Search Engine Optimization - Basics Matter

There is a ton of information on the Web about Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing - enough to make even this seasoned optimizer a bit glossy-eyed. But the thing about SEO and SEM is that it is the basics that matter - and they are often forgotten.

I am not a programmer. I don't like code, and the real programmers don't like it when I go in and muck it up. I am like that dude in the Matrix who can read through it - sort-of - and see what is going on behind it, but don't think for a second I can or should come up with my own.

From an SEO stand-point that actually gives me an advantage. I don't get caught up in the tweaking of said code... short of instructing on the proper use of tags, or frames vs. no frames, flash vs. no flash - I stay out. My strength is in the basics - content, linking, flow, PR, alt text and the like.

I have been working on with The Filter Store Web site for a few years now. It may be the site I have been doing SEO on continuously-- for the longest. It is a site that came to me already designed and developed. It is not an attractive site, and at this point is a bit dated. And yet, the client is quite happy with it and has refused my attempts to get them to redesign - because they are already bringing in plenty of business, and do not want to get any more! The SEO is working.

This is a simple site. It is big though, with lots of pages, and keyword-rich text. The site is full of inner-links - like a crazy spider-web. There are not a lot of outside links - although I wish there were, and I will be working on this... (uh - starting now). Mostly this site just has great content for its phrases. It is the basic things like that that make good SEO. I can't control the look of this site, The code would take more time and effort than the client would want me to spend, but with the basics, this site is producing results.

The Filter Store site is plain but effective, and sometimes this is what matters. Good SEO is about providing quality information in a quality manner.