Freelancing and More!

I really enjoy learning new things. Because of that, I spent a lot of time poking around the Internet trying to find out about SEO, looking for credible spots to link, and trying to discover the “latest and greatest” tools.

Since I write constantly for the web, it’s important to me to pick up every single tip that I possibly can on SEO. I have to share something with you, that I find not only extremely annoying, but, even comical in its extreme.

Each of us at one time or another, has seen the “SEO” expert tagged after someone’s name. If you key in these words to any major search engine you are likely to be deluged with an entire list of people who claim they will get your website, blog, etc. into Google’s top ranking.

Before you allow yourself to get taken in by the hype, and yes I do mean hype, do yourself a favor-take a look at the page ranking of the site you are on!  No, I don’t mean this one that you’re reading I mean the ones who were touting themselves as experts.  I recently had occasion,to see a profile for someone who claimed to be “an expert”, “certified”, etc. you get the message. So out of sheer curiosity, I decided to visit this person’s blog, where they proceed to discuss “the tips and tricks of making your blog or website SEO friendly”. I have to admit it gave me a great laugh! The person’s blog had no page rank in Google at all!! (Please note the current blog you are reading is ranked two in Google)

This is not the first time I have run into this phenomenon. In fact, I have had several clients who have told me they have taken these specialized courses that they’ve paid hundreds of dollars for, and they returned back all pumped up with 1000 ideas of what I should be doing for their blogs. Now I don’t want to say that I am any type of an SEO expert, but, of all the blogs that I have maintained for clients, the ones that are self-directed (i.e. I pick and choose content, I pick and choose pictures, I pick and choose links) they are all ranked by Google. Most of these blogs, are 1 to 1 1/2 years old. Now I’m not going to tell you that I think that a page rank of two or three is great-in fact it’s not so great! But if I take a look at a blog or website for supposed “expert”, and I see them with the zero page rank, then my two or three looks pretty darn good.

Summary

I don’t want anybody to get the impression that I think that SEO is not important. Nothing could be further from the truth. However, one of the things that I learned early on is that a consistent, well written blog, with key words that fit where they are used, and the appropriate promotion will rank in Google. I also don’t want you to think, that all SEO tips are bad! Some are pretty good! All I’m suggesting, is that the next time somebody touts themselves as an expert, make sure that their expertise has helped them!