Jordan Hardy

I hope you enjoy the URLs below. I’ve got around 5000 favorite websites in various categories, all of which relate to online marketing. Of those, about 300 are closely related to search engines themselves and search engine information. There are many enjoyable search engine tools and information websites to reference, but it is often the most useful to test things oneself by hand. Remember, search engines do not want to be tricked or have things too automated.

It is very useful to look through search engines and see what they are doing live with their results. Addressed below, it is important to look at their new projects or URLs of interest. Enjoy!

1. MSN Sandbox - testing, interesting things by MSN
   http://sandbox.msn.com/
2. Google Labs - This is a great place to see new Google Beta Launches and more
   http://labs.google.com/
3. Yahoo Next Projects Page - This is Yahoo’s beta and interesting items area
   http://next.yahoo.net/archives/category/projects
4. Yahoo Live Search - it is what it sounds like
   http://search.yahoo.com/?ek=0
5. Yahoo Audio Search - interesting idea
   http://audio.search.yahoo.com/audio
6. Digg - Many interesting URLs of articles and websites can be found here on search engines
   http://digg.com/
7. Google Blog - A wealth of information
   http://googleblog.blogspot.com/
8. Google Press / News - I very much enjoy this area
   http://googlepress.blogspot.com/
9. Yahoo Press Area - Enjoy the variety of endeavors by Yahoo
   http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/press/releases.cfm
10. MSN and Windows Live Newsroom - As MSN is one of my top favorite 3 search engines, this is a place I bookmark and refer
    http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/newsroom/msn/default.mspx

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What is SEM?

SEM stands for Search Engine Marketing. SEO is part of SEM. SEM is often not as cheap as SEO, but can get more results overall.

A successful SEM program often includes:

• SEO - Search Engine Optimization, where many factors are considered in making a website more search engine friendly so that it has a higher chance of ranking higher on search engines.
• PPC / Paid Ads - PPC stands for Pay Per Click. There are many types of ads that can be paid for, whether per click, amunt of time live, etc. Some ads are text links, some are Flash, and some are images. Some ads are meant to fool users so that they have no idea they clicked on an ad. Ads can cost the advertiser anywhere between $.01 and $100 per click. For example, a common search query that has low value and not much competition, such as a tulip, may be $.01 to $.50 per click. On the other hand, a porn link or Mesothelioma click may cost $10-60 per click.
• Social Bookmarking - Websites such as Delicious and Digg are ways to find interesting items other people have bookmarked on the web. If your website is bookmarked on any of these sites (there are many out there),this is a great technique of marketing you.
• SMO / Social Media Optimization - There are many social websites out there that are valuable to be part of. An example of one of the many would be Stumbleupon.
• Article Websites - There are many valuable article websites that are worth writing for or getting links from.

I would also include other items such as Wikis, email marketing, and reviews as related and affecting SEM. SEM is really about paid ads on search engines plus organic SEO, with the goal to increase visibility in search engines.

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SEO is not just Technical Optimization

SEO is search engine optimization, focusing on “organic” techniques to help a website rise to the top of search engine listings. The goal is usually to get more traffic, higher rankings on search engines, increase conversion, target and bring the right visitors to the website, and to get return visitors.

There is a lot more art, or creative work to SEO than technical work. It is necessary to keep up to date on search engine and industry updates and news. It is also necessary to know how to code, design and build websites.

But, beyond the right fields within code (and framework), it takes creativity and research to bring in a strategy that works. That strategy can be any number of so many techniques that will work for SEO, but, it is the ideas behind the strategy that are so important. Why will people come to your website? How long will they stay? What is your end goal of the website? What paths do you plan most visitors will take as they navigate through your website? Do you need the visitor to convert? Do they fill out a form? Do you want the visitor to return or just refer friends?

When you code a page on a website, or whole website, is that page really about what you planned? Ideally, if you build it, they will come. In other words, it would be nice if you could build your page and search engines and people will just find your page. That does often happen to some extent on large websites that are already popular due to other people contributing. It also often happens on blogs. But often it doesn’t just happen.

How to Make the Search Engines Note, Index, and raise Your Site in Ranking Over Time

Establish that your website deserves to exist. Enjoy working on the website, and include other people when possible. This may mean they link to you or you link to them. It may mean they write for your website. Think, if I were a visitor, would I enjoy this website? Step back and be objective. Learn all you can about SEO, coding, and your subject matter for the website.

This is very important: If you build it, often they will not come. Or at least that is, right away. People need time to tell others about your website. They also need time to see if they really like it and want to return. Search engines need to see what happens on your website over time. They need to see and believe what your point is. All of this takes time, and therefore you cannot guess exactly when you will move up in ranking next. But, you’ll learn in future posts on this website there are SO many things you can do to increase your chances.

I personally do extensive testing to see what works. I read books, articles, and search engines themselves. I look in code on websites. I intuitively figure out what elements will help people and websites learn and crawl through (with search engine spiders / crawlers ) a website more easily and positively.

In other words, I create my own algorithm / methodology which not only updates daily with new factors I discover, but SEO also is never the same from one website to the next. Each website has unique marketing depending on their branding, location (online space or physical location), goals, and technology used.

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From my experience in the last ten years working on over 300 websites, to get SEO results you’ve got to be good. This means white hat, good stuff. It isn’t about being a nerd or being geeky when I say you’ve got to be good. It means search engines, people, and everyone else out there in the Internet Universe are looking for the information they need to find the right website.

Don’t Engage in Trickery

If your website tricks search engine spiders in the code by heavily weighting keywords or words not in your page, this can be easily obvious. If you try to trick search engines in your copy, by writing quite a lot about items to improve your keyword balance, that can help. Or usually it won’t and will hurt your results more. If you include code or copy on your website about items not related to or existing on your website, to different degrees that will be found by those visiting your website. Possibly some search engines may not notice, but others will. A person cruising through your website may not notice, but the next person may have a feeling something is off.

Give Credit

I like to give credit to search engines and people being excellent researchers. I know if I am working on a website, when any machine or person visits that website, they will only stay if it is valuable to them. I may be able to get the user to return to my website if I provide fresh compelling content (such as I will do on this new website).

What’s the Goal?

I recommend the goal of a website be to be great at what it is about. It may not be a website covering a wide range of topics, and that can work very well. If there is a niche topic, that can be a huge market.

Intentions

When you work on a website, make it clear what the website is there for. Include a mission statement on the home or about us page. Include blocks of content and articles on and related to your topic. Have the website coded well so that not only can search engines easily find their way through pages, but pages load fast for people and can be printed without problem.

Click here to learn about Jordan’s experience

I have moved my resume here.