I was originally going to post this here in response to so many of the questions that are asked in this forum, but it got a little bit long and actually turned into a full-length article, so I'm providing a link instead.

http://www.virtuosimedia.com/article.php?id=56

Hope it's helpful.

Excellent article - Well done you!

*How long till we get?

"Also, obtain more backlinks than your rivals and get better page rank" *

That's a really good article and I'd encourage everyone to read it. I want to add one thing or point out a couple of things you mention at the end.

You mention putting customers and visitors first and not search engines. I agree completely. There's no point in having traffic if it's going to turn right around and leave.

You then mention optimizing and honest link building to help improve how well your pages rank.

I realize I've taken both of the above out of context a little, but I do hope I kept your ideas intact.

What I think a lot of people here forget is that the second part I pulled from your article, the part about optimization and link building, is also necessary if you want search traffic. You absolutely need to build a good site that people want to interact with, but alone that's not going to bring people to your site in the first place.

I think we've become the "build it and they will come forum" and while "build it they will come" sounds great it doesn't work. Sure, if you build a site that reads people's minds or one that spits cash out the browser you probably just need to build it, but for the rest of us we still need to actively promote our sites and seo is one way you can do that.

There is more to seo than building a good site. Often usability and seo overlap and in the few places where they clash I'm always going to opt for usability. However there are places where the two don't overlap or clash and that's where all the questions about seo start to come in.

Darren I know how you feel about the "get more backlinks" posts and I agree with their uselessness. I don't think the posts are useless for saying to get more backlinks, though. I think they're useless because they don't offer any detail. Getting more links isn't bad advice. It just doesn't need to be said anymore.

Once again, great article and I do encourage everyone to read it.

Good article.

You mentioned Starbucks, and the success they've had by catering to their market. About two weeks ago the Seattle Times ran a story about a local barista who donated a kidney to one of her customers. Not that the company itself had anything to do with it ... but it still makes me feel better about getting a cuppa joe there. For everybody in that person's family, group of friends, and neighborhood, that's a lasting positive impression.

Originally Posted by vangogh

What I think a lot of people here forget is that the second part I pulled from your article, the part about optimization and link building, is also necessary if you want search traffic. You absolutely need to build a good site that people want to interact with, but alone that's not going to bring people to your site in the first place.

I think we've become the "build it and they will come forum" and while "build it they will come" sounds great it doesn't work. Sure, if you build a site that reads people's minds or one that spits cash out the browser you probably just need to build it, but for the rest of us we still need to actively promote our sites and seo is one way you can do that.

There is more to seo than building a good site. Often usability and seo overlap and in the few places where they clash I'm always going to opt for usability. However there are places where the two don't overlap or clash and that's where all the questions about seo start to come in.

I agree completely and I hope the article didn't come across as being against SEO, I meant for it to be against SEO as usual. Certainly you need to build traffic and proper and careful SEO will do that, but it's kind of a wasted exercise without being optimized first for the user, something I wanted to draw specific attention to because it so often gets overlooked in much of what I have read.

Thanks everyone for your comments.

Didn't come across at all as being against seo. Sorry if my post made it sound like it was. I agree completely that you have to optimize for the user. I might say you can do both together instead of having it be one first and one second, but I do know what you mean.

I just wanted to point out that it's not one or the other, but that both work together. I think the seo side sometimes gets overlooked here as odd as that may sound on an seo forum. A lot of the discussions seems to be on one side or the other with no room in between.

And again it's a great article.

Originally Posted by vangogh

Didn't come across at all as being against seo. Sorry if my post made it sound like it was. I agree completely that you have to optimize for the user. I might say you can do both together instead of having it be one first and one second, but I do know what you mean.

I just wanted to point out that it's not one or the other, but that both work together. I think the seo side sometimes gets overlooked here as odd as that may sound on an seo forum. A lot of the discussions seems to be on one side or the other with no room in between.

And again it's a great article.

No, your post didn't really make it sound that way, but I just wanted to make sure. Thanks again for the comments.

Excellent article. I've just started reading a lot into SEO recently, mainly to get my business site ranked better in search engines.

At first I was going to go with an SEO company to do this, until I was quoted $7,000.

Very good article. You forgot one very important secret: overly obsess about PageRank

Very useful article, please publish another articles like this time to time.

Thanks a bunch for that article! This would be a big help...

that is a great article and I agree, creating websites for users or visitors than for search engines....

Originally Posted by VirtuosiMedia

I was originally going to post this here in response to so many of the questions that are asked in this forum, but it got a little bit long and actually turned into a full-length article, so I'm providing a link instead.

http://www.virtuosimedia.com/article.php?id=56

Hope it's helpful.

i must agree that your article is helpful but watch out for your promotion strategy...

Really great article. After reading so many "buy links... upload google map..." kinda posts it`s nice to see this kind of almost "philosophical" approach to SEO. And of course you are right - There are no shortcuts
Not in SEO and not in life in general.

BTW I been visiting this forum for awhile. Just now decided to finally register, if only to say "Thanks" for sharing your point of view.

Originally Posted by Igalze

Really great article. After reading so many "buy links... upload google map..." kinda posts it`s nice to see this kind of almost "philosophical" approach to SEO. And of course you are right - There are no shortcuts
Not in SEO and not in life in general.

BTW I been visiting this forum for awhile. Just now decided to finally register, if only to say "Thanks" for sharing your point of view.

Wow. Thank you. And welcome.

Yep a great article - I've stumbled it It's definitely worth a read for anyone who's in with the pagerank gang, to help them realise that there is more to SEO than just a meaningless ranking out of 10 and a little green bar.

Dan

Originally Posted by whym

It's definitely worth a read for anyone who's in with the pagerank gang, to help them realise that there is more to SEO than just a meaningless ranking out of 10 and a little green bar.

Blasphemer

@VirtuosiMedia

I've not read it yet, I've had to actually work for 3 whole days this week!