Being relatively new to Making Money Online (MMO), it is interesting what one finds. One of my biggest complaints is the lack of true authority, those who write from experience. Seemingly a large percentage of MMO blogs just rewrite what others are saying, but have no experience to validate their ideas. This leads to repetition of false information. False ideas being promoted repeatedly, that eventually it is accepted as truth just through sheer volume.

The SEO Fallacy

The biggest falsehood out there is Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Now, I do not deny there is a need for search engine optimization, just saying that few really know what it takes to be highly ranked in search engines. My belief is the reason few who actually know SEO (or other areas of MMO) write about it is that they do not want the masses to know their SEO secrets. They are making money at it, they have no incentive to let the world know how it is done. Have too many people doing technique X, fluid search engines like Google change how they rank sites.

Another reason very few people can write authoritatively about SEO is that very few people know what the heck is going on. Search engines are dominated by one company- Google. Google 1). keeps how they rank search engines a tight secret, 2). continually change how they rank pages to account for numerous variables. It is like shooting a moving target in the dark. Yet, there are many who claim to be marksmen.

Shoemoney On The Topic

One true authority in MMO is Jeremy Schoemaker, aka Shoemoney. Shoemoney has a couple of very good posts on the subject:

Why I do not like 95% of SEO Experts
The Screw Google Mentality

Both posts contend that one should not be so bothered by SEO. Since reading the Screw Google Mentality I have adopted that stance. Trying to figure out what Google wants is a losing battle, because it changes daily. Another reason is that SEO takes a long time, a dirty little secret few will say. As Google only updates its Page Rank (PR) about quarterly, any results of SEO efforts may take three months out. Then how does one know an increase in PR is because of a change of keyword density from 2.5% to 3.2 %? Or because one moved keywords to the front of titles rather than the middle? By the time PR comes around one has done so many things that any increase cannot be attributed to any one or even any number of factors.

What To Do

First, adopt the Screw Google Mentality. Pretend Google doesn’t exist and push a blog or web site that way. If Google did not exist, what to do then? Create links, posts comments on other blogs, do article marketing, pursue social media traffic, etc. My philosophy is when my sites “make it,” Google will be around and will give its due credit. That extra love from Google will just be icing at that time.

Second, figure out what SEO tips are easiest to do and do those. Then don’t worry about it. Trying every trick in the book would just be exasperating. Pick 3-5 easy techniques, do those and don’t worry about. Here are my favorites-

1. Dofollow links- find ways to get dofollow links to your site and pursue those. One good way is to find dofollow links is at 5aday on Twitter.
2. Install SEO plugin- search for a SEO plugin in WordPress and install it. This is my favorite because it is a set and forget technique.
3. Include keywords in titles.

That’s it. One I don’t have to even do, the software does the work. Another, I only have to do when I do blog posts. The other has the benefit of possibly delivering immediate traffic. So, I consider it a twofer, as my number one link building technique is commenting on blogs, it also serves to build traffic through community interaction.

Other than that, my worry is about getting traffic today. That is enough of a challenge for anyone, but at least that game is winnable.