Comments on: 21 Essential SEO Tips & Techniques

By: zenithexpert

zenithexpert — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 04:16:25 +0000

5. Have web analytics in place at the start. You should have clearly defined goals for your SEO efforts, and you’ll need web analytics software in place so you can track what’s working and what’s not.

Can someone recommend web analytics software? Is Googles Analytics good enough, or is there something better? thanks…

By: Rob Gunayan

Rob Gunayan — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 07:42:32 +0000

Isn't spying on your competitors' keyword strategies a SEO technique? For me it is, tracking up what your competitors are doing on their site is a good technique and KeywordSpy can do that because KS will give you an opportunity to immediately track down your competitors and gather keywords for the promotional campaign of your online business.

By: fresher websites

fresher websites — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 13:04:52 +0000

Great article & summary of SEO issues, I forwarded it on to some of my clients.

May I add a couple of points?

1. If appropriate, modifying the search terms with an area can really cut down the competition. E.g. ‘seo services london’.

2. Ensure that the visible content (page text, headings, etc.) is consistent with invisible content (title tags, alt tags, page description, etc.)

This may seem obvious, but many new to SEO (myself included 3yrs ago) have a tendency to stuff keywords into hidden tags, without sufficient support in the visible page text.

I think it’s important to remember that one of Google’s primary functions is to provide relevant, informative results to searchers. Part of this is weeding out the guys who are pretending to be something they’re not.

When optimising your site, it’s always good to aim for ‘what you see is what you get’.

By: justablink

justablink — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 13:01:13 +0000

24. Be sure and sign up for the free local listings offered by both Google and Yahoo, and optimize your listings as well to show up on the map. Local searches often come with a map showing in the results, so get your site on it.
In addition, Yahoo local listings often have a rating system, showing up to five red stars. Have previous clients rate your services, so your local listing will stand out among your competitors. Very few people take this extra step, and your listing will stand out.

By: Matt McGee

Matt McGee — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 03:46:35 +0000

Thanks for the comments, Lester and Amanda. The crawlability issue was #7 in last week’s column, Amanda. I was trying this week not to just list the flip side of that list. :-)

By: amanda_m

amanda_m — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 01:52:02 +0000

23. Make sure your site is completely CRAWLABLE.

By: Lucky Lester

Lucky Lester — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 16:31:44 +0000

22. Do analyze your competitor’s efforts – there are reasons why they are sitting at the top of the search engines.