MappingTheWeb //

[SEO eBook] - Although I haven’t been blogging much recently, I’ve been busy consulting and crafting an SEO eBook entitled the SEO Quick Fix eBook. The 26-page guide promises to significantly increase your Google search rank with minimal changes in days - not months or years. In other words, you can expect immediate results.

The eBook has been designed for regular website owners. It’s perfect for anyone looking to maximize SEO efforts. With basic HTML knowledge, anyone can achieve first page Google results. The 20 recommendations outlined are easy to follow and listed in order of importance.

Simply put, I’ve condensed over 5 years of SEO research, analysis, and practical application into this easy-to-read, concise eBook for website owners. The guesswork has been eliminated. These recommendations have been tried, tested, and proven to be successful. Having said that, these are not a series of “black hat” techniques but rather a list of ways to improve your content, page structure, and linking. The end result is an increase in free, qualified traffic to your website.

If you decide to purchase the eBook, please be sure to let me know about your results. Thank You.

Most people recognize WordPress as a world class blogging platform. What most people don’t realize is that WordPress can be used to quickly and easily set up a website. In other words, the blogging platform doubles as a simple website CMS.

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[The Fundamentals of SEO] - Forget about META tags and complicated back-linking campaigns for a second. The fundamentals of SEO revolve around two ingredients that lack sex appeal: proper page structure and well-written content. The successful combination of these elements will benefit your search rank more than any outsourced SEO campaign ever will.

Let’s start at the beginning…

Search engine algorithms incorporate both on-page and off-page elements. On-page elements include both page structure and content. Wait a second… if both fundamental ingredients of SEO are included in the on-page elements, then what about the off-page side of the equation (i.e. back-links)?

Well, theoretically, back-links should be a byproduct of well-written content. In other words, there shouldn’t be a need to proactively poach external links. This is of course theoretical. It is probably a good idea to scout external links from relevant sites to increase your PageRank and drive traffic.

Moving along…

Proper page structure basically means mandatory:

• Page titles
• META descriptions
• Header tags
• Paragraph content
• ALT tags
• Strong and emphasis tags
• Keyword-injected URLs, if possible

Well-written content is a bit more vague, but encompasses some of the following: keyword consistency, proper grammar, and logical article development.

If these two areas can be targeted, SEO success is inevitable. It has to start with the web design (i.e. proper page structure), followed by the site copy (i.e. page content). So, instead of looking at SEO from a micro point-of-view, the macro perspective may provide a better overall picture of the situation.

[The Beauty of Organic Search Results] - Yes, I just called organic search results beautiful. The reason is simple. They drive free, qualified traffic. It doesn’t get any better than that. I’m a true believer in quality content and good page structure. From a corporate perspective, too little money is being put toward SEO. Its inorganic cousin, PPC, seems to be reaping in the bulk of the marketing budget. There must be a balance though.

I am extremely biased when it comes to search engine marketing. I think that most companies tend to overlook SEO in favour of PPC, as they assume that the latter provides more immediate, visual results and a better ROI. Little do they know, a well-executed SEO campaign can also provide immediate results in as little as a few days. Obviously, the upfront cost of optimization needs to be taken into consideration, but I still believe the long-term, residual benefits of SEO to be greater than those of a short-term PPC campaign.

In other words, an SEM budget should be weighted slightly toward PPC in the beginning, but transition to SEO over time. In the end, the ROI should be excellent, as organic search should be driving the majority of traffic.

New start-up LingoZ has an ambitious goal in mind. They’re looking to build a dictionary from scratch. Thanks to the new concept of crowdsourcing (or user-contribution), LingoZ plans to harness users in an attempt to redefine the traditional ‘dictionary’ space.

Why would anyone want to enter an area dominated by such big names as Dictionary.com and Merriam-Webster? Simply put, they don’t plan on competing in the same way. The traditional players function in a stagnant manner. They are not dynamic. Obviously, definitions do not change much over time, but context, slang, and new words are appearing all the time. This is the reason for being for LingoZ. As the company puts it:

“We aim to prove that a user contributed dictionary who is subject to the community moderation can be as accurate and of high quality as a “regular” dictionary, while evolving and being updated faster than any other source.”

Registered users can do one of a number of things, including:

1. Add a new term
2. Define an existing term
3. Vote on definitions

Currently, the site supports 8 languages. They include English, Hebrew, Portuguese, French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Dutch.

So why would anyone want to edit or contribute to the site? Notoriety is key. As is the case with most sites that do not offer monetary compensation, LingoZ has done a good job of outlining the main incentive of participation:

“Users who are highly praised will gain credibility and enjoy visibility within the LingoZ community.”

The way I see it, LingoZ is to dictionaries as Wikipedia is to encyclopedias. Both will hail their criticisms, due to sourcing from so-called amateurs. Opinions and personal angles may be taken, but a community-controlled and -patrolled system should essentially weed out all the discrepencies. What’s also interesting to note is that SEO will probably be a main traffic driver, somewhat akin to Wikipedia as well.

Negatives aside, many will embrace these new dynamic mediums. Definitions, phrases, and references do change from time to time. Furthermore, new additions and words are appearing all the time, especially in this new era of technology and science. A reluctance to accept or accommodate for these trends may ultimately lead to the demise of traditional giants.