Thanks Paul — appreciate the comment.

Paul

I recently received an email which said that – “apparently Mr Google, Matt Cutts, mentioned at PubCon recently that there are over 200 variables in the Google algorithm”.

I have been getting a fair degree of success with keyword optimisation but like all new skills it takes time to perfect.

Enjoyed the post

Regards

Sean

Isn’t it funny how we expect this to be harder than it really is? I think on some level people feel like if the the harder they work the better the results will be. That’s only true when your efforts are directed in the right place. Finding out what that is is the difficult part and you just gave it to us.

However, as Alex stated above, a keyword-rich domain name can be absolutely explosive (used properly in conjunction with a matched title tag, of course :)). In fact, I would trade many backlinks for a keyword-rich domain name any day. I’ve seen a couple of my keywordy domain names skyrocket to Google page 1 in no time at all with just a handful of well-placed backlinks – far less than was required with some of my much older, established, keyword-poor-domain-name sites.

And thanks to you guys, I actually am starting to find several of my blog posts and articles appearing on page 1 of Google results. I must be doing something right. Thanks so much!

Jaime Lim

Said another way, 80% (or more) of what you need to know about SEO is in this post. The other 20% costs you $97. LOL.

The title tag defines the title of the document.

The title element is required in all HTML/XHTML documents.

The title element:

* defines a title in the browser toolbar
* provides a title for the page when it is added to favorites
* displays a title for the page in search-engine results

Browser Support

Internet Explorer Firefox Opera Google Chrome Safari

The title tag is supported in all major browsers.

From here:

http://www.w3schools.com/TAGS/tag_title.asp

You can set the title tag in a web page with a simple one line statement. In wordpress, the theme usually sets the title tag — and you can use something like the All-In-One_SEO plugin for WP to override that setting.

Does that help?

That just seems way too easy, that’s why what you say makes perfect sense. Everyone tries to make things so complicated so they can sell you the next best SEO piece of crap for $97.

Thanks for keeping it simple.

Later,
Jeff Sargent

There are tons and tons of ebooks on the subject, some half a forest thick (or the equivelant in pixels).

Surely all of the gurus can’t have got this so wrong, or can they 😉

Steve.

Just don’t give up.

BTW, I have purchased some tools to make life easier, such as Mark’s themes, Micro Niche Finder, and Market Samarui. As you earn income don’t be afraid to pick up some tools, just be careful which ones. If you are unsure, send people around here a message.

I think as Google gets smarter they will look at content more and links less, so the link spammers will not get so much out of automation.

And matching your domain name to your principal keyword is a neglected gem!

🙂

Thanks Mark for keeping us grounded with your info.

What a breadth of fresh air to hear somebody nail it and cut out the fat. You’re dead on. I’ve noticed for months now that several of my sites that seem to only make a feeble attempt at ranking (on SEO) seem to do better that the older ones where I was trying to pour everything possible in to the site.

The ones that are performing best are using the same simple technique(s) you’ve touche on here.

Thanks for being real.

jerry

Its easy for people to get confused and ineffective when it comes to SEO. There is a lot of SEO guru noise out there that is 99% garbage.

Thanks for the reminder that good content and a few SEO techniques is really all you need.

Jeff 🙂

I don’t know how much time I wasted on meta tags and such when one title tie-in and some solid backlinks are much more efficient and logical.

David — I hear you loud and clear. Guru’s are great if they have your best interest in mind. That is the problem.

Confusing people about the fine esoteric details of SEO is exactly like teaching a crawling baby strategies for shaving 3 seconds off of the baby’s Boston Marathon time. If you cannot qualify for the Boston Marathon yet, you just need to know how to walk first.

Thanks Allen — appreciate the feedback. I really have guys (and gals) like Leger, Terry and Spaulding to thank. They keep me on the right track most days.

At last, someone has blown away the fog! And what we finally see is what a lot of us suspected we’d see all along.

Thank You!

Dave Tishendorf

If you need any seo plug-in for your website the “SEO Title Tag” plugin does a fine job. Then again, just using what wordpress has as is for ensuring your title tag and other meta data for each post/page works pretty darn good too!

Thanks again!
Joe

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I have for too long felt that I was at the mercy of the guru’s. And for a time I was (and they’ve got more of my money than I like to think about to prove it). I appreciate what people like yourself, Josh, Lynn, and others are doing to just cut to the chase and tell it straight.

I want to learn what I need to learn, and not a bunch of unnecessary stuff.

Thanks again for this post.

David