Research Your Way To Better Seo | Search Engine Optimization

By RickLondon
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I wear many hats. For a long time I have been a cartoonist. In my mid-40's I went back to college and studied business and Internet technology. Suddenly I was an IT Professional and a cartoonist. The conflict was deciding if I should just be an IT pro, or continue my cartoons. After all, I had spent a decade on the cartoons and built numerous gift stores, some megastores with inventories of 100,000 products. What to do? Now I had some new tools, a major one known as SEO (Search Engine Optimization). I decided to utilize that skill to work on my cartoon and cartoon gift sites. It was a good decision. I am learning new things about SEO every day. I am hardly a guru.

I have found that most authors of ebooks simply gather information from another ebook or ebooks, thinking it must be good information because it came from an "Internet guru" and copy it. That is sad. It usually is bad information. Most the ebooks I've seen show you how to get to page one of Google, and fast. That is not the way you want to do it. You may be there a few weeks or even months, and then you are off the map. Patience and building your name with white hat seo is the key.

I don't write Ebooks or consider myself an expert by any means, that is a master expert. If I billed myself as such, I would be hurting you, especially if you believed me, and paid me for my writings. I know much more now than when I started my own web stores (and college), but guru status is years down the road, if it ever comes at all. If it never does come my way, that is okay too. I love learning and implementing SEO and that is all that matters. How do I know? I have SEO'd my own cartoon site up to number 65,000 in Alexa. With 6-8 billion websites on the Internet, try getting in the Alexe Top 100,000. Congratulations if you can do it. If you did, please share how you did. It took me seven years but I kept studying and learning, and now know a few things. But I still research numerous times to make certain those things are correct. There is just too much bad information out there that even the author believes is good information.

A day doesn't go by that someone doesn't say, "My website is a month old and I think I'm using the wrong keywords. I'm using "X" company for PPC and they aren't worth a damn. I've been with them a month." And many other complaints that reflect a lack of patience.

Using one form of SEO only such as good keywords, or incoming links is not a good idea at all. The search engine algorythms are changing and now they are looking for a combination of factors.

I like to think of a new website as the moon. It is a place people have been before but they don't go often. One has to give them reason to go. Motivate them. Make the moon a pleasant place. Give them an incentive. That is what SEO marketing is all about.

Can we expedite this process? Of course. That is, if you want to get kicked off most of the major web engines. You simply start spamming and spamming is a numbers game. The problem is spamming is bad net-etiquette and even illegal in some states. And you will be spinning your wheels. That is not just email spamming but blog spamming, article spamming and any other kind.

One SEO method at a time. Learn it well and go to the next. Learn it well and go to the next. I always start with keywords and blogging and go to the more complex ones like article marketing and ppc advertising after I've mastered the first. Some like to learn it all at once. It's a matter of style. Use keywords wisely and sparingly and very targeted. Don't stuff them all over your site.

Get a blog, preferably a blog within your own domain. Remember you are also branding your product or service and you want it to be your blog, not Facebook or some other big name. When you blog with them, which is okay for meeting people, socializing etc., you are helping brand them. If you feel so charitible then do so. I have blogs at many different sites, but I use my main blog with my company's name on it the most often. That is my "focus blog". I visit free pinging services and update my blogs.

I am a firm believer in article marketing using keywords. You are not just reaching your targeted audience, you are offering them extra value. If you are not a writer, considerer hiring one, even if it is just for a few articles. Don't forget Ezinearticles and Isnare. Those are the two most read directories. There are many others that can help too.

There is good article submission software and services that prevent spamming, and can write and rewrite your article and allow you to use targeted keywords that prevent it from pinging unwanted blogs.

Buyer beware, though, when using these softwares and services and make certain they do what they say they do. A good place to start is Tucows or Download and read some of the reviews. Cnet offers good advice also.

Again, be patient. You will have written at least dozens of articles most likely, before you notice a change in your ranking and difference in the numbers of site visitors. Also, in article marketing, as in any other kind of SEO, "Its a jungle out there" or even a war, and everyone is vying for the top position. So for heaven's sake don't just write an article and put your link. Google is on to that and can see through it pretty fast. Write something of value and substance that people can and will use.

Pay Per Click often comes up in conversations. I use pay per click engines, as its inexpensive and a good idea. But before using it, read the tutorial or knowledge page that the service offers. I have used most of them and find Google Adwords to be the easiest interface and most flexible. MSN Adsense, though not as big, offers some fun surprises too. Both offer quality hits.

There are many second-tier ppc services and I tend to stay away from them. They bring in a lot of traffic but it tends to be low quality curiosity-seeking untargeted surfers. It is more economical but one gets what one pays for.

With so much to know and learn, you may ask yourself, "Where do I start"? Start just where you are. That's where I started, knowing little or nothing (how to turn on a computer was a big challenge at one time) A decade later I have learned a great deal more and will share share it as I learn it, and try it, making certain it works. I know appropriate basic SEO works in my own Londons Times Cartoon stores, and I have seven of them. If I didn't use it, I would simply have seven desert islands with seven "future Hiltons".

About the Author

Cartoonist & Owner Of Cartoon Gift Stores Rick London Learned & Did SEO his own way. Research. See several of his Hilarious Gifts & Collectibles at Guru-Free SEO Cartoon Empire Builder Reveals All, and

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