As long as we've had search engines, we've had SEOs trying to game the results. For search engine optimizers who have been in the business for a long time, it can be hard to let go of the old techniques in favor of the new ones. Even marketers who know "just enough to be dangerous" are at risk of abusing tactics that Google now punishes or ignores.

Whether you're launching a new site or simply trying to get better results from your existing site, you know that a big part of your success will come from ranking well in Google's organic search results. Most web pages won't be able to do that without a lot of behind-the-scenes blood, sweat, and tears in the form of Search Engine Optimization or SEO. SEO is a big and complicated venture, and the rules that determine how your site ranks change on a near daily basis.

Every year, our favorite SEO research tool, Moz.com, surveys hundreds of search engine optimization professionals to get a sense of how they're handling Google's algorithm updates. While the survey isn't collecting factual data on what works and what doesn't, it's a good way to see what reputable SEOs are doing (and avoiding). 

Clients ask me all the time, “What exactly do you guys do to build up our search rankings?” I usually reply with, "How much time do you have? Better grab a Snickers!"

There are literally THOUSANDS of lines in the Google Algorithm, and thousands more that deal specifically with external links. So what do we do? We evaluate a select list of ranking factors that are most likely to achieve results ... and those factors change daily. Then we dig in and get to work on improving our clients website rankings. Our job, simplified, is to:

As we’ve discussed before, SEO isn’t cheap.  If you take on the responsibility yourself, you’re making a huge time commitment (and as any good business person knows, time is money).  And if you hire a qualified search engine optimization specialist, you could be looking at thousands or even tens of thousands a month or more depending on how aggressive a strategy you choose to employ.    

If you’re running a start-up or small business, you may ask yourself, “Is it really worth it?”