Search Engine Optimization experts disagree. A lot. Kind of like radio commentators during election season. And that’s why you’ll often find conflicting advice or contradictory statements from one search engine optimization blog to the next. The interesting thing is every Search Engine Optimization professional thinks he’s right and the other guy is wrong. Could it be that maybe every Search Engine Optimization pro is right?

In a relative sense, Search Engine Optimization is not necessarily about what is true or factual, but about what is effective. If it works for me then I believe it’s true. Someone else could disagree and still be just as right.

For instance, some Search Engine Optimization gurus will tell you that having your keyword in your domain name isn’t necessary. To be sure, there are many domains that do not have the necessary keywords in them and they are still very popular and successful:

• Flickr
• JohnChow.com
• del.icio.us
• You name one

There are a lot more examples, of course, but I don’t want to bore you. Looking at the list of successful websites that don’t have a keyword in the URL, you’d think it isn’t necessary just as these Search Engine Optimization firms say. But other SEOs will tell you that having the keyword in your URL will give you an edge in the search engines. And I believe they have a valid point. Both camps.

On the one hand, keywords in the URL are not an absolute necessity. Flickr has proven that. But all other things being equal, having the keyword in your URL will improve your competitive edge.

Consider these relative facts:

• Every search engine has a different set of algorithms used to determine rankings
• Google has more than 200 ranking factors in its algorithm
• All the search engines frequently update their algorithms
• The competition for every keyword is different

Every Search Engine Optimization agency has his own style. Some like to focus on link building. Others like to focus on developing content. Others may emphasize site infrastructure more. Some web designers are awesome at developing templates that are cool and search engine friendly, but they aren’t very good at coding metas. To each his own.

When it comes to good Search Engine Optimization, it’s more important to understand the principles involved in ranking a site well and to use those principles that apply best to a particular situation. For instance, Google doesn’t like interlinking between real estate websites. So a real estate broker in Alberta linking to an agent in Florida isn’t going to do either of them any good. But two agents in Jacksonville, Florida linking to each other will do them both wonders. On the other hand, reciprocal linking between two freelance graphic artists where one is in Florida and the other is in Alberta is perfectly acceptable. It’s important to know how the Search Engine Optimization principles will work for your industry.

The more you know about Search Engine Optimization, the better able you are in diagnosing problems and fixing them. If you don’t know the Search Engine Optimization solution, maybe you should call someone who does.

(Aaron Wall) Can you rank a new site in Yahoo! for terms like insurance without getting it nuked in Google? What makes Yahoo! so much slower at ranking new sites than the other major search engines?

I find this question interesting coming from Aaron Wall. In my experience, I’ve seen MSN Live slow on the uptake in ranking new sites for Search Engine Optimization. Occasionally, I’ve seen Yahoo! slow in accepting new sites. But I rarely see Google take to a new site very slowly, aside from its famed “Sandbox,” that is.

I’m sure Aaron Wall has reasons for pointing out that certain sites are getting listed at Yahoo! slower than they are at other sites, but it isn’t like that for every site. None of the search engines have the same set of algorithms. They all put different weight on certain elements and on any given day it could be different than it is today. I think that, probably, Google and MSN Live update their algorithms more often than Yahoo! does. But I’ve noticed that if you get listed in Yahoo! then your chances of getting recognized for more links is greatly increased, giving you a huge boost in your link popularity. MSN was not even reporting links until just recently and I’ve seen sites that are three years old have a bit 0 in that column for MSN Live and have more than 1,000 links counted for Yahoo! while showing up with more than 100 at Google (Google is much more strict on links than either MSN Live or Yahoo!).

Bottom line, it is difficult to say that any of the search engines are faster at ranking new sites as it relates to Search Engine Optimization. I’ve found that Google is lightning fast at crawling new sites if the the webmaster has other sites ranked as well. This may be due to the webmaster knowing what he’s doing and targeting his new sites for fast ranking, but I think it also has something to do with Google favoring new sites from experienced webmasters if those webmasters have sites registered under the same name at Whois. Yahoo! and MSN Live take turns being last. I’m not sure why. Although I am sure every Search Engine Optimization professional has something to add on this topic.

Content is a huge part of website development and Search Engine Optimization, but what is it? Lest you think I’ve gone and flipped my lid, let’s be honest: The definition and nature of content has changed since 1999. To hear some people talk about it, you’d think content was nothing more than words on a web page. But there’s more to it than that.

Essentially, content is anything that contributes to the essence of your website. By essence I mean its meta-qualities – not meta as in metatags, though it does include your tags – but meta as in over and above merely what you see on the page. There are three types of content within this definition:

• On-page content
• Off-page content
• “Behind the curtain” content

Your on-page content is anything that is visible to the human eye on each web page of your website. That includes text, photos, videos, graphics, your template or website design, etc. Those are your visible elements. Off-page content refers to anything off site that contributes to the essence of your website. That includes inbound links, blog content on off site blogs that you own and link back to your site, articles, social networking content, wiki entries, directory submissions, etc. I include these elements in my working definition of content because that’s what they are – in a word, they are content and they work for you.

“Behind the curtain” content is a little bit more mystical. It includes meta tags, of course, but it’s more than just meta tags. It also includes link attributes, site navigation paradigms, XML pages for your RSS feeds, sitemaps, and anything that contributes to user value but cannot be construed as either on-page or off-page content. In other words, your “behind the curtain” elements are primarily content fed to search engine spiders, but that also provide your users with some benefit. It is essentially, code.

Now what is your content supposed to do? Ultimately, your content – all of your content – has one job: To lead your site visitor to implement some action. That action could be a sale, a newsletter sign up, post a comment, something. Whatever it is, there needs to be a call to action. But not every piece of content requires a call to action. Some content – called pre-sell content – should actually be used to channel your site visitor to the place where you want them to respond to your call to action. You are actually canalizing them into responding to you.

So when you develop your content – whether it be off site link building content, visible on site web page elements like graphics and page text, or meta-content – each piece must contribute to the whole. Every piece of content must do its job or be cut from the team. The bottom line is, content teamwork is the most important thing. Every individual piece must work for the good of the team either by closing the sale, delivering traffic, or contributing to your Search Engine Optimization. If every piece of your content is working for the good of all then your content is selling. If not, then you need to rethink your content.

You’ve heard it said often enough: “Content is King.” But is it?

Second-rate Search Engine Optimization experts and followers all over the Internet will repeat this mantra over and over again as if it is true and add such silly wisdom – let’s call it Sisdom – as “If content is king then link building is queen.” Yeah, right.

Let me tell you why this is all wrong. Any schmuck can put content on a web page. In fact, a web page is not a web page without content. Try putting up a blank white screen with nothing but your html and body tags. Call that content and every goober with a hat on will laugh at you. (The goobers without hats will stare blankly.)

I’ve seen people build a five page website and just wait. “Yep, built a website! The business will come any time. I’m juu-uuu-uust a-waitin’. God bless my soul.”

OK, I’m being silly. But you know it happens. People build a website – they’ve got content – and nothing happens. Some king.

Content without links will get you nothing. I’m not saying start building inbound links and all your problems will be solved. But I am saying that you can take any crappy site with content, build links to it and at least improve your Google juice. Content alone will not ensure you any rankings. It won’t ensure you any sales. It won’t ensure you any traffic. But put one strategically placed link somewhere else on the Web and point it back to your crappy site with content and you’ll likely increase your traffic. You’ll likely also increase your PageRank and Google’s algorithms will jump for joy because they found something of value related to your content – even though it’s not on your crappy website.

Now, that’s how links are more important than content. Even a bad link – not a spam link or a “bad neighborhood” link (I’m talking about an ineffectual milquetoast link) – can increase the Search Engine Optimization juice on your lousy content website. Oooooh, but take that lousy content and rewrite it. I don’t just mean change a few verbs and rearrange your keywords. I mean really rewrite it. Rewrite it from scratch so that your content shines – like Patton’s combat boots. Spit polish your content until you can see your own reflection. Don’t do anything. Now you’ve got a website with valuable content – and that’s what will make a difference.

Lesson: Content is not king. Good content is king.

Inbound links to a lousy content site with crappy content is better than a website with bad content and no links. But take that website and make your content good and your good content site without links will outperform a bad content site with all the links in the world. Add links to it, however, and you’ve got one hell of a website to be proud of. And it will make you money as part of your Search Engine Optimization efforts. I think that’s what Rand Fishkin meant when he said that links are more important than content. To that I wholeheartedly agree.

I’d like to confirm the backlink question posed at WebProNews recently. Do spammy backlinks hurt you and your Search Engine Optimization efforts?

Yes, they can. But it does take a lot.

Let’s say you run a small business website that is beginning to attract spammy backlinks from porn sites, pharmaceuticals hawkers, and spam blogs. You’d better have a bunch of good links going in because if you don’t then those nefarious backlinks could hurt your reputation in a really bad way. It’s not the value of the links per se; it’s more the quantity of the bad links and the percentage of bad links compared with your good links.

If you have just 10 good links, because you’re a fairly new site, and you start getting hundreds of backlinks that are low quality spam links, porn links, warez sites, and the like, then that won’t look good for you. On the other hand, if you’ve got 30,000 good links and just a thousand or so of these bad links then you’re probably OK because you’ve got so many good links that Google will tend to overlook the bad ones. That’s another reason why inbound links are so important. They’re effective in reputation management and Search Engine Optimization.

Article marketing, off site blogging, directory submissions, and other valid link building strategies should never be abandoned. Get those good, solid links in place before your competition decides to bombard you with bad links. This could be the new trench warfare – competitors killing each other off with sour link juice. Don’t be a victim, be a proactive linker and do it right.

YouTube is rolling out a beta version of a personalized home page. I think this is great and could have implications for Search Engine Optimization.

I think this is a sign that Google sees its personalization efforts as successful. I assume I don’t need to remind you that Google now owns YouTube, which means the move is a Google executive decision. So the Search Engine Optimization implications are even more far reaching than one I’m about to tell you.

In terms of Search Engine Optimization, since many webmasters use YouTube videos as embeds on their blogs and websites, personalization could make these embeds more accessible. If I, for instance, have a tendency to embed videos about search engine optimization and internet marketing on my blog then when I log into my YouTube account I should get recommendations for videos tagged as search engine optimization or internet marketing. These will mostly be videos I haven’t seen yet.

The personalized home page, according to YouTube’s blog, will focus on three improvements:

1. Recommendations
2. Subscriptions
3. Activity of Friends

What this means for active YouTube members is you will get recommendations based on past videos watched, but you’ll also be given the latest uploads from your subscriptions and be able to keep track of the latest videos uploaded by your friends. That’s three ways that you can use YouTube for Internet marketing purposes.

Recommendations will be taken care of by YouTube, of course. But subscriptions can be targeted. And friends, too, can be targeted. Plus, you can use YouTube’s internal messaging system to let your friends know that you’ve uploaded a new video.

While none of this is Search Engine Optimization-related per se, you can increase your Search Engine Optimizationsimply by networking through YouTube. Whenever a friend uses a video on their website or blog they may, and you can make it available through your profile, decide to link to your website or blog. When used as a networking tool, YouTube can become another method of increasing your Search Engine Optimization benefits. Personalization will go a long way to helping you do that better.

Most people aren’t aware that search engines already perform some limited semantic language analysis. Of course, there is a long way to go, but you can get ranked for your important key terms with semantic language techniques on your web pages.

That doesn’t mean you can abandon your keywords. To make the best use out of semantic language search, you should still use keywords on your website content, but you don’t have to stuff your content with keywords. Instead, if you notice that you have a lot of your keyword on the page, substitute some of those keyword instances with synonyms for your key words and phrases.

For instance, if you are writing about internet marketing, try useful synonyms like “online marketing,” “online advertising,” “internet promotions,” “marketing your internet business,” etc. Don’t substitute every instance of your keyword on the page because that will water your content down and you don’t want that. But you should substitute some instances of it.

Places where you want to keep your primary keyword include:

• Your page title
• H2 and H3 tags
• Meta Tags
• First and last sentence on the page

Then you want to pepper your content is your keyword throughout your page content. But don’t overdo it. You’ll also want to sprinkle your synonyms throughout the content to give your content its semantic flavor. And that’s how semantic language for web pages works. It’s not hard, but it’s more than just littering your pages with keywords too as part of Search Engine Optimization.