RealTown's RealTalk

There has been a lot of discussion lately about SEO and SEO "Gurus". I'm
certainly lacking in knowledge and skills in this area.

Here is what Jill Whalen (High Rankings Advisor) has to say on the subject
of SEO. See her article entitled: "Revisited: The Art Of The SEO"

http://www.highrankings.com/advisor/

JIM
The Jim Cummings Team
CRS, GRI, RECS, e-Pro 500
512-633-3853 Mobile & Voice Mail
Judy Tixier, ABR, GRI, 512-415-1083
Real Estate Consultants
<Jim@AustinTxMls.com> Jim@AustinTxMls.com
RE/MAX Austin Associates, Austin, TX 78746
512-328-8333 X 142 Office 888-843-8989 Toll Free
Website: <http://www.austintxmls.com/> http://www.AustinTxMls.com

The more I research seo/sep, the more confusing it becomes. I am new to the e-pro community and have not yet completed my course. I have been reading all of the various comments/articles on this topic but am very uncertain as to which direction to head but trying to get something going in a depressed market. Some agents seem to favor certain companies they have worked with and achieved results while others say it's a complete money waster and scam. Some agents recommend just doing it yourself - frankly, I don't have the time or enough tech knowledge to do that. I have talked with Compass Internet Systems who requires a 6-month commitment. I have talked with a Realtor in NJ who does seo apparently on a part-time basis, contracted with my web vendor. I have read other agents who have recommended Stepforth.com and Summitweb.com. There seems to be a sea of seo providers, just like Realtors! Reading the post on the Realtor that lost $6K over the wrong seo choice is disturbing. After reading the article that appeared today, it seems that google will be able to recognize if a site has been optimized so that's no good either. I can't even get past my meta tags yet. Help! Any comments or suggestions on how to proceed, my site sits lost in cyberspace after being newly renovated/revamped just this past Spring at my own doing, working with a company called 4 site who does not provide seo directly, they contract it out. I am happy with my site and have positive feedback from my customers that it is a great site but I can only do so much marketing locally. Anyone who might be able to break this down for me on a "seo for dummies" level - I would really appreciate your time.

>>>>Here is what Jill Whalen (High Rankings Advisor) has to say on the
subject of SEO. See her article entitled: "Revisited: The Art Of The
SEO">>>>

If google starts to penalize sites that have been optimized for SEO then
the internet will come to a screeching halt. The first thing google will
have to do is take down their site called "google webmasters" where they
tell us how to optimize for seo.

Watch out or the sky just might hit someone on the head.

Greg Cremia
Shore Realty
www.outerbankshome.com

Greg Cremia said:
"Watch out or the sky just might hit someone on the head."

Exactly!

If I may also inject some alternative feedback to the Jill Whalen
article....

She claims that things are always changing in SEO. I completely
disagree. What worked 8 years ago still works today, quite
effectively. That is, put up a good site, properly optimized, with
decent content, then set out to establish it properly within your
realm of interest.

In my ten years of observing the SEO community and the endless stream
of verbage that spews forth from it, several trends emerge. Please
note that these are just general observations about the collective
state of affairs in SEO. It is not intended to reflect upon Jill
Whalen specifically.

1) If PT Barnum was alive today, he'd be an "SEO consultant"
clamoring for a podium at any SEO conference he could find. No
training or experience is required. So what if he'd (or she'd) have
no idea what they are talking about based on real world examples.
It's all about cooking up new theories and bleeding-edge concepts
that fail to hold up to close scrutiny. BS rules the day. The
audience at these things demand that you wow 'em, or they get bored.

2) If the sky is not falling in the SEO world, it's bad for *their*
business. Many of these people are experts at cooking up "make work"
theories, at the client's expense. As in: "Hello, Jane, your site now
seems to be out of compliance with the latest SEO theories. It is so
"2006". We could fix it for $xx,xxx.xx."

3) The more complicated and expensive the fix, the less grounded in
reality. Some of these SEO theories send people on wild goose chases,
looking for certain kinds of links that simply will never
materialize, or do not exist in any significant quantity that makes a
difference in competitive situations. If the SEO consultant can't (or
won't) explain what they are gong to do for you in a quick summary,
then it's voodoo. If it doesn't make common sense, it's bad advice.

4) SEO consultants who begin to predict the future are invariably
wrong. See item 1) above.

5) Beware the "Lone Ranger" or "Pied Piper" syndrome. That's a
business owner who runs one or a few well-ranking sites in relatively
uncompetitive situations, and based on that "experience" they become
self-described SEO experts. Through their blogs, they clamor for a
fan base and validation from others. These people are often quite
hardened and vocal in their beliefs. Pour a little "ActiveRain" on
them, and they grow like weeds!

The truth is, real SEO is full of "gray area", and unless a person
has looked closely at hundreds of sites that have used all manner of
SEO techniques, in all kinds of industries, then they will have a
very limited scope of reference when discussing SEO issues. Sorry.
That is a fact. Most of these Pied Pipers propose some very odd
concepts, many of which are very easily discredited with real life
examples. But good luck doing that, once they have established their
"fan base". Their fans stand at the ready to flame out anyone who
disagrees with their leader. It's just plain weird out there in the
Pied Piper world. Just be careful when you drink their Kool-Aid.

Now, for the last and most important statement. There are a lot of
good SEO consultants in this world. They do proper work, based on
well-established, proven concepts, for a price that reflects
professional rates. They are generally NOT the ones trampling each
other for a podium. They are NOT the ones building a congregation of
disciples with blogs. They are not dreaming up new theories to
exploit. They ARE busy helping their clients.

Look at their track record, look for reasonable prices, and a common
sense approach.

Dirk Johnson
Partner - Operations
DomainDrivers LLC
djohnson@domaindrivers.com
703-406-4698
www.domaindrivers.com
We're an approved RealTalk/RealTown vendor:
http://DomainDrivers.InternetCrusade.com

The new google webmaster tools gui states there are over 200 different "little tweaks" that lead to a perfect page 1 natural inclusion rank. Does anyone have a list of all 200? Here is a start.. let's build the entire list together...

Page Name format "-" and php vs asp.

Backlinks

Meta Data

Content

Colleen,

I sympathize with your trap. I'd love to talk to you "off-line" so as not to seeming to be "advertising". You can call or email me.

Randy Eagar, CRS
www.WebsTarget.com
Randy@WebsTarget.com
(800) 277-1316