Quality Search Engine Optimization Isn't Like Playing
Connect The Dots Because With SEO The Dots Move
Basic SEO vs Great SEO:
The Ever-Changing SEO Landscape
How Can You Tell A Good SEO From A Bad SEO?
Additional Tools And SEO Resources You Can Use
Basic SEO vs Great SEO:
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) actually has many things in common with ice cream. For example, it comes in many, many different flavors - yet everyone has different ideas of which one is the best. The real version is made up of the same basic ingredients with extras added in - while others try and make something that doesn't use those ingredients but still want to call it the same thing.
Even though they are similar, Frozen Yogurt and Ice Cream are not the same thing. The difference with SEO is that if you order one but get another it isn't such a minor thing. In SEO Land when that happens it can be enough to get you banned from the Kingdom.
All analogies aside, Search Engine Optimization is a field that is largely open to interpretation. Each individual SEO provider will inevitably have different ideas on what to do and how to do it. This is because there is no defined set of rules when it comes to the Search Engines beyond DON'T DO "X" and DON'T DO "Y". The reason is that Search Engines don't actually want anyone to know what they do to determine the Search Results. That means that Search Engine Optimization isn't necessarily approved of by the Search Engines - at least not certain types of SEO (which can be more about tricking your way into better Search Results than actually earning them).
In that regard, there are actually three main "flavors" of SEO: 1) White Hat - generally accepted and relatively tolerated by the Search Engines, 2) Black Hat - goes against the Search Engines and uses things that have been expressly forbidden, and 3) Gray Hat - the area in between that often deals with loopholes and areas not previously explored by others. From these three areas each individual SEO provider will then determine their unique repertoire of SEO skills (depending on what their end goal is - assisting or scamming).
Aside from people using White or Black Hat SEO, the main difference between someone being an Okay SEO and a Great SEO often has little to do with Search Engine Optimization itself. In many cases it can be about those "extra" things that they add in to the mix. Looking at this website for example, it talks a lot about Search Engine Optimization and all those things related to it - yet, it also talks about Website Design, Usability, and Functionality. Even though these other things are not part of SEO itself, they can be used directly in conjunction with it in order to create an entirely new flavor of Search Engine Optimization. That in turn offers something even better - A website optimized for both the Search Engines and End Users.
The Ever-Changing SEO Landscape
When dealing with Search Engine Optimization it's important to understand that things change on a daily basis. Some of those changes can be the direct result of the Search Engines putting some newly discovered Black Hat SEO technique onto their banned list. It could also be that someone found some new loophole that no one knew existed before and are working to figure out how to exploit it. Or, it can simply be that the Search Engines changed how they do things and are now rating things differently than they did before.
This is very important information to know, especially if you're looking to hire someone to help you with your own Search Engine Optimization efforts. If they are using tricks, techniques, and ideas that are outdated (or worse - newly added to the Black Hat SEO list) they may actually do more to hurt you than help you. For this reason it can make finding a good SEO provider very difficult. Unlike many other industries you can't always use length of time in the industry and reputation as marks of success. If they've been around for ten years but are using SEO techniques from two years ago, there is a good chance they may not know the current trends.
For this reason you need to know ways to separate good SEO people from the not so good, and outdated techniques from current ones. One of the best tools we can provide in that regard is to have a look at their individual website (not other's they have worked on, but their own). By having a look at their own creation it will allow you to get a very good idea about the skills they bring to the table. If their website looks outdated, unusable, and overly complex; how are they going to be able to do anything better for you?
Another area to look for is to see if they have any current content. Something with a date on it that shows when it was put there. A great place for things like this are blogs. If they have a blog on their website go check it out. If you have to sign up to see the blog, that alone is a good indicator that know very little about SEO (because the Search Engines can't see that content either). If you can see the content, have a look at how often things are posted and how big they are. If they post frequently and there seems to be a lot of information, there's a very good chance they stay current and know what they're doing.
How Can You Tell A Good SEO From A Bad SEO?
Aside from what we talked about above, there are many things you can do to "weed out" Bad SEO providers from Good SEO providers. The main tool of which is to actually look for those common ingredients we were talking about earlier. If someone knows what they are and how to use them properly, there is a much better change they will be a Good SEO provider.
Proper Keyword Usage:
For Keywords to actually mean anything they have to be used. It isn't good enough to just throw them into a Meta Tag and call it good. You also can't use Keywords over and over and over again in the content - it's all about balance. A good question to ask someone to see how good they are at SEO is "Where should you use Keywords?" The correct answer is - everywhere you can without overdoing it. Acceptable answers can include (the more the better): Alt Text, Title Tags, Page Title, File Names, Anchor Text, Scattered In The Content, and Meta Data.
Learn More - Keyword Optimization and SEO Based Writing
Proper Naming Conventions:
Take a moment to look at the address bar of your web browser. Notice the last part of the web address displayed - that's this pages "file name" (seo-quality-provider.html). This name was specifically chosen because it is descriptive (we're talking about how to identify a good quality SEO provider) and Keyword-rich (meaning uses Keywords for this website - SEO mainly). Any time you use a "label" for something on a website (Alt Text, Title Tags, Page Title, File Names, Anchor Text, Etc.) you should be using something that is "descriptive and Keyword-rich". A good question to ask someone to see how good they are at SEO is "If I have a page dedicated to Selling Flowers what should I call it?" The correct answer would be to ask where you're selling them - because the file name should include that location and be something like "buy-flowers-goffersprings-alaska".
Learn More - Naming Conventions
Use of Capital Letters In Code
When it comes to websites and their code this is a BIG ONE (no pun intended since this is talking about Capital Letters). There are only two places that you would ever see a Capital Letter in dealing with anything connected to a webpage: 1) The actual text element of the page - like the thing you're reading right now or certain types of Meta Data, and 2) in connection to some "outside" web-element like JavaScript codes, Quarry Strings, etc. Since most people don't know what those are, the best way to look at it is that if you see a Capital Letter ANYWHERE, ask about it and what it's doing there. If it isn't part of some overly technical sounding thing it likely doesn't need to be there and they have no clue what they're doing.
The reason, for those confused by this, is that some browsers and servers can treat "apple" and "Apple" as two distinct, separate words. By ensuring every element uses lowercase lettering there can be no conflict if you ever come in contact with them.
A good question to ask someone to see how good they are at SEO is "Is it okay to use a space as part of a file name?" As shown above, the answer is NO!
Be Wary Of Too Much Space(s)
Another issue is a space (as in the thing between every word) - there should never be a space in any file names (as in: hello dolly.html) because it has to be converted to something more like (hello20%dolly.html). Not only is this very hard to have to type in if you manually enter the URL etc., it also seriously messes up your SEO ability. If you need to add something as a "spacer" use either the dash "-" or period "." (Don't use an underscore "_" as it gets treated as another letter by most web servers - helloxdolly.html isn't hello-dolly.html). The "spacer" is used to break the words up, however, for smaller strings the Search Engines can break them up fine without the spacer (hellodolly.html).
A good question to ask someone to see how good they are at SEO is "Can you use a space in a file name?" Once again - NO!
Keyword Meta Data:
This is an area that tends to stump new people to SEO or those who don't really know what they're doing. The reason being because soooo many people have soooo many ideas of what you should be doing here. The key for our discussion - which is about how to tell a Good SEO from a not so good one is to have questions to ask. Since the Keyword Meta Tag is about the most commonly discussed issue in all of SEO Land, it opens the door to a great question "Should I use the Keyword Meta Tag?" A Good or Great SEO will tell you that it may not matter, but it's better to be safe than sorry so you should use it just to be safe. If the answer is definitively "Yes" or "No" there is a good chance that they don't understand SEO all that well. You can of course ask why or why not to give them another chance - they could just be trying to give you the quick answer.
File Sizes Too Big:
A very Large problem from a website point of view are file sizes that are too big. The reason for this is very simple, everything that makes up a website or webpage has to be transmitted to your computer before it can be used. The bigger the files the longer it takes which means the slower the website loads. Unless you're still using dial-up, a website should not take very long to load at all (less than one second ideally - a lot less if possible [like instantly]). Because this slows down the load time for each page it also slows down the Search Bots when they come to check out the website. If you slow them down, they will be less likely to come back any time soon - they are very busy and have millions of other pages to check.
A good question to ask someone to see how good they are at SEO is "Is it okay to use a regular picture from my digital camera on my website?" A Good Or Great SEO will tell you that it has to be "reduced" before it can be used. This can mean "shrink in size" though it really means "make the file size smaller without losing very much of the quality".
Robots Meta Data:
If you can't remember to ask any of the other questions, or don't think you can remember them all, then this is "THE QUESTION" to remember at all costs. This is sort of a great "separate the wheat from the chaff" kind of thing. The reason being that using Robots Meta Data is a big no-no in SEO Land. The primary reason being that it seriously slows down Search Bots. If you place Robots Meta Data on your website, like File Size, it will make the Search Bots not want to come to the website very often. Normally you should be using a Robots.txt which is a special file that tells the Search Bots what they can and can't do - which sits in the main directory and not on any actual page of the website. So with that in mind a good question to ask someone to see how good they are at SEO is "Is it acceptable to use Robots Meta Data?" Anyone who knows SEO knows the difference between Robots Meta Data and Robots.txt. So, once again, the only acceptable answer should be a resounding "NO!" or at least "Not Normally!"
There are actually only two times that you can "consider" using Robots Meta Data: 1) When it's totally impossible to use the Robots.txt - this isn't "acceptable" it just means that have no other choice, and 2) When you don't want the Search Engines ever to be on the specific webpage but there is a slim chance they might be. On this website for example we do use Robots Meta Data on one of our webpages. Just like the Search Bots we hope you never see it - that of course is the Error Page for this website (click here if you want to see our Error Page). On the Error Page, we actually want to use Robots Meta Data to tell the Search Bots not to index the page (don't use it for Search Results) but to follow the links so that they can get back to a normal page and continue their work. If this page was blocked to them using the Robots.txt for example, they may just leave and go to another website. By giving them this option, they will more likely stay and continue checking out this website. As you can see, Robots Meta Data IS a big thing in SEO Land.
There are many, many other common tools, however, we can't spend all year detailing every last one of them. Aside from the time it would take, then we would have nothing left to talk about! Be sure to ask questions of your SEO and if you're still unsure then ask some more.
Additional Tools And SEO Resources You Can Use
Search Engine Optimization Codes Of Ethics / Conduct
Another great place to learn about whether someone is a good SEO provider is to see if they have some form of Code Of Conduct or Code Of Ethics that they promote or adhere to. There are also other SEO Guru's who have offered some standardized Conduct and Ethics guidelines for other to use in an attempt to provide some uniformity.
Bruce Clay's SEO Code Of Ethics | Bruce Clay's SEO Code Of Conduct
Learn More About SEO Yourself
In order to get at least a basic understanding of Search Engine Optimization and other related topics, it's a good idea to check out some of the various forums that exist.
High Rankings Search Engine Optimization Forum
Basic Search Engine Optimization Training
There are all sorts of websites scattered across the internet that teach the basics of SEO. Since each one has different information, and a different way of providing that information, it can help you quickly learn the basics.
Marketleap's Search Engine Optimization 101
Search Engine Optimization And Other Related Topics
As with any other topic, there are many websites dedicated to providing information on a wide range of topics. Those that connect to SEO and topics connected to it, can be a great place to see how those other topics inter-connect.
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