SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is generally a waste of time in my opinion. There are a few legitimate firms, but for the most part, it’s a group of individuals trying to game search engines, or worse just take your money.
Here’s what I do for SEO:
- I include all the page elements that are important to SEO – meta tags, title tags, image tags, header tags, etc. These are by and large handled automatically by my content management system.
- I do a little bit of linking – I try to get with the top 10 or so sites on Google for my key phrases and get them to link to me.
- I use my existing sites and email lists to generate a bit of traffic.
- I occasionally post on forums, craigslist, or whatever I’m in to at the moment for some free traffic.
Here’s what I really do do for SEO:
- I add solid, original and valuable content to my web sites on a regular basis. I take time to try and answer questions, and address the needs of my audience. I do this for months, sometimes years on end. I write from my own experience, and I list solutions that I have personally found from my own experience.
I listed the last one separately because it gets 85% of the results. Funny enough, you won’t find a lot of people selling that one because it takes a lot of effort.