seo a science Archives - Page 3 of 3 by Mark Murnahan

Brandon’s Baseball Cards and Google SEO Starter Guide

Did you know that Google will help you to have better results in their search engine? Google provides useful advice on how to improve a website’s search engine ranking, and they did it with Brandon’s Baseball Cards. If you have never heard about Brandon or the example Google made with his baseball cards, I would not be surprised. There is a lot of information on the Internet, and it can be hard to take it all in. The information Google provides to explain search engine optimization is worth the time it will take to read and take notes. This is especially true if you are going to try do-it-yourself search engine optimization (DIY SEO) for the first time.

Google Wants to Index Your Site

Google wants to include your website in their index, and for good reason. When you can find anything and everything you ever want to know at Google.com, it is good for their company. This is how Google maintains its ranking as the number one search engine. Being the perfect go-to source for information is what drives Google’s AdWords advertising sales up, and keeps their market share strong. The biggest challenges website owners face mirror the challenges Google faces, and are as follows:

Billions of Competing Web Pages
Providing High-Quality Information

Google works very hard to provide the best results when users search the Internet. If your website is not among the top results, it is not because Google is out to kill your business, but mostly that somebody else had more relevant and easier to index information.

Google Will Help You With SEO

The efforts Google has made to help people better understand their search engine is not a secret. Any decent search engine optimizer (SEO) is aware of Google Webmaster Tools and Google’s Search Engine Optimizer Starter Guide. Most SEO will be happy to share the information with you just as I am here. A good SEO will be glad to know their clients have read the information so they understand the job we do. An informed client will understand the value of SEO work, and is less likely to fall asleep when we talk.

If you put this information to good use, and you do not try to cheat Google’s well-formed system, your Google ranking will improve and your website will receive more traffic. Better yet, it will receive more relevant traffic because people will be finding your site based on exactly what they search for. It will cost you nothing but your time and attention, but what it can return is extremely beneficial to your business. Now that I put it this way, wouldn’t it really seem crazy to neglect it? Really, this is free exposure to your business using the number one way that people find businesses to buy from. Doesn’t it seem like that is worthwhile? I believe your answer is yes, but you may be wondering what this has to do with Brandon’s Baseball Cards, so I will get to that.

Brandon’s Baseball Cards and Search Engine Optimization

If you do not already know what Brandon’s Baseball Cards has to do with SEO, it is only because you did not read “Google’s Search Engine Optimizer Starter Guide” yet. It is only 22 pages in length and I really hope you will take some time to read it. Even if you are a professional SEO, the information contained in the document may just be what your next client needs to help them understand how you can help them.

Since I know some of you will never take my advice and read the SEO starter guide, I will let the cat out of the bag. Brandon’s Baseball Cards is the product Google used in its examples. Go ahead and see what is at brandonsbaseballcards.com. If you did not guess, it goes to Google.com.

What Google Didn’t Mention

The information Google provides about SEO is very important, but it is not everything. There is not a single element that will place your link at the top of every search results page. If there was an easy fix, everybody would be doing it. Effective SEO requires marketing talent, and it is a mix of both art and science. If I could condense all that you need to know into a list of SEO lessons and make it simple, I would do that. As it is, there are still a lot of important tasks that a professional SEO performs. Two search engine optimizers will never achieve the exact same results, and implementation of SEO skills will vary. There is only one position at the top, and I hope to see you there. If you need help with that, ring me any time at *REDACTED DUE TO AGING WEBSITE* (*REDACTED DUE TO AGING WEBSITE*).

Just one more thing: Can you name the baseball player pictured above? Add your guess in the comments!

SEO and Web Development Hourly Rates

Hourly rates for SEO (search engine optimization) and Web development are confusing. As a Web developer and SEO, I am very often asked to produce a Website development quote, without the client giving all of the facts. The most important thing to remember is that there is no apples-to-apples comparison.

Website Development Hourly Rates

When you compare the hourly rates of two different Website developers or SEOs, you are really only looking at a fraction of the picture. If “Web Developer A” charges $85 per hour, and “Web Developer B” charges $150 per hour, which one is a better deal? There is a missing variable in how much and how well either of them can produce the results. If “Web Developer B” has a decade of experience and can finish the same task in half of the time, “Web Developer A’s” hourly rate just became $170 per hour ($85*2).

Another strong factor is that although there are standards for Web programming, there are many “correct” ways to produce a project, and usually the “correctness” will come in different degrees. This requires a question of how correct you want it. Two Web developers will likely never produce the exact same results. Thus, the comparison of hourly rates is already flawed.

SEO Hourly Rates

When it comes to SEO, many of the tasks are even less defined than Web development. Determining the best SEO between “SEO A” and “SEO B” it is like comparing two brains, which stumps even the most brilliant Neurosurgeons. There are many skills that we share, but there are also many varying opinions on the best practices. There is only one number one position in each search engine for a given keyword or keyword phrase. That is the goal of the SEO, but the methods used to get there often vary greatly between SEOs.

Reduce Hourly Rate Confusion

Perhaps the most challenging and confusing thing about shopping for Website development or SEO is how much a Website should cost. As I have strongly suggested before, it is best to set a budget. Here is a clip from another of my blog posts:

“Hiding your expected budget is like going to a realtor and saying that you want to buy a house and hiding your budget. If they do not know your budget, they can show you homes all day but you will both be spinning your wheels and never get anywhere.”

When a Web developer or SEO provides a proposal based on only a portion of the client’s objectives, they will always be wrong. I can appreciate the notion of “shopping around”, but to shop without a budget serves nobody at all, and may land you with “Web Developer A” who can potentially cost you more. When it comes to shopping for SEO services, the largest cost is often in the cost of lost opportunities.

Getting the Right Cost Quote

I have produced quotes to shoppers who simply refused to give me the whole picture, only to have them compliment me greatly but say that they believe I am “out of their league”. The fact is that I write quotes ranging from a few thousand dollars on up to many tens of thousands of dollars. It is always based on the information I am given. No two companies place the same importance on Internet marketing, thus, their needs and expectations of both performance and cost will always be different. Without clarifying the needs and expectations for both parties, nobody wins.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Art or Science?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a term that many people may recognize, but seldom clearly understand. Most people exposed to the term grasp the fact that search engine optimization is designed to help bring more traffic to their Website, but that is where their knowledge ends. Without a good understanding what search engine optimization is, many people are destined to either fail in their online marketing pursuits, or alternately throw good money out the window by paying the search engine optimizer with the best sales pitch … the SEO with all hat and no cattle. First things first, I want to address the title of this blog post “Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Art or Science?”

Is SEO an art? The answer is clearly and undeniably “yes”.
Is SEO a science? The answer is clearly and undeniably “yes”.

If this sounds strange, let us look at each of these aspects of SEO so you can decide for yourself.

Search Engine Optimization as an Art

While you read this article, you can surely see the art. After all, I am writing to you in a conversational form, and the way in which I choose my every word is work that surely does not seem scientific. All the while, I am writing an article that will likely be plucked up by search engine spiders for inclusion in their databases and returned in many search results on this topic.

Search Engine Optimization as a Science

This is an area where many SEO firms will try to sell you. It is the wizardry and hocus pocus of the SEO industry. Some companies will try to tell you that they have special technologies to bring or keep your Website at the top of search engine results. Technology is certainly an important aspect of SEO, and cannot be overlooked. Factors I have written about such as keyword research, keyword proximity, keyword usage, keyword density, and many other search engine optimization technology practices are hugely important to the success of any SEO campaign. We must know what keyword phrases people are actually searching for, how competitive it is, how to format contents of a Website, and much more.

Which is More Important in SEO – Art or Science?

The art and science of SEO are both important for top search engine results, and I mean more than just finding your company name in a search engine. Without the science, you face an uphill battle against huge odds. At the same time, without the artistic part, it is like a house of cards. The truth is that the artistic part is more important to the overall results. I have been writing on the Internet for so many years that I often find that when an article is completed, I have met all of the science of search engine optimization, such as keyword usage, keyword proximity, and programming concerns without even trying. Most important to a search engine is the visible text content of the Website. The information is the most important part of this Information Superhighway. You may have noticed that I am writing about search engine optimization here, and not tractor tires and fishing lures. My content is on-topic and keyword rich.

Author Mark Murnahan is the Chairman and CEO of YourNew.com, Inc. and provides SEO consulting services to companies and non-profit organizations. Mark Murnahan may be reached toll free at 866-A-Web-Guy (*REDACTED DUE TO AGING WEBSITE*) for consultation.