SEO is just the First Step

This .pdf was a great introduction to the concept of Search Engine Optimization. Everyone wants to know how to be the top result on a Google search, either for personal shits and giggles or to improve business. Barely anyone takes the time to spruce up their site's content to achieve this goal.

So much of this can be done by the writers. Any good writer should be able to summarize the purpose of their piece in a paragraph or two with little effort. Put this up in the head section of the page's code and you've got a kick-ass description meta tag. The same goes with page titles. The key is to be precise and straightforward. These are just old skills applied in new ways.

While this file focuses largely on improving a website, it does briefly mention promoting that kick-ass site. This is where the article I found on Facebook Marketing could be helpful. The part I found most useful is at the end where it mentions how important it is to allow your Fans to share content from your page. This is not so much user-generated content, a concept over which everyone s going gaga these days, as it is user-generated advertising. The benefit of this approach is it is essentially free but does not affect the quality of your product.

Of course, this is much easier for a small company than for a large one. Once your site has either thousands or millions of pages it might be useful to employ the services of an SEO firm. Some engage in real-life human interaction while others utilize software. One newer company getting some buzz is an Israeli company called RankAbove.

As an aside, I find it funny that the two links in this post on SEO have absolutely horrendous urls. Isn't it ironic? Don't ya think?