I want my site to be #1 on the search engines part 2

Image by ocean.flynn via FlickrLast week I wrote about site ranking and search engine optimization which reminded me of an article I read on nytimes.com back in March. The article titled "Are you taking advantage of Web 2.0" does a good job of defining the essence of Web 2.0 which is interaction. I have noticed many sites put up a "blog" on blog.theirdomain.com but in reality they fill the content with what use to be news.theirdomain.com which was essentially used for press releases. I'm all for press releases and I'm all for blogging but they are not the same thing. One of the main reasons blogging has become so popular is it provides a platform for real people to interact. In fact that *is* the sign of a successful blogger-- interaction from the readers with relevant comments that matter.

Faceless unidirectional press releases are a dying mechanism of getting the word out about your mission. Real human to human interaction is what the Internet is all about and people that provide transparency are going to win. Esse quam videri, which translates "to be rather than to seem" captures the essence of what I'm saying. Press releases are mainly about "seeming" where real interaction is "being."

Question: How does a small to medium sized business have true transparency in today's marketplace?

Tim Symchych

I want my site to be #1 on the search engines

Image by Getty Images via DaylifeI'm regularly asked how to get to the top of a Google search. Let me back up. Often when you meet people one of the first questions they have is what you do [for a living]. Once they find out I'm in the hosting business one of the first questions asked is if I host with you will I get to the top of a Google search. Not only would that make me rich, Google would counter just as quickly sending your placement to the basement and killing my margins. This is essentially the arms race between search engines and the SEO business.

Back in April I posted common misconceptions about putting up a website. I find that search engine placement is also a mystery to many small business owners. Most of them have never heard of SEO and don't even know how Google and others make money.

The most direct way to get to the top of most search engines is to pay them. The other way for your site to come up is a bit more complicated and in many cases more costly as well. That is why Google makes a TON of money. So what is this other way? It is call natural or organic and the SEO business exists because of it.

In the beginning websites were ranked and positioned based on key words matching the content and volume of content mattered. So people looking to get to the top of a search would cram a ton of identical content in their site even doing white text on white background to drive up their rank. Search engines caught on pretty quick and changed the rules. Next, cross links became a popular metric. It was thought that if people are linking to your site your content must be relevant. Again, the search engines caught on to people setting up multiple sites and cross linking themselves. The long short of it is there is an ever changing way to get to the top and how getting to the top is defined.

Don't worry it is not as dreadful as it sounds. I read a blog entry by Seth Godin recently and his point, although not specifically about SEO, is spot on. If you are a legitimate company, your domain name matches, you have relevant site, you update your content, share links with partners that benefit your customers, and publish a blog or even micro-blog on twitter you are likely to fair well. Longevity counts too. If you just recently put up a site you will be pretty low compared to the competitor who has been at it for a while. If you are not leveraging the power of the Internet you are not staying afloat, you are sinking.

Comments Welcomed,
Tim Symchych

Growing Complicated

Image via Wikipedia"Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage - to move in the opposite direction." Albert Einstein

Often in a small company people wear many hats and perform multiple functions. As business increases we specialize and take off some of those hats. We hire people for very specific, defined roles to increase efficiency and accuracy in serving the needs of our customers. Then we create monitoring and compensation systems to manage our growing workforce of specialists.

We wake up one day and realize we can't turn the big ship without a ton of effort. The entrepreneur spirit begins to wither because roles are so specific people refer to their job descriptions before tackling new projects. People assume many aspects of the business are someone else's job. Ironically, at the same time people begin to feel like they are losing their voice and agree that they have far more talent than their current job requires.

I'm a huge Steven Covey fan and in his 8th Habit book he talks about the shift from the industrial age to the information age and empowering the knowledge worker.

Should you grow toward complexity or grow toward simplicity?

Comments welcomed,
Tim Symchych