Last night I was running late to football practice . (oh I forgot to mention I Coach 8 and 9 year olds). So I called ahead and asked my assistant to get the stretching started.
As I was getting there he got all the guys to spread out to a more traditional stretching formation ( I usually have them more bunched up). You see my assistant was one of my high school Coaches way back in the day. ( I am blessed enough to have two of my H.S. Coaches as my Assistant Coaches today. In fact, one of them is in the real estate/mortgage business).
Then another Coach asked why we don't do more of some other showey thing. I, shall we say snapped! And exclaimed "why don't we worry about what happens on the game field instead of the pre-game field!"
I understand their thinking. But I am practical. However, I often will skim past details until proven they matter. This philosophy has bitten me back a few times I must say. However I would rather focus on larger levers.
I see this as a major advantage the way Spider Juice Technologies does SEO. Most ebooks and most teachers, (especially those positing their own free dose of online SEOducation ) often MAJOR in minor details.
My guess is that after a while they run out of the MJOR levers, so they talk about stuff that arguably matters, but not much. Never mind that your time is better spent going out and looking for a good high quality link.
The industry seeks to settle for tradition and standards. That is a tradition of minors and false standards of professionalism that often settle for the lowest common denominator. While the masses eat from the hand that feeds them junk food disguised as caviar. The big levers like strategy and philosophy are passed over in favor of logical discussions that make sense on the surface but are often based on false pretenses and sadly little practical experience.
Tactics make for great how to articles for SEO Gurus, but waste time when not used in relationship to a larger strategy. After all, a number 1 position and 50 cents will either get you a cup of coffee or a commission. Any profit from that position depends on many variables that if not considered makes that position worth just a cup of Sanka.
Major in Majors in Search Engine Optimization
Have these 6 then get links forever!
- Doctype Tag
- Keywords in Title Tag
- Robots.txt
- Google Sitemap
- Textual Link Navigation (as opposed to graphic links or link maps)
- Validate your HTML
Now create great content. And get links, and create great content and get links. Ad Nauseum.
I like the concept of your post. Sadly though, without the attention to detail, many people miss the mark in their SEO efforts. I think the 6 points are strong ones, but then to say just "create great content" is not giving the content enough credit. I think it should be one of the 6 points as well as making sure "calls to action" is within the content. Maybe "create great content with calls to action" could be one of the points.
Posted by: James Bridges | August 29, 2008 at 08:27 AM
James-
Thanks for the comments. Yes Content is important, and perhaps could have been stuck into the bullets. However, content I feel is a separate subject and the bullets are an extension of the content.
Content is what is for the reader and the bullets spell out the SEO. Obviously the engines look at the content for meaning. However, it seems more likely they look at the title tag to tell them what the content is about. The content seems to validate what the title tag and perhaps the h tag says. I failed to mention the h tag as it does not seem as important as it once was.
As far as call to action, this was an SEO discussion and not conversion. Yes call to action is huge, but be careful on a blog or social type media as it can be obnoxious unless buried into a very compeling/unique offer.
Posted by: Coach Tim SEO | August 29, 2008 at 10:01 AM
Hey thanks for this. You've been very clear at explaining the subject. for a new blogger like me, that's what I need. Happy blogging!
Posted by: John Carle | September 2, 2008 at 02:06 PM
I would have put "usability" as one of my main points. Creating a site that's clear in its intention and well organized will allow visitors to find the information/call to action they need.
Posted by: Real Estate Raj | September 10, 2008 at 01:08 PM
But what does Usability have to do with SEO? They are 2 separate topics.
Posted by: Derek | September 10, 2008 at 09:16 PM
Good points and content is king, no doubt.
These all points are online optimization.
To make your content great, always update it.
Posted by: Kim, Brisbane Real Estate Agent | September 15, 2008 at 02:04 AM
Nice article. This is correct content is king! If you have good quality content you are miles ahead of everyone else.
Ray
Posted by: Find Lake House | September 17, 2008 at 12:05 AM
Is there an easy way to create a Google sitemap?
Posted by: Troy | September 29, 2008 at 12:53 PM
Troy I answer you here:
http://www.houseblogger.com/houseblogger/2008/09/sitemapsxml-for.html
Posted by: Coach Tim SEO | September 29, 2008 at 04:14 PM
You've been very clear at explaining the subject. for a new blogger like me, that's what I need. Happy blogging!
Posted by: motel sale | September 30, 2008 at 01:53 AM