Most important factors of SEO?

What are the first and most important steps to making sure your web site is search engine optimized?

Would like to get some feedback from the SEO Gurus on DigitalPoint if possible.

I'd also like to know if there is a service that examines your web site to tell you what could be improved on it and what you have done wrong SEO wise. I do not wish to pay $5000 + $2500 monthly at the moment for full SEO job for our web site.

Thank you!

 

Why don't you scroll down a but on this thread itself.

There are the Similar threads. They are all answered already by many gurus.

 

Thank you Nick.

My second question still remains unanswered

 

No probs friend.

Here: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=176437

Maybe the answer for your second question.

 

A good SEO is the most important factor i'd say. Anything else is secondary.. there are too many factors to really rank any of them above each other at the top of the list would be: content, links, titles and headings, and internal links..

Many companies offer a consulting service you can see mine at SEO and Stuff Consulting. A good free option would be posting your site in the SEO Review section of this forum. Many web masters will help point out problems with your site.

 

Do you have any examples of previous work?

 

PMed you. Thanks.

 

Have a crawlable site that search engine can index. It is useless (in terms of SEO) for a site if it contains great content but inaccessible by the SE bots.

SEO Tags Analyzer Free and easy to use

 

Every page of your site needs to have a keyword rich title. Thats the first and main job IMO.

 

Sounds like a package deal to me. That doesn't work in seo IMO. You have to charge based on the site or else your ripping off the client or aren't giving satisfactory service IMO. Please don't take it wrong.

Seobook.com - He is NOT cheap but he knows what he is doing and if you want real seo he is the one to go to. Or you could purchase his Seo E-Book.
Also read www.1stsearchenginerankings.com

 

I have not used their service, but here is a site that offers seo evaluation.

http://firefactor.coffeecup.com/

 

I was not impressed with FireFactor and CoffeeCup. I bought their SubmitFire (what FireFactor was previously called) program for $79 and submitted PokerDIY.com, which was an ok service. They then upgraded it to FireFactor and tried to charge all the customers again for the priviledge.

I think they saw sense though, so they sent out a coupon to join FireFactor for free if you were a recent SubmitFire customer. Only problem was that the coupon did not work (And it asked for your credit card details, despite being free - dodgy). I tried again a month later only to be told it had expired, so I patiently explained what had happened to their helpdesk only to be told that they had a problem with the coupon and now it was expired so I was left out of pocket (there was no expiry date on it, and spent a good two hours of my time trying to get to the bottom of this).

I would be very careful about signing up to a company like this with questionable tactics - I would be VERY interested to know if anyone managed to register the free coupon or if it was a dodgy PR scam to save face.

 

Search engine submission services are crap. They give you nothing but take alot from you. Submitting to major search engines will do nothing positive for you and submitting to those millions of mini-search engines is useless as nobody goes to them and 99.9% are spam.

Don't use the firetruck service or you will find yourself dry of all your cash.

 

Yeah.. $200? Ok..get me 'internet business developers' on Google Results: 599,000,000

Oh wait... I already have #2 for that... never mind

Anyways, if it is a non-competitive term, you can certainly achieve it yourselves since you are on these boards learning

If it is UBER-Competitive? Seek professional help and bring more than $200



ADDED:

crap just wanted to add you can get SEO readiness reports starting at around $100+ depending on the site in quetion (size, current state of affairs, number of terms being targeted etc..)

 

Good points - I had a recent follow up to the FireFactor saga - They offered me a new coupon to redeem the offer, only problem was that it never arrived.

I spent more time trying to explain this to their support desk but it was all wasted - "Those coupons (that you did not receive) have expired now to so you will have to pay AGAIN"

I hope others have more luck than I do with that company - I will not be using any of their services again. I urge you to do you research before splashing out $79 like I did

 

Leave them. They are crooked... Be very careful of seo companies who cahrge $79-199-299 for seo especially if it is directory and search engine submissions as are likely to see nothing for allthat wasted money.

Read this article: http://www.1stsearchenginerankings.com/2006/10/15/how-to-hire-an-seo-company/

It may help you find a better seo. A good seo won't charge you plan-wise but will discuss the site, figure out what you want and then offer the best plans from a seo perspective and then discuss them. A good seo will be looking out for the best way to make you money.

 

Don't see any search volume for "internet business developers". You see a lot of search activity for that term?

 

That is besides the point. There are many key-phrases that get ver low search volume but are very highly competitive and that is one reason keyword research can be highly effective.

 

Search volume is besides the point? I dare say, search volume is the point. If nobody is using the search terms, they won't drive traffic, and are worthless.

 

You missed my point mate. What I was saying is search volume doesn't make the competition by itself however the higher the search volume the more competition is likely. What I was saying is that there are many very competitive phrases that aren't searched as much as less competitive ones yet are still highly competed for. the searchers are what we are targeting so yeah your right but you missed what I meant.