So what is SEO (search engine optimisation)…well historically search engine optimisation seemed to involve a range of techniques used to try and trick the search engines into believing your site was better than someone else’s purely by stuffing in some keywords and descriptions in your HTML header, maybe adding as many keywords to the bottom of the page as can be squeezed in, sometimes even hiding some in white so the user cant see them and submitting your site to as many directory sites as possible, related or not.
It can be true to say that in the heady days of the birth of the internet search engine, that these techniques may have made an impact on your rankings, but what would happen if you tried this now.
Well, you would, in no uncertain terms, be blacklisted from most reputable search engines quicker than you can say ‘top of page one on Google’.
Unfortunately though, there are still some scurrilous individuals calling themselves ‘search engine specialists’, or even using that hazy grey word ‘ consultants’ who carry on using some or all of these techniques.
Well, at The CogWorks, our view is that SEO these days is not so much about the meta data and keyword stuffing, but it is more about online PR, although the former still does have a great impact and shouldn’t be overlooked, but it has to be done well and professionally. You must relate the meta data to the content of each individual page. Don’t just wedge in some generic words for the whole site. This will server no purpose whatsoever.
So what do I mean by online PR. Well, basically it is anything that you can write or publish that is interesting to someone about you or your company, that they may like to read, but most importantly contains links back to your site.
For instance, press releases, blog articles, twitter feeds, latest news sections, industry insight, articles on magazine sites etc etc. Basically anything you can write and syndicate out to other sites that can link back to your website. This article you are reading is a piece of well formed SEO work 
…I hope
Yes you do need to work on the meta data for your site and also find some related directory sites to list your site, but don’t underestimate the power of content and links back to your site. This is the key to the holy grail…page one of Google…and maybe even no 1…but that would be the cherry on the icing on the cake.
And please dont beleive anyone who can guarantee you number one in Google…because undoutably they will be using some of the naughty techniques used above…and you dont want to get into trouble do you!…well not too much.
Good references and tools are:-
SEO tools – www.seocentro.com
SEO news and some help – www.searchenginewatch.com/
