More on SEO

I talked briefly about search engine optimization (SEO) in the last entry and intend to provide more links to relevant articles and other information for those of you just entering into this exciting world.

But for those of you who are not in the SEO business but think your company could benefit from hiring SEO professionals, here are a few tips I offer from my own experience.

1) Don't believe anyone who considers himself an SEO "expert," because there's really no such thing. The algorithms and other methods of crawling websites used by search engines such as Google, Ask, MSN, Yahoo!, and others are constantly changing. Because these companies have people working for them who get paid very well to keep their services fresh and their indexing methods secret, you can rest assured that businesses seeking free advertising through natural search results will be locked in a never-ending game of cops and robbers with the search engine programmers. In this sense, the people at Google, Yahoo!, etc., who are in charge of this could be considered the only true SEO experts, because they're constantly rigging the game.

2) If someone tries to sell himself as an expert or even a professional, look at his track record. Ask him to show you some data from jobs he's done with past clients, and look for a consistent upward movement in the client's website's position. If there isn't any, it could be a good indicator to hold onto your pocket book -- for now.

3) The vast majority of Internet users today go to Google to perform their searches. Hence, while it is important to consider optimization for the lesser engines, it is more important to focus on Google, at least for now. Perhaps in the near future some of the recently demoted underdogs will have a resurgence in popularity, once Google's plans for world domination are exposed.