begginer's question on SEO

[Jivanmukta]

Sorry for my English.
I am not sure if I write to proper newsgroup, but I didn't find
newsgroup about SEO. I created PHP+MySQL website and I want to make
SEO, but I am a begginer in SEO. I know that I need many links to my
website to be at top in Google. I have some idea how to achieve this
but I am not sure if I will not be banned by Google.

At the top of my .php page I have such code:

<p id="to_read2" class="read_it_small">
We can provide you out service for free if you have your own website
and you will insert on it a link to our website. You should add such
code: </p> <pre>&lt;a href="<?php echo WEBSITE_POLISH; ?>"&gt;here
phrase&lt;/a&gt;</pre>
<p id="to_read3" class="read_it_small">
The phrase should contain any keyword from the following list: <?php
echo implode(', ', $keywords); ?>.
</p>

In PHP code of my service I check if there is a link to my website
on client's website and I provide the service to the client.

Does it make sense? Is this a good idea to create links to my
website? Please help. Thanks in advance.

Robert

[Jerry Stuckle]

Post by Jivanmukta
Sorry for my English.
I am not sure if I write to proper newsgroup, but I didn't find
newsgroup about SEO. I created PHP+MySQL website and I want to make
SEO, but I am a begginer in SEO. I know that I need many links to my
website to be at top in Google. I have some idea how to achieve this
but I am not sure if I will not be banned by Google.
<p id="to_read2" class="read_it_small">
We can provide you out service for free if you have your own website
and you will insert on it a link to our website. You should add such
<p id="to_read3" class="read_it_small">
The phrase should contain any keyword from the following list: <?php
echo implode(', ', $keywords); ?>.
</p>
In PHP code of my service I check if there is a link to my website
on client's website and I provide the service to the client.
Does it make sense? Is this a good idea to create links to my
website? Please help. Thanks in advance.
Robert

No, it does not. Unrelated sites linking to yours will hurt your ranking.

The best way to get good rankings is good content, updated regularly.
If your site is of interest to others, it will be of interest to Google.
And if your content is of interest to others, they will link to your site.

Don't try to game the search engines. They know much more about it than
you do, and you will never outsmart them.

[Jivanmukta]

Post by Jerry Stuckle
No, it does not. Unrelated sites linking to yours will hurt your ranking.

What if I check somehow if client's website concerns real estate? My
website concerns real estate.

[Jerry Stuckle]

Post by Jerry Stuckle

Post by Jerry Stuckle
No, it does not. Unrelated sites linking to yours will hurt your

ranking.
What if I check somehow if client's website concerns real estate? My
website concerns real estate.

Not necessarily helpful. Google looks at a lot of things when making
its decisions. Content is one of them. The number of other links on
the page is another one ("link farms" will hurt you a lot).

Content is king. Links by themselves do almost nothing.

[Jivanmukta]

Thank you for your answers!
I have one more question concerning SEO. I will be adding my website
to web directories. Can I use a tool which creates many entries at
once? I am afraid that if many links are to be created at a moment
this may hurt my ranking in Google.

[Jerry Stuckle]

Post by Jivanmukta
Thank you for your answers!
I have one more question concerning SEO. I will be adding my website
to web directories. Can I use a tool which creates many entries at
once? I am afraid that if many links are to be created at a moment
this may hurt my ranking in Google.

Adding your site to web directories will harm your site's ranking.
Search engines know the link farms now, and will penalize you.

The number of links is old news. It hasn't been as important as content
for years. The links that do count are ones like other people's blogs
and similar. And if you have good content, those links will come.

[Jerry Stuckle]

Post by Jerry Stuckle
Adding your site to web directories will harm your site's ranking.

Why these directories still exist?

Because they make money from advertising. They are not there for your
benefit.

[Jivanmukta]

How about social media? How links from Facebook etc. influence my
ranking?

[Jerry Stuckle]

Post by Jivanmukta
How about social media? How links from Facebook etc. influence my
ranking?

If they are from appropriate (i.e. related) posts, they can help.
Otherwise, they will hurt.

[Jivanmukta]

I have a list of websites concerning real estate in Poland (I am from
this country). How can I get a link from these websites? Should I
write emails to webmasters asking for link? How should I motivate my
application? (I know that I should not propose links exchange.)

[Jerry Stuckle]

Post by Jivanmukta
I have a list of websites concerning real estate in Poland (I am from
this country). How can I get a link from these websites? Should I
write emails to webmasters asking for link? How should I motivate my
application? (I know that I should not propose links exchange.)

As I said before - content. Create content that are of interest to
others so they will want to link to your site. And if the content is of
interest to others, that in itself will raise your ranking.

Forget about the links. They won't help you a bit without the content
first. And they can hurt you, with or without content.

[Jivanmukta]

Should I concentrate on organic SEO or should I mix organic and
sponsored SEO?

[Jerry Stuckle]

Post by Jivanmukta
Should I concentrate on organic SEO or should I mix organic and
sponsored SEO?

How many times do I have to tell you - work on CONTENT. Content which
is of interest to others will be of interest to the search engines. If
it isn't of interest to other people, nothing you do will get you a good
search ranking.

[Jivanmukta]

Post by Jerry Stuckle
How many times do I have to tell you - work on CONTENT. Content which
is of interest to others will be of interest to the search engines.

If

Post by Jerry Stuckle
it isn't of interest to other people, nothing you do will get you a good
search ranking.

Sorry!
So list of keywords I prepared is needed only for <body> section,
isn't it?
How about meta keywords tag, should I use it?

[Beauregard T. Shagnasty]

Post by Jivanmukta

Post by Jerry Stuckle
How many times do I have to tell you - work on CONTENT. Content

which

Post by Jerry Stuckle
is of interest to others will be of interest to the search engines.

If

Post by Jerry Stuckle
it isn't of interest to other people, nothing you do will get you a

good

Post by Jerry Stuckle
search ranking.

Sorry!
So list of keywords I prepared is needed only for <body> section,
isn't it?
How about meta keywords tag, should I use it?

AFAIR, the keywords metatag has been completely ignored for nearly *TWO*
decades, due to misuse by authors trying to game the search engines. The
same applies to trying to stuff things in the body.

So, no.

[Jivanmukta]

I read in a book that keywords density should be about 7%. Is it true?
Is there any optimal value for keywords density?

[Beauregard T. Shagnasty]

Post by Jivanmukta
I read in a book that keywords density should be about 7%. Is it true?
Is there any optimal value for keywords density?

I think you should forget all about "SEO" and concentrate on your
*content* as Jerry has said about three times now.

"SEO" is a mystery.

[Jivanmukta]

Post by Beauregard T. Shagnasty
AFAIR, the keywords metatag has been completely ignored for nearly *TWO*
decades, due to misuse by authors trying to game the search engines.

I have read that keywords metatag is used by some search engines. I am
going to extend my website to international (countries from Europe
then from the world), so maybe not only to users of Goggle and Bing.

[Jerry Stuckle]

Post by Jivanmukta

Post by Beauregard T. Shagnasty
AFAIR, the keywords metatag has been completely ignored for nearly

*TWO*

Post by Beauregard T. Shagnasty
decades, due to misuse by authors trying to game the search engines.

I have read that keywords metatag is used by some search engines. I am
going to extend my website to international (countries from Europe
then from the world), so maybe not only to users of Goggle and Bing.

As I have told you before - what you have read is way out of date.

[Scott Bryce]

Post by Jivanmukta
I have read that keywords metatag is used by some search engines. I
am going to extend my website to international (countries from Europe
then from the world), so maybe not only to users of Goggle and
Bing.

You are free to ignore any advice you want to ignore.

[Scott Bryce]

Post by Jivanmukta
How about meta keywords tag, should I use it?

The search engines decided those were useless years ago.

[Jivanmukta]

Post by Scott Bryce

Post by Jivanmukta
How about meta keywords tag, should I use it?

The search engines decided those were useless years ago.

If meta keywords tag is not used, how Google recognizes which word in
content is keyword which is not?

[Scott Bryce]

Post by Jivanmukta
If meta keywords tag is not used, how Google recognizes which word in
content is keyword which is not?

How it is used in the content.

[Jivanmukta]

Post by Scott Bryce

Post by Jivanmukta
If meta keywords tag is not used, how Google recognizes which word in
content is keyword which is not?

How it is used in the content.

I don't understand. Could you give an example, please?

[Jerry Stuckle]

Post by Jivanmukta

Post by Scott Bryce

Post by Jivanmukta
If meta keywords tag is not used, how Google recognizes which word

in

Post by Scott Bryce

Post by Jivanmukta
content is keyword which is not?

How it is used in the content.

I don't understand. Could you give an example, please?

Google looks at the whole page and determines what the page is about.
It then uses this information to pick out important words related to
that content.

Search engines don't look at individual words - and haven't for a long
time. They look the whole page.

[Jivanmukta]

Post by Jerry Stuckle
How many times do I have to tell you - work on CONTENT. Content which
is of interest to others will be of interest to the search

engines. If

Post by Jerry Stuckle
it isn't of interest to other people, nothing you do will get you a good
search ranking.

Suppose I have good content and my ranking in Google is high. Shall
I have to work on my ranking in future? Is it still continuous
process as it was at times when links were the most important? What
tasks shall I have to be doing? Update content?

[Jerry Stuckle]

Post by Jerry Stuckle

Post by Jerry Stuckle
How many times do I have to tell you - work on CONTENT. Content

which

Post by Jerry Stuckle
is of interest to others will be of interest to the search

engines. If

Post by Jerry Stuckle
it isn't of interest to other people, nothing you do will get you

a good

Post by Jerry Stuckle
search ranking.

Suppose I have good content and my ranking in Google is high. Shall
I have to work on my ranking in future? Is it still continuous
process as it was at times when links were the most important? What
tasks shall I have to be doing? Update content?

It's a continuing process. Fresh content is preferred over old content.

[Jivanmukta]

Post by Jerry Stuckle

Post by Jivanmukta
How about social media? How links from Facebook etc. influence my
ranking?

If they are from appropriate (i.e. related) posts, they can help.
Otherwise, they will hurt.

Should I insert on my website links to my Facebook page etc.?

[Jivanmukta]

Post by Jivanmukta
Should I insert on my website links to my Facebook page etc.?

I mean outbound links to social websites.

[Jerry Stuckle]

Post by Jivanmukta

Post by Jivanmukta
Should I insert on my website links to my Facebook page etc.?

I mean outbound links to social websites.

Outbound links don't help you any, if at all.

[Jivanmukta]

Thank you for your answers. Now I understand that the books about SEO
I am reading now are out of date. Could you tell me please what's the
most up-to-date source of knowledge about SEO?

[Jerry Stuckle]

Post by Jivanmukta
Thank you for your answers. Now I understand that the books about SEO
I am reading now are out of date. Could you tell me please what's the
most up-to-date source of knowledge about SEO?

No book on SEO has ever been current. The publication time is too long
and the technology changing too quickly.

You can find all kinds of information on SEO, but little of it is
accurate or current. I don't have any sites in mind right now, but as I
said earlier, content is king. If your site is of general interest to
others, it will rank high in the search engines. This includes things
like good use of header (<h1>-<h6>) attributes, etc. And fresh content
will rank higher than stale content.

You mentioned your site has to do with real estate. If it's just a list
of homes for sale, it's not going to do very well in the search engines.
If, OTOH, you have articles on HOW to buy a home, what to look for,
working with realtors, etc., it can rank much higher.

[Jivanmukta]

Post by Jerry Stuckle
You mentioned your site has to do with real estate. If it's just a list
of homes for sale, it's not going to do very well in the search engines.

My website is not very complicated (18,000 lines of code, 30 database
tables) but it is based on unique idea - there's nothing like this in
Internet. It is not a list of homes.

[Jerry Stuckle]

Post by Jerry Stuckle

Post by Jerry Stuckle
You mentioned your site has to do with real estate. If it's just a

list

Post by Jerry Stuckle
of homes for sale, it's not going to do very well in the search

engines.
My website is not very complicated (18,000 lines of code, 30 database
tables) but it is based on unique idea - there's nothing like this in
Internet. It is not a list of homes.

That's fine. I was using that as an example. Read the rest of what I said.