The truth is the internet is changing very fast and one of the ways it is changing is with Search Engine Optimisation and what works now as opposed to even just 6 months ago. If you are paying for someone to SEO your site there is one very important question you need to ask them:

“Are you optimising for Web 2.0 and 3.0?”

If they do not know what you are talking about it might be time to rethink hiring them and this is why:

“Many old SEO strategies have become obsolete, for example ranking for keywords that no one ever searches for – you know, those “ego boosters” that show your site on the first page of Google. Submitting your site to thousands of web directories to get links and submitting your site to the search engines to get indexed are two techniques no serious SEO even considers anymore. Webmasters still believe that exchanging links is the magic answer to higher rankings (they do still play a minor role in Google PageRanks), and many are still obsessing over duplicate content penalties. All these techniques are today used by the inexperienced SEO and by the “old school” DIY who fail to understand the dynamics of Web 2.0.

The New SEO 2.0 Trends

Web 2.0 is a social entity, and obviously SEO for Web 2.0 needs to be social.

Building social networks on Facebook, LinkedIn, Bebo, YouTube, FriendFeed, Twitter and the like, is only one aspect. If you build them, the followers will not necessarily come. You have to give visitors a reason to become members of your community, and more importantly, you have to give them a reason to click on the links you submit to their attention if you want to fully benefit from the “network effect” so many web marketers are talking about today. Twitter is the perfect example of how this “network effect” can be beneficial. For example, Dell managed to make $3 million in revenue using Twitter to announce special offers and to communicate with their consumers.” (flagrantly plagarised from the SitePoint Blog just for you)
http://www.site-reference.com/articles/Search-Engines/The-Difference-Between-SEO-Web-2-0-and-Advertising.html )

DIY SEO Hints:
•    Make sure your phone listings also include your website link
•    List your business website with Google Local Search, add a map, links and description
•    Write articles, press releases, list with directories in your niche and local directories
•    Link your internal pages to each other
•  Get a blog!
•    Use Social Media!

Notice the emphasis on the last two!

“Let’s Talk About Link Types

Link Reputation:
Link reputation is just that, the aggregate or culminating characteristic that an internal or external link has acquired.

Each link is viewed as a vote, get enough of them from the right sources and your website gains trust; that trust directly translates into link weight which you can invest into the page or pages of your choice via internal links.

Once a page reaches a certain degree of trust, all of the latent aspects of the (a) content (b) title meta data (c) H1 tag, bolded text, etc. and the various keyword combinations that exist on that page as well as the anchor text linking to that page are consolidated and that page can rank for (d) all of the above.

Authority / Trust:
To view the most trafficked and trusted websites online, just type in WWW into a Google search (with advanced filters set to 100 results). Every one of the sites listed there in descending order all represent the most authoritative sites online.

They are in such a lofty position since they are (a) linked to often (b) referenced often through citation or (c) visited frequently. This trifecta of link popularity and peer review augment the process of page and domain authority.

Getting a link from any website in the top 100 most trafficked or authoritative sites online (using the WWW keyword) could catapult your websites trust to a new level. The more authoritative pages your website has, the more trust, rankings and strength your overall domain can accrue.

How you spend that popularity (what we dub internally as ranking credit) and equity is up to you and ultimately determined by (1) the quality and topical theme of your content and (2) who you link to.

Once your website becomes a hub site (to other spokes in the wheel), each link is a valuable commodity which can be used to elevate other pages in your own website, pass traffic along to those who find that page (from search engines or through navigational means from other sites via links).

This is why it is particularly important to customize your website templates to prevent link loss through replicating too many shingles (text such as recurring navigation in the header, sidebar and footer).

By keeping the pages on topic and selectively using optimal anchor text, primary and secondary navigation and being selective with how you funnel the tiers within your website, you can sculpt link equity wisely within your website.

Trust is the last thing you get and it takes links from the right sources, quality content, popularity and time.

The real secret to link building is to start from within your website first, look for lateral opportunities to acquire links from trusted sources, use syndication wisely (RSS, Article Marketing, Directory Submissions, etc.), add a nice blend of social media, PR (press releases) and when possible get as many themed relevant links from others from within your own industry to balance your websites link profile.” (Again I have taken the best from another post on Site Reference here: http://www.site-reference.com/articles/Search-Engines/Link-Building-SEO-Link-Types-and-Tactics.html#ixzz0sJiuZ0x5 )

If you have been told that onsite SEO is more important than offsite SEO, that you must keep submitting your site to directories on a daily basis, that you must keep finding the best keywords and updating them weekly – you are talking to someone who has not upgraded their SEO education for a long time. These days SEO is more about what you do offsite than onsite, about 60/40 so get your site right, your keywords right and then get out there and be social!

Only submit to the newer directories which allow you to update all your information, add images, products and more, these are the backlinks that will count along with your social media linking. Facebook is the biggest site on the web, don’t you think this might mean that if you put a link back to your site on FB, it might carry a LOT of authority?

SEO is all about staying up with the times, I personally asked Matt Cutts (yes he answered me!) on Twitter the other day if anyone could really, honestly promise you first page of Google for your keywords, his answer was an unequivacle, “No! no-one can.” Paraphrased: Our newer algorithms are changed almost daily and semantic search is becoming more relevent by the minute.

What’s semantic search? Web 3.0 – where your past searches will influence your current searches for each persons IP address, how can anyone promise the first page of Google or any other search engine if all past searches that each individual person makes will influence their future searches? Think about it!

The people who are promising you this will not promise you first page of Google for your keywords, they do promise you first page for certain minor keywords in a local search, not the same thing at all! It is certainly time to be smarter with your time and smarter with your money, spend both wisely on what is working and what is going to continue to work.

Related articles by Zemanta

• How Social Media helps in getting good Google Rank (globalthoughtz.com)
• Six @ Six: 6 Evolving Search Optimization Tactics from SMX Advanced (bulletproofblog.com)
• Search engine optimization (SEO) (slideshare.net)

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Post tags: Facebook, Google, Google PageRank, Matt Cutts, search engine optimization, semantic search, Web search engine

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