SEO Comes First, Not Last.

In The Beginning: SEO comes first, not last.

For many years things have happened backwards for a lot of website business owners. You think you need a website for your business or you are developing a web business around your product line. Whatever the reason, most people start out backwards. SEO comes first. So, what do you know about SEO? Nothing? You are not alone. Almost no one realizes they need to do more research at the beginning than at the end of a website build.

For the purpose of this article alone let's look at only one thing - choosing an URL. What does the URL need to say about your business? Right off the bat you say OK, it should be my company name. Uh, not so. It should be descriptive of your company. Your company name goes on the home page at the top, along with your address and phone number. Your URL, once again should be descriptive of your business.

If you sell toy trains for example, and your company name is "Wheeler Tracks" you should not choose "wheelertracks.com" as a company URL. Why? Because no one will be searching for wheeler tracks. What they will be searching for is "toy trains." So you should try to get "toytrains.com" as your URL. If that is unavailable try to add a location. Such as "toytrainsusa.com" or "toytrainswyoming.com" or "toytrainswest.com." See what we are getting at here?

This is a part of good, solid web development. Your descriptive URL is the first thing to be indexed by the search engines and those words count as text; are searchable; count as keywords and key phrases. Plan ahead, do a little research and find what you need to get the best start possible.

Begin by choosing the right URL. This is SEO, at the beginning, where it belongs.

Eileen Brown (aka Buddy)

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The above was published first in March of 2008 on Qassia

The SEO Audience - Wider than the oceans.

OR - Why Is It So Hard To Give SEO Advice?

If you've been around the Internet and/or web for a long time you've seen many web sites full of advice come and go. There are virtually millions of articles giving out tidbit tips and advice on SEO at every turn.

What it all boils down to is this: Who do you believe?
The facts are not that hard to discern.

• SEO "rules" are ever-shifting.
• Much of what you read is old information.
• Many sources intentionally publish misinformation.
• Controversy tends to breed contempt instead of trust.
• Controversy can also breed links and authority hubs.
• Much authority is created under false pretense.
• Each market and/or niche is vastly different depending on the competition therein.
• Some authorities trade on reputations based on past success who are not competent in current markets.
• Competition levels, technical resources, financial backing, brand strength and business risk are very different from company to company and market to market.

Trust - It don't come easy...

You have to truly trust the company or individual that you listen too. One misspoken phrase should not shatter your confidence, but often does.

Find a company or individual you trust and truly listen. Do not interject all the "I read this over here" or "my wife's sister's friend said" and make your expert explain every detail. Yes, you need to understand the why of necessary changes but first you should follow the advice, test the results, and in most cases the reason will become clear with the final data returns.

SEO by it's ever changing nature is a controversial topic. So don't blame the folks who debate the fine points. After all, they are ones who have worked and studied what it is you really want to know.

SEO can be simple or complex. Your market is the final determining factor.

Buddy
SEO Copywriting

SEO is not SEM - Well, Duh!

To the bloggy-verse at large.

Offering SEO services is a weird place to be these days. Too many companies tout these services when actually they are recommending ppc and adwords. That is NOT SEO.

SEO is optimizing a web site to have top search engine positioning in a specific target market. So many companies dance around what it is they do. There is much more to SEO than figuring out keywords and key phrases and using them in designated places. There are incoming links to consider. This is NOT a separate issue.

Linking strategies are a part of good SEO services and for some reason too many SEO companies seem to be forgetting this simple fact.

In case you are wondering about SEM - search engine marketing. OK - SEM is a whole different issue as marketing a web site is a different mountain to climb. This is where decisions regarding ppc, adsense and networking for business come into play.

I have to say though that all those companies out there touting SEO services who stop short at text and titles are giving us all bad name.

The first thing to figure out is exactly what services an SEO company should be offereing and find those companies. Ask plenty of questions. Know what you are paying for in the marketplace while you still have a budget to work with.

At the Buddy companies we offer three types of service:

Buddy Web Works - web hosting, web development and web design.
Gold package includes SEO services and webmaster duties.

Buddy Copywriting - Weaving your keywords and key phrases for maximum SEO exposure.

And coming soon Buddy SEO Services - You know what this means.

Buddy web works has been offering SEO services for some time but not as seperate packages. By adding BuddySeoServices.com to our online companies we should be serving more folks that deserve to get what they pay for - real SEO services.

The Buddy web sites are owned and operated by BEKansas.com and sometime in January of 2008 all the web sites will have a facelift and the Buddy SEO site should be ready to go live. Let's keep our finger crossed.

This new blog will hand out SEO advice and comments on internet buzz as it pertains to SEO services and webmastering in general. If we cross ourselve up too much on those two subjects - we will split off the webmastering to another blog.

First posts always stink - Don't you agree?

Happy Holly and Merry Berry.

Buddy