Effective SEO: The ONLY 5 Things That Matter

Image by purpleslog via Flickr

Don't run away just yet. I promise not to turn this blog into one more place where some SEO¹ expert moron spews out stuff they know nothing about. In fact, this will probably be one of the few times I talk about SEO. I promise.

But it's an important topic: The SEO "industry" has convinced everyone that this stuff is hard. Sorry, but it's not. I'm a firm believer that the most effective approach is to teach your designers and developers the basic and fundamental concepts behind good website design, architecture and implementation. Done properly, your web pages will get the rank they deserve. And you can worry about running your business instead of wasting money trying to find ways to subvert Google. Because you're never going to win that game.

Below is a talk I gave at Social Media Club Phoenix last week. I typically lead a "social media 101" discussion prior to the meeting. My class was about double the size from months prior. I have to assume that at least some of it was the topic: Dispelling SEO Myths -- something you wouldn't typically hear spoken about at Social Media Club. And because of that swell in attendance, I decided to post it here. Seems like lots of businesses are struggling with this. As usual, I have a simpler way to handle it.

A Simpler Way: Only 5 seo things that matter

View more presentations from Evo Terra.

Yes, just those five things. No, I'm not kidding. You could go deeper, but you're wasting your time if you haven't done those five things. You're also wasting your time if you can't do those things so are considering hiring an outside firm to do something else for you. That's wasting your money, because "something else" won't work. Do the things I tell you. If you can't, spend your money trying to get that changed so that you can do those things. Or if you want, give half of that money to me. I'll at least be upfront with you and tell you nothing will happen. Your expectations will be properly set and you'll know you're wasting money, rather than finding out what a waste it was six months from now. I'm kidding, obviously. Save your money until you can spend it on something that will work.

Preemptive strike for you SEO-types -- Don't bother. You may have examples upon examples of how your trick or technique works. I don't care. You and I both know the tricks you try have limited chances of working and only work for a limited time. You and I also know that every time it doesn't work, you blame it on the client's inability to implement your plan. I get that. See above. I'm trying to fix that. But no, I don't think you should be able to charge stupid amounts of money each and every month to unsuspecting clients who haven't the foggiest how your efforts actually help them sell more stuff. Because they probably don't. You can't argue me out of my position. I can't argue you out of yours. Let's just agree to disagree on this, OK?

Preemptive strike for those who want to hire me for SEO work -- If you want me to help you come up with a strategy to dump your outsourced SEO firm and bring it in-house, I can help. But if you're looking for someone to "just do the work", that's not me. I know plenty of very nice, very smart and very fair people who do SEO work and am happy to make a referral. That is, if any of them are still talking to me after reading this post.

^{1 - Search Engine Optimization. I hate the term and much prefer "SEF", or making your pages Search Engine Friendly.}

Related articles by Zemanta

• Why SEO is Dead, and Social Media IS SEO. (theresabloginmysoup.com)
• Google incorporating site speed in search rankings (mattcutts.com)

Social Media 101: Stop Hacking and Phishing With Good Password Habits

This is a SlideCast version of a talk I gave last week prior to Social Media Club Phoenix. Each week I lead a session called Social Media 101. It's a safe place for newbies to learn one aspect of social media and to get their questions -- on any topic -- answered in a friendly environment.

"My account got hacked!" How many times have you heard someone say this, usually after they've sent you 5 "here's how you can make a gazillion dollars by blowing your nose!" tweets? Of course, they didn't send that to you. Some nefarious hacker gained access to their account, sending out spam messages to everyone -- including you.

But they have their facts wrong. They didn't get "hacked". They willingly gave up their password to some website. That's not hacking. That's phishing. Or maybe the site they gave their password to got hacked. Or maybe they left their computer unlocked, and all sorts of bad things happened.

Being smart about selecting and securing passwords is about as 101 as you can get. And we -- I'm lumping me in here, too -- do it wrong/bad/without enough forethought all the time. This Slidecast presentation will walk you though the basics of setting up and securing passwords in today's social world. While it was aimed at the social media beginners, more than one seasoned maven picked up an idea or two when I gave the talk last week.

Safe and Secure Social Media Habits

View more presentations from Evo Terra.

You'll notice also I'm starting to rebrand some of my talks. This one uses the new naming: A Simpler Way to be Safe and Secure Online. Hope you enjoy it!