The web we see today is shaped by Google. The way this page is constructed – the way this site and most others are constructed – maximises the chance of it being found on a Google search.[tweetmeme]

The holy grail of search engine marketing is page 1 of a Google search. Even better it’s page 1 position 1. To be found on page 2 or beyond is to be virtually invisible.

Marketers and SEO specialists spend their time figuring out how Google’s search algorithm works. Once they do they then produce an almost endless supply of content that gets picked up by Google. That leads to traffic and traffic produces sales.

This content is not always good quality. Sometimes it’s downright rubbish. But marketers often care little. Their only interest is to sell stuff or, in many cases, to sell advertising space on high traffic sites. And for that they need lots and lots of Google traffic.

But Google’s interests are quite different. They want people to do more searches, not less. With each search they get to display more advertising. Each ad is potential revenue. If they don’t deliver quality search results their users head off to another search engine and Google’s revenue stream falls. That doesn’t make for happy campers around the Google boardroom table.

And so Google spends lots and lots of time tweaking its search algorithms to eliminate low quality content from their search results.

With every tweak there are winners and losers. Sites that produce quality content may rocket up the rankings. Others disappear into obscurity.

But one thing remains constant: Google favours fresh, original content. So do customers.

The message is simple. Deliver what your customers want and the Google juice will flow your way.

The Scribe development team has just announced an upcoming major update to their Scribe SEO plugin. It is set to include three new link-building features. These new tools build on the current Scribe on-page content optimization service, and make it easy to rank higher thanks to more quality organic links.

It will be available at no additional charge for Scribe subscribers. Included in the update will be:

1. Internal Link Strategy Tool

An important aspect of SEO is the organization of links within a site (strategic cross-linking between content). The new Internal Link feature will automatically identify pages within a site that can be linked to Scribe-optimized posts and pages. These will be based on  primary keywords. A push-button list of internal pages will be displayed that are search relevant to the pages you want to rank well. This will allow cross-linking to them with right keyword focused anchor text.

2. Outside Link Building Tool

The new Scribe Link Building tool identifies authoritative websites and blogs whose content directly relates to  Scribe-optimized content. This new tool is designed to help market content on related sites via highly targeted promotion, guest posting, and comments.

3. Social Media Connection Tool

Twitter is the primary content distribution platform in social media, so developing strong connections with relevant users is an important part of content marketing and link building. This new tool will identify authoritative Twitter users who are talking about topics related to a site’s primary keywords, and allow you to connect with those who’ll want to share your content.

These tools are due for release on July 30.

Excellent post on HTML elements for SEO

SEO advice: url canonicalization: “Q: What is a canonical url? Do you have to use such a weird word, anyway?
A: Sorry that it’s a strange word; that’s what we call it around Google. Canonicalization is the process of picking the best url when there are several choices, and it usually refers to home pages. For example, most people would consider these the same urls:

* www.example.com
* example.com/
* www.example.com/index.html
* example.com/home.asp”

There’s no need to piss everyone off by being fancy with your SEO efforts. Here’s some practical steps to take to improve your website, and your net success without resorting to black hat SEO tactics.

Eenjoy

10 Steps to Success on the ‘Net Without SEO

Most bloggers consider success to be when their blog shows up at the top of a Google search. Whilst this may not be the ultimate definition of success, if that’s what you’re chasing, then this article will help. From creating SE friendly page file names, to good headlines and copy that’s tightly linked to your topic, this article covers the basics for people using WordPress for their blogs.

Enjoy more…SEO with WordPress for beginners