My name is Zafar Ahmed, I am an SEO based in Pakistan

WHAT IS SEO?

The practice which involves the optimization of a website through the improvement of external and internal aspects with a view to maximizing the volume of traffic received by a website from various search engines is called search engine optimization. Firms practicing in seo tend to vary. Some firms prefer to take a generalized and broad approach.

Others tend to focus in a highly specialized manner. Therefore SEO may be defined as trying to make a site the best it could be for search engines like google, yahoo, msn and others as well as for those who will be visiting the site. Search engines first need to find, crawl and index, then determine the relevancy and display the results.
There are many prevalent myths surrounding SEO. And it is time to debunk those myths.

MYTHS ABOUT INDEXING, CRAWLING AND SUBMITTING

There is need for doorway pages.
It is completely outdated and an obsolete practice.

Multiple sites are required.
They don’t help the engines in any way but increase maintenance work and cost.

It is true that frequent spidering will improve rankings.
An Absolutely wrong notion.

Your site should be updated frequently.
No need to do it.

A GOOGLE SITEMAP is an absolute necessity.
It is not required for average sites. The rank of your site will not be improved by it.

You have to submit your URL to search engines.
The truth is that search engines will find your site and index it if you provide a link to your site.

MYTHS ABOUT DESIGN

Black hat design techniques are certainly common.
The java script code is not illegitimate. And black hat is not the only one who uses it.

Flash cannot be used.
If flash is one element of your page, you should certainly use flash, but not if it happens to be a completely flash site.
Flash is best reserved for text based sites.

Navigation should not be images. It has to be text links.
The truth is that if you use ALT tags graphical navigation is absolutely ok.

W3C must validate your HTML code.
Even google cannot provide validation.

MYTHS ABOUT BUILDING LINKS

Presence in yahoo directory and DMOZ is a must to ensure good rankings in google.
Forget it, it is not worth the money.

In search results pages are ranked in the order of page rank.
Wrong again. You can safely ignore the page rank of google toolbar because it is not accurate.

Reciprocal links do not matter.
Reciprocal links do count if they are from the right site.

Accuracy is the second name of google’s link command.
It is in reality useless. The yahoo link command or google webmaster tools are far better.

MYTHS ABOUT PPC

Organic rankings will be affected by PPC ads.
False.

Organic rankings will be improved by PPC ads.
Not at all true.

MYTHS ABOUT CONTENT

Your site will be penalized if you use duplicate content.
No such penalty exists. But duplicates will be filtered out in favor of originals by the search engine or what the search engine considers original.

For long tail searches there is need to optimize.
Not required. Search engines are capable of finding them by themselves.

There is need to optimize a webpage for a single phrase or keyword in every page.
It would be better to optimize each and every page for three to five related phrases. It would make your copy nice to read and cut out on monotony.

A specific density of keyword has to be maintained.
Tools which enable this make no sense.

Making your target keywords bold or italicized is another must.
False.

Page copies have to maintain a certain word limit.
In reality there is no such thing.

MYTHS ABOUT TAG

If keywords are found in comment tags it will adversely affect your rankings.
Completely false.

Keywords should be used in Meta keyword tags. It is also supposed that you have to use only those keywords that pepper the content of your page.
On the contrary, it has been recommended that keyword varieties which are not present in your webpage and misspelt keywords should be included in the keyword tag.

It is necessary to head tags. (A5, A9 etc).
Not required.

Your page URLs should be keyword rich.

Your domain should be rich in keywords.
Neither of the two is required.

MYTHS ABOUT SEO COMPANY

Without doing any on-page work, Seo companies can improve rankings.
Stay far away from these companies making false claims.

Companies claiming to share special relationship with google!
Don’t let such a company take you for a ride. Google doesn’t share relationships with organic SEO firms.

Companies claiming to use proprietary method.
It is a damn lie.

Companies will tamper with your rankings if you stop paying them. Bullshit.

Companies being able to place pages in your desired position.
Unless they use sponsored spots or PPC, this is impossible.

A top ranking generates more sales and traffic.
If you use phrases and keywords which people usually search for, only then will your good ranking be justified.

You are encountering a strange problem. Your website is recording a substantial quantity of hits every day. But those record numbers of footfalls are not translating into sales! This is where the right keyword selection comes in.

WHAT IS KEYWORD SELECTION?

Let us begin by defining a keyword. A keyword may be defined as a phrase or term that a searcher uses to find relevant data on a specific topic. Examining various potential keywords to hit upon the correct ones that are required is called keyword selection. You can strike gold if you hit upon the correct keyword. And if you can’t, your business will fall flat on its face.

Highly Qualified internet traffic which will generate sales is what you should be aiming for, because simple common sense reveals that a thousand visitors with a thirty-five percent conversion rate makes more sense than twenty thousand audiences with a 0.5 percent business conversion rate!

HOW DO YOU PERFORM A KEYWORD RESEARCH OR KEYWORD ANALYSIS?

Analysis of Keyword is the initial step in right keyword selection. You first have to determine an extremely specific primary keyword. For e.g. “APPLE IPOD” is a more suitable primary keyword than just “ipod” alone.

It has been proved by research that sixty-five percent of searchers prefer to use phrases than individual words. Look up the keyword phrases related to your business that is being searched for by your target customer base.

Invest in a tool like OVERTURE keyword suggestion tool or WORDTRACKER, ESPOTTING or GOOGLE SANDBOX. If you type in the main keyword, you will be bombarded with a number of relevant keywords with high searching attributes. Single out the top thirty from only one site and remember to take count on each keyword.

Next, go to google and look for each keyword included in double quotes. Note down the no. of websites displayed at the top-right area. Enlisted there will be the first ten of the overall number.

FORMULA FOR KEYWORD SELECTION

You now have to set up your selection of thirty keywords. Record the number of searches and the amount of competition on a spreadsheet. Calculate an index by applying the formula as follows. Write down the index beside the subsequent keyword.

Index is equal to 50*(A+B) where A= (specific searched keyword/ (max no. of search results appeared in the list) B=1 (Calculation of competition obtained for the specific keyword)/ (max no. competition appeared in the list)

Work it out on an excel sheet.

Sort out the list of keywords following a descending order as per calculated by the value obtained from the Indexing. Now put the keywords shortlisted for 15 keywords in the list with the highest index.

However it is very important to remember that less traffic purchasing more products is more desirable than more traffic that does not generate many sales. Don’t blindly go for keywords having high traffic volume, however, less competition. Your priority should incorporate to the relevancy of your site.

Your next guideline is to gauge visitor intent. Try to understand your client’s psychology. Put yourself in his boots and try to think what he will search for and how he will do it. Let us suppose, he will search by typing in the keyword IPOD. The computer screen will display a host of websites hosting major IPOD companies.

This will probably confuse him and he will settle for a shop close to his location to purchase the ipod. Therefore his next keyword phrase will be IPOD with his geographical area. There are high chances of his getting hold of the website address listing a local shop that will facilitate him making his purchase.

The bottom line is that you have to use your brains and add relevant keywords at the top-list position and you will be more successful this time.

Now concentrate on the possible spelling mistakes that people commit. Also remember, same objects are sold under different names in different countries. What is a “jumper” in UK is called a “sweater” in USA. Take the help of friends and relatives to prepare such a list of additional keywords.

Bring out your previous list and include these new keywords in appropriate places. Your list will swell up by approximately ten or fifteen more keywords.

Check out the possible keywords listed in the highest ranking rival websites. Add the missed out keywords to your list. Apply your common sense and intelligence as well, for wordtracker or overture tool isn’t perfect.

GOLDEN RULES FOR THE RIGHT KEYWORD SELECTION/PLACEMENT

On the homepage use the top five keywords. To improve the ranking of the page put the keywords towards the top of the webpage. To put up your keywords, make use of this list of important locations.

Meta keyword description
URL/Filenames
Body text on top, bottom and middle of page
Italic/bold tag content
Title tag in anchor tags
Header tag content
Anchor text
Alt tags in pictures that are not links
Alt tags in pictures that are links
Title Meta tags

Four to nine percent is the optimal frequency range. You should never cross the nine percent frequency limit or else you will be penalized by major search engines.

One of the most important features of the SEO process is linking campaign or back linking.
A ranking algorithm is employed by popular search engines like google, yahoo, msn etc. to determine the quality of incoming links, to evaluate the value of that link to that search engine, to evaluate the content on the blog linking in or the site, the link text, page rank of the linking site and a host of other such things. The gist of the story is that everyone desires the right kind of sites with the best type of link and not just anyone linking into your site.

WHAT IS BACKLINKING?

Creating links between your website and other relevant websites is called back linking in internet parlance. Of great importance is also the kind of text you use in your back links. Your most desirable keyword phrases should be stamped on your back link. There are many websites which enjoy a high rank on the web page of search engines simply by virtue of proper back links though they don’t meet any other SEO criterion.
However, search engines also qualify the back links apart from counting the number of back links you have.

HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHICH IS THE BEST TYPE OF LINK?

Those links that use the keyword you are trying to rank for are the right type of back links. For e.g. if a virtual online shop sells sports furniture or items of interior decoration, you would like a prospective buyer or enthusiast to blog about the items for sale in your shop , create a link to your site and this would generate free publicity, improve the good will of your business and maybe translate into sales.

BEST WAYS OF USING BACKLINKS TO YOUR ADVANTAGE

In order to find the right kind of sites to which you would like to link your website, sift through google to zero in on your keyword and cast a glance at the top hundred listings. If they are not your rivals, you would want to get the maximum number of these to link to you.

You can also examine each of those site’s back links and try to obtain some links from those pages in case you fail in the first step. A tool like BACK LINK WATCH comes in handy to find out who is linking to your rival websites or to the primary ones.

Stay far away from paid links for they are being penalized by search engines, link swapping and linking farms i.e. link within the actual content on the webpage.

Go for linking bait also referred to as viral marketing. Anything like a fun web game or free tools or videos or good content that would make people want to link to it is called link bait. However you have to check whether it is associated with the keyword you are trying to rank for so that the people who will link in will, naturally use those keywords.

Press is also another medium to advertise. Suppose a blog praises the service you offer or a new product that you have started selling, but it has forgotten to use your link, dispatch an email quickly and request them to link to your site by using one of your keywords, present in their article. Trust me, it really works.

The best way is to create your own blog, fill it with content that your target audience wants to read. Then create a link back to your own home page using your keyword. Blowing your own trumpet always helps in business.

Try to figure out which sites your audience is likely to frequent and reach out to those sites. Offer to contribute your content. They might publish it if it is well written and worth reading and interesting enough. Post your comments on blogs and forums not only to simply insert your link but also to add a valuable dimension to the discussion. Be careful while doing it or you might end up being banned for your blunt commercial approach.

You can try out a few more ways to use back links to your advantage.

While online, the moment you come across something that has a YOUR HOME PAGE option, post your comment.

Make use of blogroll or wordpress, exchanges of link, your link in emails, press releases, and your links in forums or you can submit

your site or link to directories. You may write reviews or articles for people and insert your website URL. Whatever you do, practice discretion and don’t breach internet protocols.

If you spend 30 minutes to one hour out of 24 hours to create back links in this way, almost immediately you will see significant results. Do it and you will be better off for it.