Improve the Web

Back in the early days of the Internet, promoting a website in the search engines was as easy as editing one line of code. To promote your site, you simply send an e-mail to a friend and ask him to a friend. Not to mention the websites were more like Christmas-trees other than sophisticated booklets.

Last time I reviewed "The Long Tail", a book, introducing a new marketing concept, which would allow you to create a produc that sells well on the Internet. The MindValley Way, in turn, explains thoroughly how best to sell the product.

Now that I have finally finished a book review of "The Long Tail" by Chris Anderson, I can finally write about using the principle of the Long Tail in search engine optimization.

Weeks (!) ago I was sent one of the first hundred, not for distribution, copies of "The Long Tail" for a promise to post its review in a blog post. After numerous short reading sessions, the promise is finally fulfilled.

There is nothing in the world of SEO so entirely mind-grabbing and so mysterious as the Google Sandbox. But really, is the box as black as it is painted?

Nope. Put simply, there is no such a thing as Google Sandbox.

Instead, there are several algorithmical factors that prevent websites from showing up in the SERPs for competitive terms right after their launch.

Such factors may as well be:

You know, recently, there has been a trend to separate the work of optimizing websites into SEO, SEM, copywriting, usability, accessibility and what not. But do you really need to dive into all the aspects of web development when creating a website?

What to optimize?

In reality, you need to have a website that will allow your visitors do what they want - and this is what you want them to do as well. That simple.

There are many questions that anyone related to creating, optimizing and promoting websites needs answers for. And you'd like some solutions that'd work everyime in every situation. So how about a single answer for all questions?

The answer

As a matter of fact, yes. There is one answer to any question about a website. And it is..

"It depends."

Of course, there this answer may suit other questions, such as

There has been a lot been written about including the social aspect in your marketing strategy. While it may not seem a worthy endeavour, there is something to think about.

Introduction

Though there have been numerous discussions on adding customer interaction to your online business, social marketing is also beyond your website. Social marketing is when you integrate yourself and your online business into the online community of your industry by

There was some buzz about social marketing lately, and, coupled with the link bait issue, it may form quite an impression that creating content to spread virally and to get links and Diggs is the way to go. However, you also need to consider the marketing strategy and brand image of your product or service. Let's see how you can leverage the word of mouth aspect of marketing to your advantage.

Nowadays, it seems that every site owners knows how his site should look like: visually appealing, with a large amount of graphics (or even Flash) and, of course, with plenty of images of people, preferrably women, preferrably barely clothed (or naked).

But reality is that what works isn't what people, who barely know anything about web design, think to work.

When people visit a website, they have their own goals for that. To reach the goal, they need to click on URLs to get to other pages and read text only to click further. What can you do to ensure that your site visitors can find what they are looking for?

Lately, Lee Odden has written a post, discussing whether web designers without any SEO knowledge are evil, or should exist as cash cows for SEO consultants.

Apparently, every SEO (and web designer) has his own answer to this question.

You know, it is always great to stumble upon an interview with a knowledgeable SEO. Why not have a complete list of SEO interviews, then?

While there are a lot more interviews (as you'll be able to see from the SEO interviews lists below), I have only listed the ones those, I suppose, which will give useful information to you.

Video interviews are listed at the bottom of this post.

Enjoy.

There are a lot of books about search engine optimization on the market. Most of them are aimed at making some quick cash, while publishing some old techniques that no longer work, some just describe real basics. But there is a small number of those, which can teach you the principles of solid SEO, which will help you to stay afloat forever. SEO book, by Aaron Wall of seobook.com, is one of them.

Some time ago, there was a lot of buzz on why SEOs are not to be trusted, their job is worthless and they shouldn't be paid or something. As the matter is still important, most probably you'll find the post, clarifying the nuances of why the image of SEO is blurred, interesting.

What is SEO?

The most important moment to think about before calling someone out is to think what SEO really is: