Exchanging links is a good thing, but only if it makes sense for both sites and more importantly — site visitors. Certainly competitors won’t want to exchange links. Nor would those who have a gift basket site want to link to an industrial components site. And one could say that those who land at either site are not interested either. Two different markets there.

Many think link exchanges are the end-all-be all to getting high search engine rankings. Not the case. What is becoming increasingly apparent is that site owners are chasing links to the exclusion of all else. Links are just one part of the find-ability puzzle — not the end-all-be-all. Link exchanges for the sake of doing so pretty much cancel each other out and have no effect.

You need to make sure that you are linking to a credible site that is of a quality that earns your recommendation. See, when linking to a site you are basically giving a recommendation to your site visitors about the site you are linking to. And that site should in some way apply to your niche and your market’s interests. Forget about linking to your best friend’s poorly developed site. This is business and you are judged by the company — and the links — that you keep.

Be very leery of linking circles, link farms and pretty much anything that makes it sound like getting a bunch-o-links very quickly is a good thing. It isn’t. When sites participate in such programs including buying links, those links are ignored or in some cases penalized. The search engines are wise to most practices of artificially gaining links specifically to affect search engine rankings and they are getting better at not giving high rankings to sites that use them.

So we’re back to square one, right? Create a valuable content rich site worth linking to and the links will happen. No way around the hard work here! I have an article about the Reality of Linking, why not check it out?

At your service,
Judith
Your WordPress Consultant

WordPress Site Tip: Not All Links are Created Equal is a post from: WordPress Consultant: Judith Kallos, At Your Service...

More importantly, those who really get SEO, do a reality check to make sure clients understand the process, what is involved and they work towards creating realistic expectations.

An SEO Schmoe is either…

1. An individual or entity that sells SEO services but in reality doesn’t fully understand SEO to do right by their clients. Their main tactic is to take advantage of what clients don’t know to get into their pocketbooks..
2. A potential client who hasn’t made the effort to know just enough about SEO to avoid being taken advantage of by the Schmoes mentioned above.

The onus however, is on the client to have enough information to not be taken advantage of or to fall for the pie-in-the-sky hype some of these individuals/companies promise.

Here are 5 issues you need to get definitive answers on, and information you need to investigate, before you start throwing your hard earned dollars when it comes to finding SEO help:

1. Search for the the terms that describe the services the individual or company is offering. Do they rank highly for their own site? If not, why not? If they cannot get their own site found for the terms you would use, why should you believe they can then do so for your site?
2. If the SEO individual or company is offering high ranking guarantees – how is that possible when no one can control or influence search engines? Google’s own published guidelines state: “No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google. Beware of SEO’s that claim to guarantee rankings…” Google also offers some useful questions to ask an SEO, some of which include:
   • Can you show me examples of your previous work and share some success stories?
   • Do you follow the Google Webmaster Guidelines?
   • What kind of results do you expect to see, and in what timeframe? How do you measure your success?
   • What’s your experience in my industry?
   • What’s your experience in my country/city?
   • What are your most important SEO techniques?
   • How long have you been in business?
   • How can I expect to communicate with you? Will you share with me all the changes you make to my site, and provide detailed information about your recommendations and the reasoning behind them?
3. Get referrals before you make any commitments. Do they have long-term satisfied clients? Make sure they prove it with client testimonials and references (not just one guy who happens to be a friend). And testimonials on their site don’t count — anyone can embellish those. Get names and phone numbers of satisfied customers for you to call. Then before you call, ask for info on those client’s Web sites that they have optimized and which keywords they optimized for. They should be able to show you where in the search engines that client is appearing. If they can’t give examples, they probably don’t have any.
4. SEO best practices call for building links to your Web site. Ask what link building strategies they plan to use. Getting “links” from hundreds of sites is a big red flag. Slow consistent link building from authority sites is what works best. How do they plan on attaining quality one-way inbound links to your site?
5. Goals and Outcomes: What goals will they set for your site and targeted keyword phrases. You know the saying “if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is”? Guaranteeing improved rankings is one thing but if an SEO individual/company guarantees actual placement results, be suspicious. Real search engine optimizers will tell you, there is no exact way to know in advance where your Web site will be ranked in the search engines after their initial optimization is complete. It is an ongoing process. Not something you set, forget and that remains in place.

While SEO techniques are pretty universal, SEO in of itself is not a one-size-fits-all. Site owners need to understand what is involved and, more importantly, what is possible in order to fully be able to determine what SEO approach is best for their project.

I have a bunch of articles on SEO so that you can empower yourself with the knowledge and understanding to make educated decisions moving forward.

So don’t be an SEO Schmoe!

At your service,
Judith

What’s an SEO Schmoe? is a post from: WordPress Consultant: Judith Kallos, At Your Service...

There are those that prefer to surmise that what I advise is a “Judith thing” when they can find information elsewhere that doesn’t require the investment in time, energy and resources necessary to gain the rankings they obsess about. And they are obsessing.

The bottom line is, if you want the rankings you say you do — it is really pretty simple what you have to do — that is if you are as serious as you say you are about getting the rankings you desire.

The “big kahuna”, the one thing you need to know, the single most important part of your SEO efforts is that you must know what your target visitors are searching for and what information they need.

That’s easy enough to find out because there are free keyword research tools available for you to use so you know this critical info.

Because…

SEOing Your WordPress Site is About
Your Customers First

You then proceed to write for your visitors, and because you know what they are seeking, you follow these three simple steps.

1. Write quality engaging, helpful and useful content.
2. Write some more quality engaging, helpful and useful content.
3. While you are at it, write some more quality engaging, helpful and useful content.

That’s what it takes. Good writing, about topics your site visitors can use. By knowing what they are looking for and writing about it — you are naturally SEOing your site! Keep a few simple WordPress SEO tips in mind when creating your content and the rankings will happen.

But it takes time and a consistent effort. A passion for your business, a willingness to share your experience and the ability to make the commitment to spend the time and effort to create the engaging content that makes visitors jump for that contact button — instead of their back button.

Time and effort that sadly many do not want to expend. Instead they fall for the hooey…

• I just have to change titles, keywords and descriptions to what I want to be in the “top 10″ for.

  Changing meta keywords (which are ignored), titles and descriptions alone without ensuring they are relative on a page by page or post by post basis, is ineffective. Titles and descriptions have to be page/post specific — the more specific the better!

• The more Blog posts I have, the better my rankings!

  Blogging nonsensical boring regurgitated content that is not well written, unique or helpful just to “Blog”, does not improve rankings — nor will it encourage contacts or return visitors. Quality overrides quantity here.

• I’ll exchange links with friends and unrelated sites because Google likes links.

  Linking to non-related sites that offer no value to your site visitors does nothing to build your popularity or authority in the “eyes” of search engines. No popularity or authority — no increase in rankings.

Being niche (the less you are about, the more you are about one thing and therefore can be more relevant for that one thing), writing quality, helpful content you know your visitors are seeking (because you took the time to do your due diligence), and being approachable and involved is how you gain the rankings you desire.

Here a few more resources on the reality of SEO from those I follow:

Search Engine Optimization vs. Customer Connection

Link Building’s Glass Ceiling

Setting Realistic SEO Expectations

The fact is you can SEO your WordPress site so that those seeking what you have to offer will find you. You just have to write about what they are seeking!

Everything you need to know is on this page to experience improved rankings with your consistent efforts. If you want to read more about the reality of SEO (not the hype and hooey), I’ve got close to 100 articles on the topic of Search Engine Optimization available for your reading pleasure.

At your service,
Judith

The Facts About SEOing Your WordPress Site is a post from: WordPress Consultant: Judith Kallos, At Your Service...