Are You Missing Out By Not Practicing SEO Techniques?

A comment on my article about how Google ranks websites asked me: “How did you get from 0 to 4 if you do not have visitors? And why would you care if no one else does?”

The truth is that if you are not interested in attracting a lot of visitors or customers, then page rank and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) isn’t your thing. Who would care? If you don’t care, then don’t bother.

But if you do care, then it is important that you understand what Search Engine Optimization is and how to make it work for you.

In Infoconomy’s article, “Standing Out From the Crowd”, it asks the question: “Why aren’t more companies paying attention to SEO practices?”.

The world’s largest companies are missing out on billions of online dollars by failing to optimize their websites for search engine listings.

Search engine rankings are a vital component of an Internet presence: More than three quarters of hits on Internet home pages are directed there via a search engine; and half of consumers research online prior to making purchases. But many of the world’s largest businesses are failing to take advantage of this growing channel for acquiring customers.

SEO techniques involve some very simple or very advanced techniques to make sure that your site is fully optimized, or in better words, ready for search engines to visit and gather the data they need to place you in their database so people can find you when they search.

Rumors of the Death of SEO

On the other side of this, Shoe Money reports that Jason Calcanis claims SEO is dead. I agree but I also disagree with that statement.

SEO techniques that make website managers and administrators use unscrupulous practices to attract the attention of search engines to their site and force up their page ranking are dead. Totally killed off. WordPress and other blogging tools and plugins have made it difficult for comment spammers and bad referrers to get their fingers into your website to force link popularity and page rank. Today, search engines are no fools when it comes to detecting greedy attempts to abuse and attract their attention. The games played under the guise of SEO techniques to spam search engines and fool with page ranking is dead and gone, part of history. Sure, you can try the old techniques, but the odds are that you will get slapped really fast. Technology has caught up and surpassed you.

Still, the original intention of Search Engine Optimization techniques benefit everyone, including search engines. Streamlined coded websites that load fast and put the information you need in the fore is critical to a site’s success. Simplistic, easy-to-read and use websites and blogs make it useful for users as well as search engines.

SEO really means following web standards and practices that make your website and blog accessible to everyone, including search engines. Here are some examples of articles and information that will help you learn more about good SEO efforts and practices to help your website and blog be not only ready for search engines when they come to visit, but accessible by everyone using every browser, computer, cell phone, and handheld computer.

• Site Optimization: Optimizing Bandwidth and Cleaning Out the Code Closet
• Spring Cleaning or Fall Brush Off – Season Blog Cleaning
• The Top 10 Things You Should Know Before You Blog
• How NOT to Build a Successful Online Business
• Give Your Blog Site A Health Check
• What Are Keywords?
• The Key to Blogging Success: Perseverance
• A List Apart’s Andy Hagan’s article, “High Accessibility Is Effective Search Engine Optimization?
• 10 Things You Need to Know Before You Blog
• Blog Maintenance – Check For 404 Page Not Found Errors
• Website Development – What Needs to Be Done and How Much Does It Cost
• Site Optimization – Checking Loose Links
• More Website Design Mistakes
• More Than You Want to Know – Search Engine Articles, Information, and Resources
• Website Development – Listing The Keywords Inside
• The Power of the Link
• How Search Engines See, Search, and Visit Your Website
• How People Search the Web and How They Can Find Your Blog
• Google Page Ranks, Google News, Google Gossip, Google Blues
• Website Development – Search Engine Submission Preparation
• Blog Site Search Engine Submissions
• RSSTop55 – Best Blog Directory And RSS Submission Sites
• Secret Out – How Google Ranks Websites
• Submitting Your Sitemap and Feeds to Google Blog Search and Site Submission