• Don’t create pages with malicious behaviour, such as phishing or installing viruses, trojans, or other badware.
• Avoid “doorway” pages created just for search engines or other “cookie cutter” approaches such as affiliate programs with little or no original content.
• If your site participates in an affiliate program, make sure that your site adds value. Provide unique and relevant content that gives users a reason to visit your site first.
If you determine that your site doesn’t meet these guidelines, you can modify your site so that it does and then submit your site for reconsideration.

I have also read various “guides” on writing meta and all seem to suggest that the keywords meta tag is now of little importance and not reviewed by some search engines. So that leaves the title tag and description. I can understand that the description tag is important as I have seen it used as the excerpt on SERPs so this needs to be thought about.

So here are a few of my thoughts on writing meta tags – hopefully it is helpful

Title Meta Tag
Include the keyword or phrase the page is trying to be optimised for as the primary keyword followed by any secondary keywords which will reinforce it i.e.

Primary Keyword – Secondary Keywords | Brand
Or
Brand | Primary Keyword and Secondary Keywords

If you are trying to rank for a very competitive term, I have found that it is best to include the keyword at the beginning of the title tag. If you are competing for a less competitive term and branding can help make a difference in click through rates, it is best to put the brand name first.

Description Meta Tag
Acknowledged by all search engines so this is important and needs to be included on all pages and be unique per page.
Summarise the page as best you can using the pre-defined primary and secondary keywords and limit it to 170 characters or 200 characters.
This requires using the most creative juices and you need to ensure it is coherent.

Keywords Meta Tag
This is more important for Yahoo then Google or Bing – try and limit to no more than 10-15 keywords to a page.
Include the keyword of phrase the page is trying to be optimised for first.

Keywords
More important for Yahoo then Google or Bing – no more than 10-15 keywords to a page
To include the keyword of phrase the page is trying to be optimised for first:

What is Page Rank?

Page Rank is an analysis of links which is used by Google to establish a numerical weight of the page of your website based on the volume and relevancy of links to your site from other sites of a similar genre and good page rank.

As my own page rank has lapsed a little in recent months I decided that I needed to take on more research into this subject and optimise my page rank and that of my clients.

My research and professional opinion is that link building is an important part of any SEO strategy.

Why is link building Important?

Well in order for a site to gain creditability and maximum exposure you need to look at getting back links from other websites linking to you.

Think of back links as a “vote” for your site. So a “vote” from a high page ranking site is a very credible “vote” and a high page ranking site will be a site that will be crawled often so you link will be picked up.

Now this sounds easy but it takes quiet a strategic approach as it is not productive to target just any websites for you back links.

The websites page rank is important and its relevancy in relation to your website. So this means taking the time to indentify websites with high page ranks who are themed around the same subjects or products as your own website.

Where to start…

Well a good place is look at submitting to Dmoz (Page Rank 8 ) and other directory sites (basic stuff). Dmoz is great as it is a high page rank and gets crawled by Google regularly so there is a good chance your site will be picked up and associated with the category you have submitted to. Also to submit to Dmoz is free! Just make sure you submit as specifically as possible i.e. drill down you category as far as possible rather than trying to get submitted to the highest level of category. Dmoz is edited by real people and a more narrow category may mean that your submission gets revised quicker.

Another place to look at getting back links is simply use web searches for subjects you want your site associated with – then approach them for a link to your site. Not all sites will offer you a link for free or at all so be warned you may need to pay for links – the question to ask yourself at this point is whether the back link from this site is worth the money.

You can purchase software which will analyse your website and find sites associated with the same subjects/products that may be looked at for potential back links – however my experience of this software is that it still need a human touch to filter out competitors (who aren’t going to give you a back link) or sites that are just of no value.

Another area is to submit well written optimised articles to various websites and contain a back link to your site. These sites are usually reputable with a high Page Rank and categorised so you will find a relevant category to post your article. Just three sites I have found are www.HubPages.com/ www.ezinearticles.com/ and http://www.articlesbase.com/

Another area to explore is social networking site but I feel this is a subject in itself so I will post separately about this.

You can also opt for link exchanges (sometimes called reciprocal links) although I believe this is to be avoided where possible to avoid search engines seeing a straight forward link from a site, to another site and back again.

In some circumstances this needs to be adopted to take advantage of a sites relevancy and page rank although this need to be kept to a minimum and only considered from sites that will enhance relevancy and page rank.

Another common technique is commenting on blogs relevant to your site – this is fine but check for no follow links and ensure your comments are constructive and relevant to the post not a blatant attempt at shoe horning you url in as this will be seen as spamming and removed.

So what have I learnt from my recent link building 101? Well it is certainly organic process and takes time. It needs to be a natural progression and well strategized . There are lots to consider and it really involves thinking outside the box. You are also in the laps of the gods as to when your link will be picked up as it depends on the webmasters of the website you are linking from and how often they submit sitemaps, and how often Google visits.

As I submerge deeper into link building I will do my best to share my experiences with you. Watch this space!