As I master my craft in SEO and SEM, I always stumble across these lame looking site with 1980′s header graphics, stating that they’re “experts” in SEO. Experts eh?
What makes you guys freakin experts?! I had a call with someone from these companies and his pitch was we’re experts in search engine optimization. Well I started drilling this person with some basic seo concepts and he said “those are all good questions Jack, let me get back to you on that”. Suuure buddy, how you just tell me that you know shit about SEO and you were hired to pull a commission off new accounts for the company.
Why You Should Never Get Discouraged When They Say They’re Experts
I’m writing this post to help you guys out to not get discouraged when you talk to these so-called experts. In SEO, I’d rather be a hard worker than an expert because that’s what SEO is all about. The only things they’re experts at is taking your money!
I’ve read an SEO report done from a firm that charged a few thousand dollars to analyze a site. Yes, a few thousand dollars to review a site’s and try to see how to better optimize it for search engines. As I was reading the guide, I couldn’t help but laugh what these “experts” wrote in the report. Below I will write a few things they had mention for SEO. Many of you will know these already, I can guarantee you that. Here it goes:
1. Redirect your domain.com to your www.domain.com – Reasons why you need to do a permanent 301 redirect to www.domain.com is because if you have both urls that opens up the homepage, Google actually sees two homepages for the same site. Imaging trying to rank for two homepages, yup you guessed it, page rank will get divided and there’s potential duplicate content going on.
2. Alt text for images – This should be used for spiders to crawl your images per se, if you use your keywords in the alt text, your kw density will greatly improve your SERPs.
3. Turn image buttons into text links – This makes sense because you would rather have an anchor text than an image button.
4. Generate sitemap – Sitemaps are just a page stripped from images so that the spiders can easily crawl the pages that your site is made of.
5. Directory submission – Yes, directory submissions for backlinks. Nothing new here.
People, you seeing what I’m getting at here??
These so-called experts are giving you the fundamentals of SEO. There is nothing you can’t learn on my blog or others out there for free online. Don’t let people dirty your mind that there is a little secret out there for SEO, because there really isn’t. The secret is to be dedicated to one strategy, once you feel comfortable with that strategy, move on to the next.
I hope this help a lot of you guys out there. Don’t be fooled by these experts, because if you’re on my blog, you probably know more than them already! 
Cheers!
This is a guest post by Laurah Hagan. If you want to become a guest blogger, click here to view my guidelines.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a hot topic these days, with many bewildered online businesses struggling to learn the tools for connecting with their markets. If this describes you, a trip to an energetic, content-filled conference could be just the thing you need. Promising to present the latest developments of the SEO field and connect you with leading experts, these conferences will introduce you to the tools for increasing your visibility, developing a web presence, and standing out from your competitors.
PubCon Las Vegas 2010: With a lineup of speakers including Malcolm Gladwell and Guy Kawasaki, this conference is poised to deliver on its promise to be the most important gathering of search and social media innovators ever assembled. You can personalize your conference experience by selecting from eight tracks of topic-specific sessions, lead by leading technology innovators. Downtime is unlikely, but in the case you find a few spare minutes, you’ll be in easy proximity to all the entertainment of Las Vegas.
Search Marketing Expo: This conference is hosted in numerous international cities through 2011, so you can choose a location near you or turn your attendance into adventure travel. All sessions promise to be action-packed with sessions and networking opportunities, and filled with the nitty-gritty information most relevant to wherever you are in the business development process.
DMA:2010: This conference focuses on return on investment; teaching new strategies to optimize your marketing budget, target the markets you’re interested in, increase the visibility of your website, and measure your success. Choose from nine conference tracks to optimize your own investments of time.
SES Conference and Expo: Choose from San Francisco, Hong Kong, Chicago and more for this popular event. With a special focus on basic and introductory sessions, this approachable conference is relevant for those just starting out in online marketing. More advanced practitioners won’t be disappointed…there are plenty of workshops on highly specified topics as well.
SEO MOZ: Seattle has always been an innovation hub, and this conference does the hosting city justice. There are no sponsors or advertizing. The focus of this conference is purely on the applicable lessons taught by leading experts, in a small community of just 310 attendees. Register early, since this conference is widely recognized as an incredible value for the price.
E-tail 2010: This conference is designed specifically for online retailers. Speakers, 90% of whom are successful online retailers themselves, are required to recap their presentations with three take-away points, so the lessons are clear and easy to recall. With generous opportunities for informal networking, participants are set up to learn from each other as well as the presenters.
High Rankings: If large conferences feel more like three-ring circuses to you, these small, half-day workshops might interest you instead. Taught by experts and focused on your exact needs, these workshops are tailored to your specific questions, interests, and business model.
Ad:Tech: These international expositions focus on empowering attendees with the skills and tools to create competitive marketing. They attract a diverse crowd of technology and marketing professionals, interested in networking as much as staying abreast of the most recent developments of their field.
WBR: Worldwide Business Research hosts topic-specific conferences for specific niches within the online retail industry, from luxury goods to mobile shopping. These conferences deal with SEO and other germane subjects, helping online retailers to connect with their markets and continuously improve.
Affiliate Summit: This three-day conference is focused on the unique needs of affiliate marketers, and the most relevant tools for developing a strong presence online. Having grown significantly since its inception six years ago, the Affiliate Summit is quickly developing a reputation as the leading networking and educational event for professionals in this field.
Laurah Hagan is a guest blogger for My Dog Ate My Blog and a writer on online courses for Guide to Online Schools.
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