If there was ever a field filled with misinformation and FUD, it has to be the world of search engine optimization.  It seems, that everywhere you turn, someone has a new theory or explanation for how the big search engines work the way they do.  And, the majority of them seem to want to get you to give them money to prove their concepts to you.  Many of these theories sound plausible, a few sound like complete rubbish, and a very small number like SEOP Inc sound believable.  It would be nice, if Google, Yahoo, MSN and a few of the others would just lay it all out on the table, and just tell us all how it works.  But, that’s just never going to happen.

Instead, we’ll just have to soldier on doing what we do.  Building good content sites, giving the people what they want, and testing testing testing.  I suppose, I could simplify things, and just say that good content and a solid linking strategy will win the day, but people don’t always believe it.  New marketers and business owners seem to think there must be some other secret dark magic at work here.  And while it’s true there are some nuances to those basic premises, but the basics are still what counts.  Good content and links are always important.  But, what defines good content, and what kind of links should I get?

As they say, the devil is in the details.  And, I believe that entirely.  That’s where it helps to have a professional.  They know the ins and outs of getting the job done.  They know how to create good web content that the search engines love.  Content can come in all shapes and forms these days.  Video, music, pictures, software, and plain old text all drive the web.  The engines are getting smarter these days, and can do a lot more than just read words.  At least the good ones can.

Secondly, a professional SEO knows the best way to get good incoming links to your website.  They understand the details of anchor text, and in context linking.  They understand thematic optimization, and how certain words relate to each other.  They also understand people as well as search engines.  They know that building your websites for search engines only would be a mistake.  Your sites need to convince the engines to rank you, but they also need to communicate with the real human visitors when they arrive.