19 replies to this topic

[allendover1]

Hey all - been awhile since I have logged on - Done ok with SEOing in the past, but nothing to brag about - other than just lucky maybe...

SEOing is just info overload to me personally - you could talk about everything under the sun, it is just way to much... What are the core facts and focuses I need to stay on to achieve ranking under my keywords? I have read and still reading Jill's start up stuff - great stuff but even that to me personally is info over load - no offense meant at all. Guess being a guy I am just one track minded, lol...

Anyway - I need my tags, h1, bolds, keywords, content items fixed... Where is the best advice articles to help me not go over board on google, yahoo, msn with to many keywords or not enough. It actually scares me to be quite honest with you - as stupid as that sounds... I hold top 300 ranking now with alot of my keywords in google but not sure how to get top page now, top 10 I guess you would call it.

Please, any advice and wisdom? I need to get it up there sooner than later, I do have linking, I do have age to the domain name as well. How would you know what a good balance is with title tags, h1 tags, and such - without info overload?

Reading Jill's articles encourages me once again but still a little scared to step out and screw it up. Help anyone, just advice. I want to do this on my own so I can learn and over come it - so help...

Thanks anyone... Allen

[AlDugan]

Reading Jill's articles encourages me once again but still a little scared to step out and screw it up.

Just try to get over that fear. If you follow the advice on this forum and Jill's articles you really can't screw anything up. There's a lot of trial and error involved with learning SEO. For example, tweaking your page titles form time to time to see if they have a better or worse effect on your rankings. If you make a change and it seems to have a negative effect, just change it back.

Learning SEO takes some time though, nobody is going to be able to give you a one post magic response here that will have all the answers for you.

Have you checked out Jill's "The Nitty-gritty of Writing for the Search Engines?" (Do I get brownie points for that?)

[Jill]

Start with 10 Tips to the Top.

[Randy]

Systematically apply some of the concepts noted in the articles from Jill's site that you've read as well as those mentioned above. And don't worry about messing things up as you're doing it, but do track how different things you do affect your rankings.

The key thing to remember is that pretty much everything can be undone if you do something that produces a negative effect. As long as you know what you did and/or have a backup copy of what was there and working before, you can always revert back to an earlier version.

[allendover1]

Hey thanks for the input... I do still have fears though. I need to get something up pretty fast, and even though I have pretty good ranking now - not top page by far, but in top 300 on a few of my keywords I just don't want to screw that up.

I am sure learning this will take some time, no doubts, and perfecting it, well not sure that would ever come with the SE's always changing. My point is their is SO much to read and SO much info out here - and I trust Jill's stuff over anyones by FAR!!! Just where to begin, not so much on the reading - but more on the site.

I don't want someone else to do it, I want to do this and have a mentor or helper to guide me so I can understand - but again that takes money as well. Once I have done a few, I feel like I will start getting a handle on it. I am sure alot of people feel this way as well.

Anyway - I got some reading to do now - that is a great place to start at least. Does anyone use any software at all that helps them? If so could someone point me in the right direction there? And then again how much trust do you put into this software?

Thanks all for your patients and kindness.

Allen

[Randy]

And then again how much trust do you put into this software?

I wouldn't trust any software when it comes to SEO'ing my sites. They all have to use a formulaic approach by their very nature, and we all know that no such formula exists that will apply across the board.

[allendover1]

Thank you - I had been using some but just wasn't sure what was right or wrong. I appreciate you stating that now... I guess I can use it for rank checking - does that hurt you in anyway by the way? If you have software check your ranking?

Been reading more today, feeling a little more confident - course that isn't saying much since I have 1 site that is doing very well in the rankings but just don't want to mess it up. Anyway - Thanks very much...

Also if your fairly new at SEOing - how can you take part in this forum and offer help - would be like the blind leading the blind right? LOL

I know the rules are a free site eval after 1 month of being on this forum and taking part in it... I don't think that will be hard considering all of you now are my mentors, lol...

Anyway - shout back at me if you get a chance... Thanks so much again each of you - Allen

[Jill]

does that hurt you in anyway by the way? If you have software check your ranking?

Yes, if you're not using an API key.

[Randy]

Also if your fairly new at SEOing - how can you take part in this forum and offer help - would be like the blind leading the blind right? LOL

Not necessarily.

First, SEO/SEM is 90% common sense and basic marketing concepts. It's only the 10% that new SEOs are lacking a little bit, but much of that never actually comes into play. Mostly just having a good BS filter and knowing what to devote time to and what to immediately ignore.

Take the site reviews section for instance. Sure experienced SEO's can offer advice or suggest marketing tricks that have worked for them before there. But by the same token very, very have SEO's among their target market. So in many cases visual layout and ease-of-navigation advice someone who is part of or familiar with the target market, but who has limited experience in SEO may end up being even more valuable than SEO advice.

There are a few truisms every good SEO knows to be fact. The first of those being:

• Nobody knows everything there is to know about SEO or SEM.
• It's really smart to listen to feedback, especially feedback from someone who is in the target market. Especially if the advice is coming from someone who not an SEO, so is speaking from a User perspective.

[allendover1]

Ok, API Key - like google maps... I am still learning...

I use IBP now for my rank checking - I guess that does hurt now uh?

So what software gives you a API to stay safe... or how can I do this with an API?

trust me I have alot more questions - lol...

Allen

[allendover1]

Ok, new questions...

When putting in title tags, h1 tags, and so on and so forth...

One site I own is a mortgage based site - but in just one state, niched this way.

South Carolina Mortgage, South Carolina Mortgages, SC Mortgage, SC Mortgages, etc, etc

My keywords... Does the mortgage & mortgages (just with s on the end) make a huge difference - and I know in ranking and keyword searchs it does - but how do you get credit for both with and with out the S...?

Also &, -, comma's and such, how do they work - what is good or bad...

Just curious to see what feedback I get here on the above questions - I know it will be very helpful either way. These are questions I have had for sometime now.

Thanks all for putting up with a simple minded guy just trying to get better. Thanks also Jill and others for just being here and helping out of your hearts, that is just so rare in today's business.

Ok another question - When putting in keywords in Meta keyword tag - how many do you put or can you put and it not be spamming or still not hurt you?

Also I am reading to just focus one page on one or two keywords and then another page on another set of 1 or 2 keywords - is this right?

Allen

[Jill]

allendover1, please read the Tips for Newbies when you get a chance.

[allendover1]

Hey Jill, yeah I am still on it, ALOT of reading there... But at least it is good info - I don't have to guess at is this good info or outdated info or bad info...

Thanks so much for just being on the web.

Still reading - i hope those answers will be found in these articles...

I am sure I will have more questions - Allen

[Lakshmi Narsimhan]

I would trust and use only 2 SEO Tools that are from Seochat and Domaintools when it comes to SEO'ing my site's Density and Score, these tools brought back my dropped ranks on Google.

[Jill]

Why in the world would you need "density" tools, dzingingspot? What a waste of bandwidth.