Search Engine Optimization Tips and Guidance By Jimmy Thakkar

Hi readers,

My name is Jimmy Thakkar and my friends both online and offline label me as search engine optimization guru.

I have worked in a search engine optimization company and on hundreds of sites over the years and have had clients from all over the world.

I have written this article up to teach my general audience and the Webmasters about the whole Search engine optimization process and the ways in which they can take care of their websites when it comes to optimizing their sites for the search engines.

In this article and on this blog site you will be able to learn many things about search engine optimization training, economical seo, various search engine optimization terms, how you can plan about your seo, search engine optimization marketing, seo ranking and much much more…

What’s more ?

• Apart from this article on SEO the blog will cover all topics on SEO ranging from basics of seo to selecting a SEO firm for your website.
• Search engine optimization videos that will teach you about SEO basics and crucial seo topics.
• Products : You can find SEO products which range from SEO softwares to Seo Books/Ebooks and much more.
• Seo Pricing : How much should you pay a freelance seo expert ?
• much more…

Why do you do search engine optimization ?

In earlier days of the internet there was no search engine optimization. You just fill in your meta tags with your keywords and expect to find you site in the rankings. This is not the case now. With the growth in the online business and so many sites coming up daily the competition to get top rankings in the search engines has never been more.

It is essential that you optimize your site always keeping in mind the rankings you wish to obtain on search engines and the keyword(s) you would want your site to rank for.

Some people say optimizing for search engine rankings is highly over rated but i say how can anyone even say something like that :

With higher search engine rankings your chances of sales increase more because if your site is not ranking well then how will anyone visit your site and if anyone is not visiting your site how will your site sell ?

It is true that you should always optimize for the audience and your website visitors but you should always have search engines in your mind when designing a website or writing and article !

Where to rank ?

Rankings are important but do not run after rankings that you will never be able to achieve. For example if your site is about weight loss then it would be best if you target something like weight loss [your city name] or weight loss [your country here] rather than a very competitive word like ‘weight loss’.

Also do a bit of research on sites like word tracker as to what keywords you would like to target as targeting an exact keyword like ‘weight loss tips and ideas and techniques that will get you fit in 251 days’ will not help you much

Search Engine Optimization Strategy

It is very important that you work on your strategy for search engine optimization before you start doing any kind of search engine optimization for your site.

There are various factors you have to think about in your strategy for search engine optimization :

1. Who will do the search engine optimization.
2. What is my budget for search engine optimization.
3. Goals and target you have set.
4. What are the keywords I shall be targeting. For the keywords optimization should I work on my sites using the search engine optimization products or hire a freelancer.
5. Should I do it in house or outsource the entire job.
6. Should I go for 1 time Search engine optimization or hire someone on a monthly pay.
7. Should I go for On page optimization only and then do off page seo or do both of them side by side ?
8. What about Pay per click (PPC) and other ways of promoting my site like email marketing, offline marketing, etc..

After it is over :

1. What will be my next step after the whole Seo process is over.
2. What if the whole operation fails and the site does not do well with any of the search engines.
3. What will be my alternatives/backups/Plan B.
4. If you have achieved the target then what ? Where do you go from here ?

It is best to leave your search engine optimization to a professional. An expert in the field of search engine optimization knows his job top to bottom.

Why you should always hand your search engine optimization task to a professional :

1. He has done such a work in the past and would be able to help you better than a novice.
2. He knows the tricks of the trade to get your site optimized in a better way.
3. A professional knows how to get better ranking for you in the fastest possible time.
4. A professional will not leave you half way down the line if the original plan for your website ranking did not happen. He will help you get top ranking as discussed with you earlier.
5. Has his own search engine optimization products, tools , softwares and scripts to help you optimize your site in a better way.
6. Has his own staff to work on the websites.
7. A professional will work on your site in a systematic manner compared to a novice who will not do full justice to your site.

Professional search engine optimization process would include :

1. Analyzing the client’s request.
2. Talking to client about how the whole thing will work.
3. Discussing and Deciding on the keywords for the site.
4. Checking the entire site structure.
5. Sitting with the web designer and deciding on what changes need to be done if any.
6. Analyzing the content and adding new and fresh content to the site.
7. Work on ‘Off page optimization’ after the ‘on page optimization’ is done.

Economical Search Engine Optimization

How do you define economical search engine optimization ?

Do you think economical SEO is something which can be termed as cheap seo ? I certainly do not think so. Nowadays there are many Search engine optimization experts coming from nowhere who promise you economical search engine optimization but what they really mean is that we shall provide you cheap search engine optimization service. Economical search engine optimization is something which is made up of a combination of factors :

• Price/Fees of search engine optimization service offered is less than what is charged by the competitors.
• Quality is not compromised even when the fees charge for the service is very small.
• Has an option where you can pay half in advance and other half after you start seeing results.
• No spamming or black hat techniques are used.
• Staying up to date with latest algorithms like Panda update, Penguin update and other such changes.

Some top companies that offer economical Search engine optimization services are :

SEOPlus.com
Jimmysvalueworld.com
Jvwinc.com

 (See Google.com or Bing.com for more results)

Places where you can get Economical search engine optimization services are :

1. Forums : Many experts offer their services through forum sites. You can pick an expert which is well reputed in the seo field and has good feedback given to him by other forum members.
2. Freelance sites : Make sure you pick a company or a freelancer which has done similar work in the past and has good reviews and ratings for the work done.

Search Engine Optimization Marketing

Many people get confused when the gurus/professional mix up their words on the website. The general public get confused between Seo, SEM, Seo marketing, SEO promotion.

Then they come up with a question saying how can I do seo optimization for my site ?

Please note that Search engine promotion would include Search engine optimization(SEO) which is generally “on page” and search engine marketing(SEM) which is generally “off page” + Pay per click advertising.

We have already discussed search engine optimization(SEO) on previous pages so we will see here what exactly is search engine marketing :

Search engine marketing is the next step in search engine promotion after the search engine optimization is done.

Search engine marketing involves many things some of which are :

1. Website submission – Submission of your website to major search engines and other small search engines.
2. Blog and rss submission – Promotion of your blog by submitting comments on related blog sites and rss directories.
3. Forum promotion – Marketing on forum, offering services and products on forum is a good idea. You can get link value also through signatures in some of the forums.
4. Pay per click – Pay per click or PPC is a quick way to get traffic. Popular players in this category are Google Adwords and Exactseek.
5. Email marketing – The oldest way of marketing online is email marketing. Make sure you do that properly and to your list or you might get blacklisted by spam blocking sites.
6. Directory submission – This is a very popular method which will help you get good link value. Getting listed on Dmoz and Yahoo directory is the best thing when it comes to directory submission.
7. Article marketing – Article writing and submitting to article directories. Make sure you use your signature well. Popular website to submit your article is to ezinearticles.com.

Search Engine Optimization Training

Proper Search engine optimization training is essential before you work on any of your sites or any of your client’s site. Without Search engine optimization training you will not be confident enough to work on optimizing the websites alone.

There are many sites that offer search engine optimization and training along with search engine optimization certification nowadays. Some of these companies are :

- Jvwinc.com
- BruceClay.com
- Searchenginecollege.com
- training.seobook.com

How to go about search engine optimization training ?

You can choose any of the below for getting trained for SEO :

1. Choose a mentor.
2. Reputed site/institute.
3. By yourself.

1. Choose a mentor – This is very easy. Just search and choose for yourself a mentor. You can find one on a forum. Follow what he has to teach to you. Check every post that he makes about search engine optimization along with his blog and articles he write. Asking your mentor intelligent questions about search engine optimization is a good thing but do not just keep him busy with your 100 questions daily or there are chance you might end up on his block list

2. Please check the above links for the institute(s). These sites will train you thoroughly like a proper institute and then give you a certification at the end of it on the basis of how well you did the course.

3. By Yourself – Though this might not be the best way to learn search engine optimization but the abundance of knowledge and information available on the seo sites can give you a good head start. You then have to dig deeper on various information portals, forums and other places. There is a high possibility that your problem or question on search engine optimization is already been asked somewhere and been solved by someone on some forum or info portal site. You can also take the help of sites like Yahoo Answers to find more information.

Search Engine Optimization Reports

This is an essential aspect of search engine optimization. Many people do the search engine optimization reports after they have finished with the search engine optimization. This is not correct. You should start doing the search engine optimization reporting from the beginning itself.

The report of the site will include :

• Rankings on various sites for various keywords before and after.
• Number of indexed pages currently.
• Jump in the search engine rankings.
• Number of backlinks obtained.
• Increase in social popularity on sites like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Yahoo answers etc.

With help of reports you can check which efforts of yours have been fruitful so that you can repeat those things on other pages or other sites of yours or your friends/client’s site. Make sure when you make the search engine optimization reports it is not just for 1 search engine that is Google. Check your performance on other search engines as well because it might happen that you are getting higher on one of the search engines but loosing your rankings on other major search engines.

Why Seo reports ?

1. Reports show the status of your work done. If you gained popularity then you should continue with your seo efforts and if you keep falling down in popularity then it is best that you stop or change your seo practice for which the traffic is going down.
2. Reports are also important in holding the Seo team accountable.
3. For analysts – If you are looking for Joint ventures, Venture capitalists or wish to sell the site even then the reports with come in handy. Here however stats from Google analytics and awstats will be more important.
4. If you run an SEO firm then it is mandatory to have such reports which you can show to client on a weekly or monthly basis as decided by both the parties at the start of the contract.

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Jimmy Thakkar is a website designer and a search engine optimization (SEO) expert from Mumbai, India. You may reach him at www.jimmythakkar.com if you wish to get your website designed or optimized or both.