Tell me more ×
Answers OnStartups is a question and answer site for entrepreneurs looking to start or run a new business. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 14 down vote favorite
13

Every web site owner wants more traffic. There's an overwhelming amount of information out there about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Some is legitimate, some outdated, much is based on rumor and innuendo. In addition, there are no shortage of people willing to take your money with promises of magical SEO that will bring web traffic beyond your wildest dreams.

So, where can I get accurate, reliable, up-to-date information about legitimately enhancing my business website's reputation with the search engines?

I'll start the list with a few obvious choices:

  1. The thoroughly foundational Google's SEO Starter Guide.

  2. The ever practical Google Webmaster Central Blog.

  3. Matt Cutts' (Google Employee Extraordinaire) no nonsense blog Gadget's, Google & SEO.

share|improve this question

closed as not constructive by Zuly Gonzalez♦ Aug 22 '12 at 3:34

As it currently stands, this question is not a good fit for our Q&A format. We expect answers to be supported by facts, references, or specific expertise, but this question will likely solicit debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion. If you feel that this question can be improved and possibly reopened, see the FAQ for guidance.

12 Answers

up vote 3 down vote accepted

Take a look at Inbound Marketing. It has some great advice on SEO and other ways to drive traffic to your site. The same book has a website grader pointer as well.

share|improve this answer
I'd run across Inbound Marketing but not purchased it. Thanks for the recommendation. I'd forgotten Web site Grader. I agree that it's a good source when you're getting started! – Keith DeLong Dec 2 '09 at 0:55
up vote 4 down vote

SEOmoz.org wolf-howl.com searchengineland.com

All great daily sources for up to date SEO news and theories.

share|improve this answer
up vote 3 down vote

I agree with Brain, seomoz.org without a doubt. A ton of free information, once you make your way through that then sign up for the pro account. The only source you need.

share|improve this answer
up vote 2 down vote

I second Inbound Marketing - also The Web Startup Success Guide by Bob Walsh.

These are my two favourite books at the moment :-) Both are Fantastic.

share|improve this answer
Thanks for the second on Inbound Marketing. I've added it to my reading list and I'll have a look at Bob Walsh's book while I'm at it. – Keith DeLong Dec 3 '09 at 19:41
up vote 2 down vote

I recommend that you watch this 30 minute video before purchasing "Inbound Marketing". The video will give you a good summary of many ideas related to inbound marketing.

http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/11042/Dharmesh-On-Startup-Marketing-Video-From-MIT-Startup-Bootcamp.aspx

share|improve this answer
Thanks. The video is basic but a good overview. – Keith DeLong Dec 18 '09 at 21:14
up vote 1 down vote

For all the wordpress and technologically gifted ppl AskApache has some great stuff that can enhance SEO

share|improve this answer
up vote 1 down vote

I know that this is an old thread, but I thought it might help some people to know about this site: http://www.highrankings.com/forum/

I have learned a lot there and they have helped me a lot with our website.

  • Tim
share|improve this answer
up vote 1 down vote

We used to rank 55 on website grader 6 months back. Now our site ranks 93

http://www.skill-guru.com/blog/2010/03/20/how-well-does-your-site-rank-on-website-grader/

Web site grader gives very good advice on what can be improved on your site. Also subscribe to some blog posts like

SEOMoz

Occam's Razor by Avinash Kaushik

share|improve this answer
up vote 1 down vote

Depending on the business, it's really not that hard to get most local businesses on to the front page for searches like CityName+TypeOfBusiness using ethical means but it can certainly be harder when you're competing against the world. There's a million tips out there, and here's the ones I find to be best bang for your buck:

-Use Analytics software like Google Analytics to get an idea of your stats

-Use SEO/Rank tracking tools like http://RavenTools.com to measure where you and your competitors rank for your key terms

-Use tools like OpenSiteExplorer.org to see what links your competitors have that you don't, and try to get links from them if feasible

-If you have limited web resources, move your site to a platform like Wordpress or Drupal which can easily give you many SEO bells and whistles

-Make sure each of your pages has distinct, descriptive page titles and descriptions

-Make sure you 301 redirect all your pages to either www.site.com or site.com to ensure search engines (namely, bing & yahoo) aren't spreading your rankings to both versions of your page.

-Use Google Sitemaps to make search engines more easily know when your pages are updated

share|improve this answer
up vote 1 down vote

Explore the top 5 factors listed below that influence your website’s ranking on Google’s search results:

  1. Accessibility of the Website- The accessibility of the search engines to your website should be made possible by your robots.txt file.If this file has errors in it, then a lot of search engines will not access your site, or even list it.Also, the underlying HTML codes of your web pages must be free of errors, the correct responsecode should be returned by your web server. Your web page contents should be such that the search engine spiders can read them.This can be achieved with a spider simulator.

  2. Site Architecture-Google is only interested in displaying relevant sites in the search result page.Ensuring that there is relationship between the pages of your website is a good way to be ranked among the top 10 positions in Google search results.The arrangement of your web pages should indicate to Google that your site is related to a central topic.

  3. Keywords-Among the top secrets of earning a higher ranking on Google, is the right choice of keywords.A wrong selection of keywords means total failure of your campaign.

  4. Uniqueness of Website Content-Distinguish your site from the crowd by creating high quality and unique content; also ensure that the articles are centred on your general topic.Your website should contain useful resources.

  5. Other Websites that Link to Your Website-One of the top factors for ranking high in Google is the links from other websites. But ensure that such links are from relevant and quality websites.

share|improve this answer
up vote 1 down vote

Subsribe to beginers guide to SEO from SEOmoz.org, apart from this have your presence in other SEO popular blogs such as searchengineland.com,searchengineroundatable.com,mattcutts.com,webmasterworld.com,digitalpointforums.com

share|improve this answer
up vote 0 down vote

There's plenty of cowboys out there who'll garantee you a top 10 position. That's not possible, do never participate in any of that. For all you know these guys will use SEO Black hat to get you in the top 10, for about two weeks and then get a Big ass penalty from Matt Cutts!

You can get eeliable info about SEO from:

googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/ seomoz.org/ seobook.com/blog mattcutts.com/blog/type/googleseo/ youtube.com/user/wilreynolds

In some book the SEO basics are explained well. The advanced stuff isn't usually written in books, but more often on blogs. Oh and eh, I advise you to invest in an SEO buddy ;)

share|improve this answer

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.