The most important things about SEO

Most people know that being listed on Google's first result page will bring them a lot of targeted visitors and that they will get a lot of sales through that listing.

Unfortunately, some people don't know how SEO (search engine optimization) works and what they can expect. Some webmasters still expect that their website will be listed on Google's first result page after submitting the site to Google. That might have worked eight years ago but it does not work today.

1. SEO takes time
   You cannot optimize your website today and expect results tomorrow or next week. Search engine optimization takes time. Search engines have to find your new optimized pages, they have to find the new links to your website, they have to update the index, etc.
2. You must change your web pages or install SEO Genie Plug-in
   If you want to get high rankings for certain keywords, then these keywords must appear on your web pages. It is possible to get high rankings for a keyword that is not listed on your website if lots of other websites link to your website with that keyword. That's the exception, though.
   In general, the keywords for which you want to be found must appear on your web pages. For that reason, you have to change the HTML code of your web pages to make it as easy as possible for search engine spiders to parse your site.
3. It's crucial to choose the right keywords
   If you optimize the website of a rock band than you might think that it would be cool if their site was found for the keyword "mp3". That might be cool but it does not make sense.
   People searching for "mp3" can be interested in anything: mp3 players, mp3 decoders, the latest Justin Bieber song, general information about the file format, etc. If these people come to your rock band website, they won't find the information they are looking for.
   Optimize your website for keywords that attract the right kind of people. For example "unsigned rock band" or "rock band london".
   
4. You need links and you need the right links.
   Good back-links are the key to high rankings on Google. Automatically created back-links usually won't help your rankings and they even might get you banned from Google's index.
   The more attractive your website is, the easier it will be to get good links. Your website should offer link-worthy content that other people can talk about.
   
5. You must set the right goals
   Search engine optimization is not about getting a high Google PageRank (the green bar in Google's toolbar). It is about getting high listings for the right keywords so that the right people will come to your website. The goal of search engine optimization is to increase your sales.
   You don't have to be listed for any possible keyword even if they are related to your business.
6. You must be realistic
   Getting on the first result page for a highly competitive keyword such as "mp3" is possible but your competitors will be old and established websites with a lot of back-links. It is very difficult to outrank these pages.
   If you have a website with just a few pages and your competitors have large websites with forums, communities, blogs, etc. then you must improve your website if you want to compete.

Keep your web pages listed in Google

How to keep your web pages listed in Google search results after the new Google site speed policy

There are things that you can do to improve the speed of your web pages:

1. Choose a fast and reliable web host with a good connection to the Internet. A very "cheap" web host could cause problems.
2. If your web server supports it, enable gZip compression (your web host can do that for you).
   
3. Use as few images as possible on your website and compress your images. Most graphic tools enable you to choose the compression rate when saving an image for the web.
4. Put tracking codes and other JavaScript snippets at the end of your web pages.
5. Combine external JavaScript code files into one file. The fewer files the server has to request, the faster your web pages will load.
6. Compress your JavaScript code to make the JavaScript file smaller.
7. Combine external CSS files into one file and compress your CSS files.

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And remember:
The average web surfer wants immediate results.

Google Algorithm History Summary 2010

Google Algorithm History:

1. The Jagger Update and the Big Daddy infrastructure that it prepared the way for was a major watershed. When this happened near the end of 2005, ever-flux began to show in the SERPs. Rather than once a month ranking updates, the ranking shuffle became continual.
   Source Monthly Google History: http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/3801699.htm
2. Google’s war on paid links that began as far back as 2005 raised quite a ruckus. At first Google’s negative actions were taken manually and then algorithmically. Algorithmic false positives began to confuse things even more, and I wish they would have just stopped with showing false Page-rank on the toolbar.
3. Phrase-based indexing, as described in the 2006 patents, brought a deeper level of semantic intelligence to the search results. This power continues to grow today. One big effect - it makes over-emphasis on keywords, especially in anchor text, a problem when it used to be an asset. But there was a major advantage for the content writer who could now throw off the rigidity to major degree and vary their vocabulary in a more natural way.
   source: http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/3247207.htm
4. Geo-located results began to create different rankings even for various areas of the same US and UK city somewhere around 2005 or so. Anyone who was still chasing raw rankings as their only metric should have quickly learned that the time for a change was long overdue.
5. Google’s user "intention engine" has had a major impact, and that rolled out in a big way in 2009. This was coupled with a kind of automated taxonomy of query terms. Now, sometimes a certain kind of site will just never rank for a certain keyword, no matter what they try. The site’s taxonomy has to line up with the taxonomy of the query term.
   source: http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/3980481.htm