Search engine optimization secrets

Every now and then someone gets up on their soapbox and claims there are no secrets to search engine optimization. I would have to say that because 90% of all SEOs appear to be following the limited advice given out on SEO blogs and forums there are probably relatively few secrets in the industry. But there are secrets, though they are “not all of a kind” as one of my favorite writers might have put it.

Search engine optimization methods have to be devised for keyword research and keyword analysis (not the same thing, actually), search results page analysis, link analysis, content analysis, and Web site design. To an SEO “Web site design” has more to do with the content and structure and less to do with the “look and feel” of a Web site. Actually, SEO “Web site design” really has nothing to do with how a Web site looks or feels.

SEO methodologies also have to look at competitive analysis, performance analytics, market research, and more. All of these tasks must be performed but there is always more than one way to do any of these tasks. SEO secrets fall into the “how”, not the “what”. We’ve had plenty of people describe the basic SEO tasks through the years (when they don’t blunder into an “it’s all about links” cloudy state of mind).

Search engine optimization is 70% research, 20% analysis, and 10% work (or something like that). And the work falls into two categories: crafting content and crafting links. Of course, you can sub-divide those categories further into crafting off-site content, crafting on-site content, crafting off-site links, and crafting on-site links. But when all is said and done you should be putting more time into your research and analysis than into your actual hands-on SEO work.

And those monthly ranking reports we’re all SO in love with don’t constitute either research or analysis (they are simply part of customer service, which is not part of search engine optimization at all). If you limit your analysis to just looking at the ranking reports don’t be surprised if you’re frustrated with your SEO campaigns. People who just look at ranking reports have no SEO secrets. They got no game.

It should take you more than 5 minutes to list all the work you do for search engine optimization WITHOUT struggling. You won’t catch everything in your first list but it should be pretty extensive. If you have a short list then you’re allowing other people to do your research and analysis for you, and that is a formula for disaster because you are inevitably held responsible for calling the shots on your campaigns.

SEO secrets are the real means we use to get the job done. We don’t talk about these things openly: the Web sites where we place links to “launch” a campaign (maybe a drug-induced stupor might lead you to blog about such cool link nurseries but you should learn your lesson quickly). There are relatively few private link nurseries. Most are shared, publicly accessible resources. You just don’t see any of the SEO bloggers discuss them. You’re damned fool if you think it’s worth sharing that kind of resource on your blog.

I’ll be here in a year, still blogging about SEO. In a year, no one will have heard of you if you share your secrets today.

We don’t talk about the cool analytical tools we build for ourselves because we have no intention of sharing them. We won’t sell them. We won’t help other people duplicate them. These are true SEO secrets and they may be no better than anyone else’s SEO secrets but keeping people guessing about how much we can actually divine from the search results helps to keep our competition off balance. Besides, the best SEO tools are hand-crafted, made-for-one mind kind of tools. You cannot easily use someone else’s SEO tools.

You probably don’t want to spend the time learning how to do analysis the same way someone else does it in this industry anyway. After all, if most people are just checking backlinks on Yahoo! — well, their SEO Kung Fu sucks so why study their methods? You need to understand more than just which Web pages link to a site. You want to know which links are actually counting (very few of them) and which links can be competed with.

If you’re not competing with the other guys’ links you need to get out of the game, not because linking is how it works but because they are linking and you need to treat each of their links as a test specimen. Most of them are trashy, non-value passing links. You need to figure out which links actually work and how you can match or beat those links.

You need to know more about the searchers’ search habits than the other guy. If he is chasing “viagra” you may find an advantage in going after “blue pills for potency”. Most SEOs don’t chase the long tail of search because their clients or companies won’t allow it. At least, one could easily conclude that after having read thousands of forum discussions where many SEOs say just that: “My [boss/client] isn’t interested in that, he just wants to go after [dumb hyperoptimized keyword expression].”

Your search engine optimization secrets may be few and simple but you need to keep them close, share them with as few people as possible. Techniques come and go quickly. I rarely continue doing the same thing for more than six months. There is no point to relying on a single methodology. You need to keep your mind fresh and your tactics innovative. Someone is always looking over your shoulder.

SEO secrets are sometimes kept out in the open. Everyone can know there is a social media link superman who has an army of DIGG profiles that have not yet been caught, but as long as he keeps his mouth shut he can enjoy the power of being able to promote an occasional article to the front page of DIGG. Everyone can know there is a guy “out there” with 10,000 domains that have unique content, but as long as he doesn’t tell everyone how he built up that inventory he doesn’t have to worry about the search engines finding the pattern (any time soon).

Being that guy with the super secret resources, the sneaky techniques, the subtle-but-otherwise-clean code is better than being the most powerful blogger on the Web. Powerful bloggers can run afoul of search engines and find their Kung Fu sucks. SEOs with secret super powers and tools just need to hunker down, keep their mouths shut, and enjoy the rewards for as long as they last.

This is why the black hat spammer community is constantly in turmoil. They trade tips and tricks all day long, replicating each others’ short-lived success. They do whatever they can to make a buck off each other. Some of them will sell tools that have been so overused they are nearly completely worthless when they hit the market and ARE worthless within six months. But the script kiddies keep on buying the code because “if it worked for him it should work for me”.

The average straight-laced, best practices SEO doesn’t have to share more than anecdotes and standard technical advice in order to maintain his competitive advantage. The resources you develop for your work are YOUR resources, your tools. They are not next week’s cool blog topic. They are not link bait. They stand between you and utter, total, complete stupidity.

So what if 500 other SEOs have figured out the same thing as you? Most SEOs don’t operate thousands of SEO campaigns. The chances of the SEO community undermining its natural tools and analytical secrets through shared misuse are considerably smaller than the odds that this week’s latest hot linking resource will be worthless within six months.

If you want to give back to the community, you can reach out in more productive ways. We lack good case studies, and though we have no standards by which to judge the quality of case studies we can build up a consensus of opinion about which case studies are helpful and which are not. Case studies are the kind of information it’s safe to share with your peers as long as you don’t focus too much on techniques.

In fact, case studies that try to prove or disprove techniques are not helpful because the lack of standards in our industry virtually ensures that all case studies are questionable.

You can also give back by keeping alive the hard-won knowledge that helps solves difficult technical problems. Many people go for years without encountering bizarre misconfigured servers, but when they stumble upon that problem they have a really difficult time finding solutions. What a brilliant piece of link bait it would be to create an archive of technical issue resolutions that have been documented in the SEO community!

You can help your peers through Web site reviews (don’t share techniques, just provide feedback and help people learn the basics). And you can help the community by calling for standards.

We need standards to help us establish a common baseline for research and analysis. Standards are not about certification, they are about performance. Standards don’t eliminate secrets and competitive advantages; in fact, standards help improve secrets and competitive advantages because exceeding the standards is a good thing. If you know that a basic SEO campaign should only have 70% search visibility and you achieve 80% search visibility, you’re offering a better than minimum service.

Standards help us establish the value in our unspoken methods and resources. Standards help us show people that we need to seek better ways and new ideas. Standards divide the universe into “mumbo jumbo” and “accepted business practices”.

Standards will open the door for SEO secrets unlike any you have seen before because all the cool SEO tools will fall away and be replaced by a core set of tools everyone should know how to use. Anything else you develop for yourself will be cream. It will be the secret to your long-term success.

As long as you keep your mouth shut and don’t blog about it.