I know sometimes SEO can be mysterious and confusing but here I want to give out one big secret to SEO...

This secret is basically what every search engine tries to tell webmaster and site owners but it's always ignored because it's very simple.

This is the secret that you may have to pay $xxxs to figure out or hire an SEO professional to do it for you for $xxxxs!

The SEO secret is very simple, it's "Great Content"!!!

Search engines love great and fresh content and all you have to do to deliver this is maintain a blog and/or provide fresh updated content in some other way directly on your site. It's really as simple as that, you need a blog that is connected to your website and you can start writing blog posts and articles.

Of course, you've got to KEEP IT UP - in other words - a dead blog = a dead site.

After you set up your blog, read this (Matt Cutts is a lead Google Engineer who talks about SEO quite a bit in his own blog) :
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/whiteh...-for-bloggers/

And that's it!

Happy Blogging!

__________________
"Imagination is more important than knowledge."
Albert Einstein

Fantastic! Thank you so much for sharing that with us. Last week I installed WordPress on my business website and I look forward to doing my very first blog which should be sometimes soon!

Again, thank you for sharing.

__________________
Brenda A. Jones
www.brevos.com

Yeah, the proof's in the pudding, no matter how sweet the aroma may be.
But creating great content is about writing, photography, graphics, videography, knowledge, judgement ... There's so much technical instruction available online about doing SEO; it's easy to forget that the tools are pretty useless unless they're driving fabulous content. And content is something you supposedly come already equipped with. It's almost a fallacy in the concept of blogs, etc .... are there really that many good new content ideas existing in the world? Or is it more likely that most content is either copied, inane, or useless; and just a small percent can be called "Great Content."
Or am I being negative, and if given total freedom of expression are we (humanity) likely to come up with unprecedented levels of creative thinking?
It just seems a very tall order to ask your average business person to publish 2 or 3 times a week. I like writing, but I certainly could see this current marketing imperative as very threatening to many. Their only recourse is to hire a writer, correct?

__________________
Mary H. Ruth/Virtual Writing & Communications
http://www.writingVA.com

Hrmmm...as much as I'd love to let you 'off the hook' on this one the singlemost thing that drives search results is textual content on a web page - if you've got it, flaunt it and if not, get some. However that gets done isn't really the issue, the point is to make the effort to *do it* the same as you would with marketing or making sure your books are up to date...SEO is really just another aspect of marketing. And the internet is how people are choosing to connect to new businesses and services. If they can't find you, you're losing a piece of the pie.

The average business person doesn't have to be Faulkner to get a blog going and keep it going - but he or she does have to be as dedicated to that page of their website as any other organic aspect of their business (like the books, or ordering stock, etc.)

Content is king. It's the truth, and it's not going away...either you make the choice to use it to your advantage or not

Of course, as Hamid said, you're better off without a blog than to start and then leave a delinquent blog on your site. So if it's not something you see yourself being dedicated to then pass it by as an option and look for other ways to enhance your website content. Even static content is searchable - it's just that blogs provide an ever-increasing number of pages and all the great keywords that go along with that so it's an 'easy' choice - albeit no small amount of work.

__________________

Quote:

... are we (humanity) likely to come up with unprecedented levels of creative thinking?

We will continue to come up with new ideas and inventions as long as we exist. That is why we were living in caves and now we are communicating over the wires and internet. One day, we will travel to the moon with our cars or travel to other continents in just a second through wires

__________________
"Imagination is more important than knowledge."
Albert Einstein

Oooooo Hamid, Those are some exciting images! You know, I'm still an avid fan of Star Trek. I can't wait for transporters!

__________________
Mary H. Ruth/Virtual Writing & Communications
http://www.writingVA.com

I'm going to set up a blog on my website and everyone loves the internet and reading.

Originally Posted by virtual writing

.... are there really that many good new content ideas existing in the world? Or is it more likely that most content is either copied, inane, or useless; and just a small percent can be called "Great Content." Or am I being negative, and if given total freedom of expression are we (humanity) likely to come up with unprecedented levels of creative thinking?

As Tess pointed out, the SEs love textual content. The SEs really don't judge whether it's new, creative, great, inane, or useless. Textual content is necessary in order to be ranked by the SEs.

"Great Content" is for your visitors. Is your content new? Have you come up with "unprecedented levels of creative thinking"? Maybe. But the real point is that some of your visitors will like your content and others won't. People like and dislike certain ways content is written and types of content. People learn in different ways. If I don't understand say, my math teacher's explanation of a math problem, but my mom explains it differently and I get it, did my mom "copy" the content?

Granted, there are web publishers who just copy content and/or write inane, useless drivel. But most, I believe, can either write original content (not necessarily an original idea), or can take someone's content, re-write it in their own "voice" and their visitor's love reading it.

To repeat: Content IS king - both with the SEs and those who search the internet for whatever they may be interested in at the moment - your site visitors. But don't confuse "textual content" and "great content". They have different purposes.

Fun to read your recent response to this old thread, Jacee - and you make very interesting points. Thanks!

__________________
Mary H. Ruth/Virtual Writing & Communications
http://www.writingVA.com

That's what's so great about forums they're truly organic and interesting items will resurface from time to time [another reason why they're so SEO friendly - lots of content!]

__________________