Search Engine Optimization

[fanciman]

Any good ideas/websites for how to do this?

What if you wish to target users of another language, such as Thai? How do you incorporate that?

[londonthai]

yep, just check 'website optimisation promotion'

avoid graphics, flash - use a lot of text with keywords

write proper, long file names, give each page a different title (corresponding to the content)

[freitag1]

Write link worthy content and promote it via social bookmarking sites.

[Norrad]

Write link worthy content and promote it via social bookmarking sites.

I agree with writing link worthy content but I do not agree with promoting via social bookmarking site. It's not worth the effort, you may get a spike in traffic, but unless you make the first page articles, the traffic won't last. Also social bookmarking sites offer no SEO benifits, which is what the OP is looking for.

I suggest you download a free program called Web CEO from www.webceo.com, it will submit your site to hundreds of search engines and directories and will also guide you through optomising your site. Building quality, related backlinks is the best way to increase your rankings.

[jackr]

Any good ideas/websites for how to do this?

What if you wish to target users of another language, such as Thai? How do you incorporate that?

Don't worry too much about bending your wording to incorporate SEO, just make a useful site that people will enjoy and you enjoy writing. Get the basics done such as your Meta tags and the right keywords and be of the mind to provide a useful service first and the money second. Money will/may follow. Good content and good quality, relevant back-links are your main concerns. Be careful of sites that promise thousands of links for a few bucks. If you want to buy some targetted ones to kick things off, be selective and use a reputable site.

Most of all, I cannot recommend webmasterworld.com enough for everything web-related. Some real experts on there.

[swain]

Would not suggest www.webceo.com, you will be submitted to tons of junk mail lists. all the other suggestions about content and keywords are great. Download php links manager. Some of the boring mundane work you will need to do is exchange links with other sites with a good description of your site. You should do this every week for the next year. There is rhyme and reason to this because as your site relevancy goes up from references to your domain name on other sites on the net you go up in the search engines. You are in the right place for getting someone to do this for you.. I have done just this .. I have three people in Thailand doing this day in and day out for my sites. It works.. and training someone to do this is easy and basic work. Getting someone to do this in the USA would cost 5-10 times what would need to be paid here. High end database work or programming is not Thailand's best resource but low end, mind numbing, repetitive work, this can be had for a great price. They are happy to get the work and I am happy with the savings.

Edited January 22, 2008 by swain

[mac.wheeler]

Be very very careful in taking advice on SEO, I have already seen a couple of things mentioned in this thread that could eventually be detrimental to a website if you use them as part of your SEO/SEM campaign.

I really do recommend you take the advice of a professional, it is very easy to make a fundamental mistake and get your domain blacklisted if you do it yourself without a decent understanding of how search engines work and what they do and do not like.

If I had to give one piece of advice to anybody worrying about SEO then it would have to be the old adage "Content is king". There is no better way to drive traffic to your site than quality, unique and frequently updated content.

If you PM me the URL that you are thinking about undertaking some SEO work on then I will take a quick look at it and PM you back some pointers.

[swain]

Be very very careful in taking advice on SEO, I have already seen a couple of things mentioned in this thread that could eventually be detrimental to a website if you use them as part of your SEO/SEM campaign.

I really do recommend you take the advice of a professional, it is very easy to make a fundamental mistake and get your domain blacklisted if you do it yourself without a decent understanding of how search engines work and what they do and do not like.

If I had to give one piece of advice to anybody worrying about SEO then it would have to be the old adage "Content is king". There is no better way to drive traffic to your site than quality, unique and frequently updated content.

If you PM me the URL that you are thinking about undertaking some SEO work on then I will take a quick look at it and PM you back some pointers.

Nicely written ... implys your knowledge base without really introducing anything solid that would back this knowledge base up and further knocks out all other posters as you have not identified what would be detrimental. Plus offers advice based on the suggestion that you should only take advice from someone that is professional.. thus supporting you as a professional. Really .. nicely written. You really mean it when you say content is king!

[george]

Here is your road map:

1. Unique content

2. Quality inbound links

3. White Hat SEO : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_hat

4. Read the SEO Bible: http://www.google.com/webmasters/

5. Join the forum for SEO: http://www.webmasterworld.com

Be careful out there...

[mac.wheeler]

Be very very careful in taking advice on SEO, I have already seen a couple of things mentioned in this thread that could eventually be detrimental to a website if you use them as part of your SEO/SEM campaign.

I really do recommend you take the advice of a professional, it is very easy to make a fundamental mistake and get your domain blacklisted if you do it yourself without a decent understanding of how search engines work and what they do and do not like.

If I had to give one piece of advice to anybody worrying about SEO then it would have to be the old adage "Content is king". There is no better way to drive traffic to your site than quality, unique and frequently updated content.

If you PM me the URL that you are thinking about undertaking some SEO work on then I will take a quick look at it and PM you back some pointers.

Nicely written ... implys your knowledge base without really introducing anything solid that would back this knowledge base up and further knocks out all other posters as you have not identified what would be detrimental. Plus offers advice based on the suggestion that you should only take advice from someone that is professional.. thus supporting you as a professional. Really .. nicely written. You really mean it when you say content is king!

I have worked in SEO/SEM for the last 3 years, have been professionally qualified in it for the last 2, you will note I offered to provide the OP more specific advice in a PM, I simply choose not to give advice publicly as I usually charge for this, and as such may be shooting myself in the foot if somebody who could possibly become a future client reads my public post, and then no longer requires the services of somebody such as myself.

As for what is detrimental, lets start with your reciprocal linking, major search engines now frown upon two way links as they are deemed inorganic in nature and as such are given less weight. Additionally sites will be further penalised if the quantity and theme of links being received over a period of time is too high and too similar. Then we have the problem of where the backlink is placed on the page of the site you have exchanged with, if it contains more than 25 links it is highly likely you will be flagged as using the services of a link farm, this is more damaging, quite often taking months to recover from once the offending links are removed.

[swain]

Be very very careful in taking advice on SEO, I have already seen a couple of things mentioned in this thread that could eventually be detrimental to a website if you use them as part of your SEO/SEM campaign.

I really do recommend you take the advice of a professional, it is very easy to make a fundamental mistake and get your domain blacklisted if you do it yourself without a decent understanding of how search engines work and what they do and do not like.

If I had to give one piece of advice to anybody worrying about SEO then it would have to be the old adage "Content is king". There is no better way to drive traffic to your site than quality, unique and frequently updated content.

If you PM me the URL that you are thinking about undertaking some SEO work on then I will take a quick look at it and PM you back some pointers.

Nicely written ... implys your knowledge base without really introducing anything solid that would back this knowledge base up and further knocks out all other posters as you have not identified what would be detrimental. Plus offers advice based on the suggestion that you should only take advice from someone that is professional.. thus supporting you as a professional. Really .. nicely written. You really mean it when you say content is king!

I have worked in SEO/SEM for the last 3 years, have been professionally qualified in it for the last 2, you will note I offered to provide the OP more specific advice in a PM, I simply choose not to give advice publicly as I usually charge for this, and as such may be shooting myself in the foot if somebody who could possibly become a future client reads my public post, and then no longer requires the services of somebody such as myself.

As for what is detrimental, lets start with your reciprocal linking, major search engines now frown upon two way links as they are deemed inorganic in nature and as such are given less weight. Additionally sites will be further penalised if the quantity and theme of links being received over a period of time is too high and too similar. Then we have the problem of where the backlink is placed on the page of the site you have exchanged with, if it contains more than 25 links it is highly likely you will be flagged as using the services of a link farm, this is more damaging, quite often taking months to recover from once the offending links are removed.

Of course there is a right way and a wrong way to work with reciprocal links, I would agree. Content description of the site must be varied at the different sites you setup links with. Links manager software can limit how many links are on any one page and you only add so many each week so it doesn't look like your spamming the site. Another way that is fairly inexpensive and direct is a press release on an event or something that could be considered news worthy. Having people review your service at one of the many places that allows you to do so. Shooting yourself in the foot? Seems this forum is the place to offer advice and develop relationships. If you offer a service and you want to try to sell someone on using your service, maybe a classified ad might be more appropriate.

[klikster]

Then we have the problem of where the backlink is placed on the page of the site you have exchanged with, if it contains more than 25 links it is highly likely you will be flagged as using the services of a link farm, this is more damaging, quite often taking months to recover from once the offending links are removed.

If you are engaging in reciprocal linking, I doubt seriously if being the 26th link on a page will actually harm a site. I believe anchor text and topical relevancy are 2 keys that are much more important. I have read where google recommended (okay, way back in 2006) fewer than 100 links on a page.

http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=10494

One of the reasons for fewer links on a page is for passing on pagerank.

There is really not a very good way for any SE to know whether or not relevant links are reciprocal or coincidental.

But if you are going to the trouble of getting good links from worthwhile sites, try to get the site linking to you to use keyword rich (and varied) anchor text .. and to have the links coming from a content page (but not in a footer) .. rather than a links page. Don't buy sitewide links. Look at any links to make sure they don't have a <rel="no follow"> or you don't get any PR.

Caution: Take everything I have said with a grain of salt, since I'm not a SEO expert.

[Norrad]

If it was that easy to harm your rankings, then why not submit your competitors link to all of the "Evil" link farms?

[klikster]

If it was that easy to harm your rankings, then why not submit your competitors link to all of the "Evil" link farms?

Better yet, spoof an email offer to your competitors offering to exchange with your PR8 .edu site .. which is really a redirect to a porn site.

(pssst .. itsajoke!)

[Barcode]

Read some stuff abour SEO at http://www.thailandwebservice.com/search-e...timization.html

As a rule, make sure you have all metatags in place, have enough text on your pages and avoid flash and Hosting Group guys

[freitag1]

Lol so many outdated information in this thread. How about asking this question in a forum that doesn't consist of expats. More people are specialized in getting cheap prices for their beer here than having a website that ranks well in Google.

[Cuban]

What if you wish to target users of another language, such as Thai? How do you incorporate that?

Write your site or parts of it in Thai?

Keep it simple is a great motto.

Dependant on the content and your target surfers, you might want to consider that the search engine crawlers do not read/see pictures but the words listed under ALT text, ensure this is correct and up to date.

[sweetchariot]

Google adwords - gets you on the first page every time