I’m still somewhat new to SEO, and I’m confused what you mean by Natural Language Optimization. Is that just saying that the higher quality of content is more important than the keywords? Can you explain that for me. THANK YOU!

Curt Bizelli

Also Google has a great SEO starter guide at the following link:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf

Here’s where you are confusing, Nick. You write:

1. “It is much better to put your keywords into the right places and not worry about the right amounts.”

Sounds like according to you there is a “right” place to put keywords. If we aren’t supposed to write for the search engines, what “right” place are you talking about?

2. “Webmasters should spend more time learning the ins and outs of optimization and quit guessing density patterns.”

What “ins and outs”? Aren’t we supposed to be concerned with our site visitors and not do anything related to search engines?

Bottom line…are you for or against writing content for search engines?

Jason then writes:

“writing content that is geared toward search engines) is against the Google Guidelines.”

What does this sentence mean? How does Google know if anyone is writing content geared toward search engines? Again, I am not suggesting that anyone create endless pages of mindless drivel stuffed with keywords. BUT…if a web site owner would like to rank for a particular keyword, among many other things that keyword HAS to have page content built around it…no?

SEOs do a number of things for their clients including optimizing meta tags, photo and video optimization, code clean up, off site link building, on site link management, directory and website submissions, and even web design and development.

Content development is about more than just making sure you have enough keywords on the page. It’s about making sure your website appeals to the right audience and closing sales. Ranking well requires a holistic approach to search engine marketing where you consider a number of factors and not just one. If you focus on the number of keywords on each page you are going to lose because your competition is looking at everything else.

Thanks so much for all of your questions!

What “on site optimization”? If writing content that is geared toward search engines is “against the rules” what else does “optimizing” a site mean?

For those of you who do know where to find Google’s webmaster guidelines, here it is:
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35769

Also, here is Google’s very helpful best practice guide:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf

Now to your point any white hat SEO firm that follows these guidelines WILL be in very good shape long term.

I couldnt agree more.

We keep advising noobs to yes do niche and keyword research but not to obsses with the keywords density or stuff the whole page with the “things”.

natural on topic content does target the keywords you want and many more related ones you didnt know you’d get traffic for. Monitoring which keywords bring you traffic then lets you know which content topic you should may be target some more since you seem to already rank for it.

This kind of SEO is long term and does serve you well in the long run as it tends to stand the test of time and your site gets more and more authority with time.

Thanks for pointing this out to us once again

Susan