Search Engine Optimization

1. Thing to keep in mind

This is not really a tip, more a guideline, all the internal optimization is a good thing to do, but here is all the stuff that real matters, keep in minde this is about getting people to a speciffic destination, your website.

2. Adding your site to the big search engines.

This is not necessary, its is in fact a wast of time, as I have experienced. what will happen when your site is online, is you need other sites to link to you, then when google sees that, then it adds your site to its system, and bingo.

3. http://dmoz.org/

A good thing to do is to add your site to dmoz.org, aka. open directory project. I recently found that I have a website that could not get a pagerank, or it did, it had 0, the reason was that I forgot to add my site to dmoz.org, for some reason that helped.

4. External links

Here comes the most important part of Search engine optimization, links!! can’t be said enough, do what ever to get other sites to link to you.

5. Does bad external links exist?

No, not really, you can get irrelevant links, (people with a totally different subject) to link to you, but that does not matter, what could be bad is linkback, many places you make a deal with another webmaster to swap links, and if you have a nice product, lets say you sell SEO optimization tools, and then you swap links with an adult website, this could end up bad, cause google can see that link and may think that your site is also relevant to adult content, this is not recommented.

6. Getting links 1

One thing is that you could send out a request to other webmasters by email, trying to se if he/she would be interested in swapping links with your, but sending out 1000 email could get tough, so you could download my program ‘Mass-email-sender’ , its free to use.

7. Getting links 2

You could add your site to as many search engines and directories as possible, also hard work, can take a lot of time, I have a solution for this also, and yes its also free to use as much you’d like.

8. Getting links 3

An offencive approch could be to look at your competitors, to analyse stuff like, who is linking to them?, what makes them rank high in google? try looking in the tools section

9. Do not participate in link farms or link exchange programs.

Search engines consider link farms and link exchange programs as spam, as they have only one purpose - to artificially inflate a site’s link popularity, by exchanging links with other participants.

10. Some personale words before you go on optimizing.

While reading all these theory about getting visitors to your site, have your even thougth about how to keep your visitors?, or to make them come back? did you know that most of the visitors from google are just ’suft through’ visitors, which means they look at your site for a few seconds, and if it is not interesing they go to the next site. what I’m meaing to say is, be carefull many people makes mistakes by only thinking ‘what does google want?’ instead of ‘what does my audience want? so make content for your visitors and only keep in mind optimization is a good thing.

The end.

This article was was a very shallow overview of the more important tips, stay tuned for my more indept articles on how to make websites link to you.

Getting good rankings on the most important search engines is about having your pages well optimized. Search engines analyse many different elements of web pages when they determine the ranking of a page. It’s important that you utilize good on site optimization as well as good off site optimization.

1. On-site optimization factors.

One of the keys to ensuring search engines can index your site is to make sure that your web pages have enough text. It is often said that a picture means a thousand words. However, in the world of computerized search engine spiders, this is definitely not the case. A search engine is trying to classify your pages by the text it finds and not by images. A beautiful image is almost meaningless to the search engine spiders. Search engines need text to index web pages

For the same reasons, it is also important that you have plain text links on your web pages. If you use image or JavaScript links on your pages, it is possible that search engine spiders may not follow these links so that it then cannot find your other pages. You should also include plain text links help search engines to spider your site.

It is important to understand that you want not only your main page, but all of your web pages to be included in the search engine index. Most people will probably enter your site through the main page however; there will be those who will enter after conducting a search which relates better to one of your other pages. The best way to make sure that search engines will find and index your entire site is to include text links to your other pages.

Also optimize your pages in terms of your main keywords or key phrases. These should appear in your page title, headings, and Meta tags and in the headlines on the page. Ideally they should also appear in your first and last paragraph as well as naturally throughout the text of your page.

2. Off-site optimization factors

Off site optimization principally refers to linking. The number and the type of web sites that link to yours are very important. However, just having lots of links is not enough. Not only do you want as many other web sites to link to you as possible, but it is also vitally important that the links are from related sites.

Sites with a similar theme to yours, and are relevant to your visitors are the best to exchange links with. Further, try to ensure that the anchor text you use contains the keywords or phrases for which you want to have high search engine rankings.

Getting good search engine rankings is not about tricking the search engines. Techniques such as cloaking, keyword stuffing, and hidden text were originally used to fool search engines to get more traffic. However, just getting the traffic is not the end of it. These techniques do nothing to enhance the experience for your visitors, and indeed may well detract from it. They are also not sanctioned by the search engines themselves may well get your site penalized by the search engines.

The purpose of good rankings is to increase visitors; hopefully to take up whatever you are offering them. By using good natural optimization methods you can not only increase your ranking with the search engines, but also provide a better website for your visitors, after all, it is they whom you most need to impress.

Friends, as you know, now a days website development is not much important rather than search engine ranking and the site position. Exactily, Search Engine Optimization is one of the first basic need for websites. Many of the web development companies hire professional seo expert or seo specialist to do optimization for their websites. Competition is every where, all big companies and even small scale industries achieveing higher and higher position in search engines. People buy softwares, applications for their website optimization. Some of them do not know how to do search engine optimization but they want to understand what is exactly seo.

I love to do search engine optimization it is a basic technique or tactic to achieve higher ranking on search engines. Many people knows that only keyword and keyphrase placing on the website is the search engine pptmization. Actually this is for whom, who do not know exactly the search engine optimization is all about. Search engie optimization is divided into many factors. On-page optimization, Off-page optimization, Link management, Posting Articles many more things.

If you search all these terms on search engines you will get millions of sites explaining each term on different way but the same thing. The basic need for the website is placing the keywords on the site and link exchange with other webmasters. Link exchange is also important part plays in search engine optimization. Many people ask why we need link exchange with other websites. Actually if you are the only one who sells “battery” without knowing anybody how will you get buyers to sell your product. Link exchange helps in letting know others about your site selling products. Like our good neighbours, if they do not know how will they tell others that you are living beside them. Like I said good neighbours also plays important role in developing and advertising your website. Link exchange with same field of sellers like “battery” is called the best link exchange. And search engine prefers one way link back. Like if you post your website url on classifieds, forums, blogs, articles helps you to let people know about your site and gives you good traffic to your website.

So like we need oxygen to live, same is search engine optimization for websites.

If you’re ready to embark on a search engine optimization campaign, you’ll want to take a close look at your competitors. Either they’ll be ahead of you in the SEO world or you’ll detect their deficiencies and rush right past them in terms of search engine visibility.

Here are 8 key considerations.

1. Page Titles

See what kind of page titles competitors use. Do they only include their name or a page name? How much do they vary? Is there a different page title for every page? Do they seem to contain reasonable search terms? Are they dominated by keywords or marketing messages?

2. META Data

Do they do a good job of providing keyword-rich META descriptions? What balance do they strike between mentioning the company’s value or special offers and conveying core keywords?

3. Quality of Content

How much copy is apparent in each page? Is there any emphasis on the visible text? Can you even count 250 keywords on critical pages? How are the headers organized? Does the company take advantage of text navigation?

4. Robots.Text File

See what the Web site owners are telling the search engines. Are search engine spiders encouraged or discouraged by the directions listed in the robots.txt file?

5. Link Building

Find out how many places are linking to the competitor. You may not have time to determine the quality of all of the links, but see how many they have compared to your Web site.

6. Saturation

Determine how many pages of the Web site have been indexed by the major search engines. How does each competitor compare to your efforts to provide relevant content that can be crawled by search engines?

7. Site Design, Architecture and Technology

Is it professional? How would you describe the design? Is it SEO-friendly? Does the site rely on static pages or dynamic content? Are there frames or Flash with the familiar “skip intro” button?

8. Rankings

As best you can, select 10 keywords and phrases and find out how well they’re ranking on the major search engines. Do they rank well? Can you catch up?

If you need help with the assessment or whether SEO even makes sense for you, start with our complimentary Keyword Marketplace Activity Report.

Increasing your website traffic does not have to be a long drawn

out procedure that takes up a lot of your precious time. In

fact, there are a lot of things you can do to increase your

website traffic in less than 60 minutes. Consider the following

five tips that will take you little time and have huge results

regarding traffic flow on your website.

#1 - Search Engine Listings

Obviously, if you are not listed with the major search engines,

people who go to search engines to search for different products

and information will not stumble upon your website. Start with

the larger more popular search engines and get your URL listed.

This does not take a lot of time to get started and is something

you should do immediately.

#2 - Search Engine Optimization

Getting listed with the search engines is important, but

optimizing your site so that it ranks well is equally important.

Find out what keywords people are searching for regarding your

content and then include them on your website to get more

traffic.

#3 - Quality Content

Quality content is important if you want large search engines to

list you, and it is also a great way to include the many

keywords you will need to drive up your ranking in the search

engines and to get more people to visit your site. Also, if you

have quality content once the visitors are at your site, they

will be more likely to stay.

#4 - Trade Links

Trading links with other websites can be done as quickly as

propositioning another site through an email. The more links you

have to your website, the more traffic you will receive. Plus,

lots of links help you climb to the top of the search engines as

well, which is very important for driving visitors to your

website.

#5 - More Pages

Having more pages on your website increases traffic simply

because of the numbers. The more pages you have, the more

content with related keywords you can utilize as well as links,

and the more keywords and links you have means more traffic and

customers. Keep this information in mind if you are building a

one page website. A one page website about sunglasses will find

it very difficult to compete against a 15 page website on

sunglasses, simply because of the additional content and

keywords targeted.

All of these suggestions are things you can easily do within the

hour if you sit down and get started now. Before you know it,

the traffic on your website will start picking up as well as

your product sales, and you will have learned the secret to

directing traffic exactly where you want it to go

Since there is so much to love about Wisconsin and I know quite a few things about search engine optimization, I decided to write this article series to help you too get a high Wisconsin search engine ranking.

Maybe you are a small Wisconsin business owner that wants to use the power of the top search engines to drive new customers to your improved site…

…or you are an individual how wants to show the world the beauty of your beloved Wisconsin.

No matter which of the above categories fit you the most, I am positively sure that you want a high Wisconsin search engine ranking for your site.

Who doesn’t want to rank high in the top search engines?

Most likely you are just like me and everyone else. We all want to see improved rankings for our Wisconsin sites, but actually very few people know how to structure and design a site that will please the top search engines.

Some time back I didn’t know how to do this either, but I studied search engine optimization a lot and I worked real hard to get my sites ranked high in engines.

Do you want to know the secret behind a top ranking site?

Actually I got quite surprised myself, but the secret is that there is no secret.

You see, the top search engines are in business and they want to make money and that money comes from advertising. The more people that uses their service, the more advertising dollars they rake in.

Can you see where we’re going?

Surfer will continue using a specific search engine if that engine consistently shows quality pages in the top 10 of their ranking.

This is also what you will have to do to get your Wisconsin search engine ranking to show up in the top 10 – you have to build a strong site that will dominate the niche you target.

Do you think that this sounds too hard?

You don’t have to worry though. Keep reading and I will share with you what I have learned the hard way. I have personally seen many bumps in the road, but if you work hard you are more likely to see your Wisconsin search engine ranking up there with the big guys in the top 10.

Before you dig into the article series, please keep in mind that it takes hard work and that there is no such thing as a guaranteed top search engine ranking.

But reward usually comes to those who deserve it…

It comes as no surprise to me when day after day I see all the offers flying around about different methods of promoting a product, website or selling information on the Net. Everyone wants a piece of the pie and why not, the Internet is a billion dollar opportunity within reach of ones fingertips.

I have to admit, I myself have succumbed to all the hype and fallen for the traps set by many of the scam artists. I’m also on every gurus list out there that you could possibly think of. It’s good to know and see what these guys and gals are up to. After reviewing and even trying some of the latest and greatest new programs, software and offerings, I can honestly say that there are those gurus that I trust and those that I don’t. The one thing that I wanted to touch on in this article is:

* SEO - Search Engine Optimization

This is where one basically tries to get their site ranked higher in the search engines using various techniques so that their site will show up on the first or at least the second page for the searches performed by people using a specific keyword or keyword phrase. There are so many variables and techniques that it’s simply overwhelming for the most part. Coupled with the fact that the search engines are always changing what they look for as to how they rank a site, doesn’t make it any easier to keep up with this rat race.

This brings me to a point that I want to mention as I personally received an offer for getting a guaranteed high ranking in the search engines from a so called, “reliable source”. I’m not going to mention any names here as that isn’t my point. You probably have or will eventually encounter this same type of offer or something pretty close and I want you to be at least on the lookout, educated and prepared when you do.

The advertisement made the claim that by using this product anyone could get ranked very high in the search engines, usually within the top 10 search results which would be on the first page. Now this is a pretty bold claim if I do say so myself. Of course hearing something to that effect makes it very hard for one NOT to purchase the report, e-book, software or product that is being offered. I don’t know anyone who owns a website that wouldn’t want to achieve one of the top 10 search engine positions, myself included.

Now, here’s my point. If this is supposed to get a top 10 search engine ranking for anyone, and lets just say as an example that 100 people grab this offer, doesn’t it stand to reason that not all 100 people can be on the first search page or in the top 10 for a search? Now I’m not a mathematician and never have claimed to be one, as a matter of fact, math was one of my weaker subjects in school. But, I’m sure you can see that it doesn’t take one of Einstein’s mathematical formulas to figure this one out either. There are only 10 top spots, so what happens to the other 90 people? They have purchased this too right? What exactly determines who or which ones would get a top 10 listing? Your guess is as good as mine and I honestly admit that I don’t have a clue. I do know one thing for sure though, this product can not do what it says for everyone who purchases it, period.

There are a lot of different techniques, software and programs out there and sure some are better than others, but still no matter which one you use, there is bound to be many many others using it too and I’m sure that number would be in the 1000’s not the 100’s. So, which 10 or 20 are the lucky ones who get what they paid for and which ones just wasted their money on a false hope or dream? Most offers also state that it’s fast, easy, simple, no skill required you name it, but actually it does take some time, effort and persistence to really be successful with the endeavor of achieving a good search engine rank and position.

Yes, you can do a lot on your own with research and the proper use of meta tags, site description, keywords, keyword phrases, heading tags, ending tags, density of content etc etc. That’s basically one of the best way to actually improve your sites performance for little or no cost. There are many good tools out there for doing research and lots of them are free, so most of the time you don’t have to pay a guru or someone else any out of pocket money to get what you need to improve your sites ranking and visibility in the search engines.

Don’t get me wrong now, I’m not saying that everything out there is junk or not worth buying and using but, be very careful about falling for the BIG hype statements that are basically trying to suck the money out of your wallet before you even have time to bat an eye or think about it……

Like they say, “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is”.

The truth is, quality links back to your site from already higher ranking sites whose content is related to yours, are the #1 best method for building a good page rank and position in the search engines, but that’s another whole ball game and story in itself.

In a quest for high rankings among increasingly competitive markets, webmasters generally have an ongoing mission to achieve and maintain high rankings for popular search terms. Since smaller companies and websites have limited advertising budgets, search engine optimization is recognized the best way of gaining long term exposure and driving targeted traffic to a website.

A problem often arises when webmasters, particularly newer and less experienced ones, start researching ways of obtaining high rankings. Most websites that offer resources on optimizing pages for search engines still lean towards writing efficient Meta tags and selecting the best keywords. Although this helps, it’s a known fact that Meta tags have become less important over the years. In fact, Inktomi is the only search engine that still uses them for ranking websites. Yahoo!, Google, and all other main search engines have abandoned the Meta system. The keyword tags no longer impact rankings. The description tag is still important, but it won’t have a tremendous impact on rankings like it once would have.

Webmasters often become very disappointed when they see that much of the work put forth to optimize a website was unnecessary. It’s even more devastating to see that all the work put into optimizing pages will not gain you high rankings. Many start to wonder what they did wrong. One important factor is almost always initially overlooked- more credible websites will always have higher rankings, regardless of how optimized a smaller website may be. Keyword densities and title tags are still important in categorizing a website for the engines, but link popularity has become the main factor in ranking websites. That’s not to say that optimizing websites isn’t important.

The point here is that optimizing a website means no more than exactly what it says- optimizing. It means that a website is fit to be considered relevant for the selected keywords when indexed for placement. It does not mean that a website will automatically achieve high rankings in those keywords. It can mean potentially pulling ahead of a competitor with more link popularity but less relevance. But don’t be fooled- even if a website with 100 good back links in Google is optimized perfectly, it won’t outweigh a less relevant competitor with 10,000 back links and a higher PageRank when competing for a popular keyword. Most webmasters are baffled when they don’t get the rankings they have worked for. The solution is gaining link popularity; this can be achieved by trading links with relevant websites and submitting to popular directories. It will build up over time and a website will gain the credibility it deserves when it has many websites linking to it.

Finding a good source for continually submitting to the search engines and keeping track of rankings and link popularity is a very important factor in having long term success with search engine optimization. MDTrafficBuilder is a website that has proven to be very effective and cost-efficient in continually submitting to search engines and monitoring progress. The link to this website can be found in the author resource box. They have a free 5 day trial, so there’s no risk at all. It’s a good way of keeping track of competition and monitoring link popularity.

Regardless of which way you choose to gain higher rankings for your website, remember the real meaning of Search Engine Optimization, and think realistically of how your website compares with the competition. Achieving high rankings is a long term project, not a quick fix for low traffic websites. If you think realistically and work hard for higher link popularity, high search engine rankings will eventually find you.

First, let’s start with the basics of on page search engine optimization. You need to make sure that the keywords you are targeting are correct. For instance, if you’re selling custom embroidered scarves, we wouldn’t want to target just the word “scarf” or “scarves”, these words will have too much competition and will be virtually impossible to rank highly for. Instead, target your keywords. Appropriate keyword phrases might be “custom scarves”, “embroidered scarf” and the many variations thereof. Almost always you will find dozens or even hundreds of appropriate, highly targeted phrases for whatever you’re selling.

For further refinement of your keyword list, I recommend using tools at Nichebot.com and Wordtracker.com. Both are excellent and will help you find additional keywords to target that will bring traffic to your site but are also realistic.

Once we have a keyword list, we need to add these keywords to your site. The most important places to add keywords are to your body text, in natural language, not keywords stuffed in randomly, and to the title of your pages. The page title is extremely important to all the search engines, it should contain your company name and also a couple of your most important keyword phrases. However, other places you can add keywords are to the alternate text of images (one short phrase only), anchor text (this is the text that appears in your links) and meta-tags. Meta-tags have much less importance than they used to, but some search engines do still read them. You can also add keywords to any page names if you are adding new pages, so if you are adding a new product line, maybe customized aprons, then the page file name can be “customized-aprons.htm”. Add keywords to every page of your site, but don’t stuff them in randomly. Also, the main page of your site is the most important page, make sure you have added your most important keyword phrases to this page in the page title and body text. There is much more to on page search engine optimization, but these are the basics and should be sufficient for most websites.

Next, we begin promotion. Many people think that submitting to thousands of search engines should be the first step. Wrong! There aren’t thousands of search engines and the only ones that matter are the ones you’ve heard of, like Google, MSN and Yahoo. There’s not even a need to submit to these search engines anyway, it’s best to let them find your site via a link. And so we begin the second and probably most important part of search engine optimization, which is link building. The key to link building is not quantity of links, but quality of links. You want links to your site from other websites that have a good reputation and are highly targeted to your content. So, if your site sells vintage postcards, then appropriate links you should be concerned about getting should be from antique and collectible directories, other antique and collectible stores (not direct competitors though), antique and collectible forums and ephemera related sites. You can get some idea of the quality of a link by looking at the Google Pagerank. The higher the Pagerank, the better the link, usually.

Here are the best ways to get links:

Write Articles! You don’t have to be an author to write a good, informative article. Write an article from 400 - 700 words and distribute it to the largest article directories like Goarticles.com, Ezinearticles.com and Articlecity.com. They will post your article to their site and make it available to the millions of website owners, ezine editors, bloggers and other publishers for use in their publications. When your article is used, your bio must be included, and of course, you added a link to your site in your bio, right? This results in dozens, even hundreds or sometimes thousands of completely free and often related, one way, incoming links to your site. The search engines love them!

Submit To Directories! There are hundreds of directories out there that will give you a link for free. Find a list at Info.vilesilencer.com along with information on how best to submit to these directories for maximum effectiveness. If you do have some promotion budget, consider paying for listing on the major directories like Yahoo Directory, Business.com or any niche directories that don’t offer free submissions. These are considered very high quality links to search engines.

There are many other ways to build your links, from posting on niche forums and community sites, to blogging, to exchanging links, to press releases and more. Link building should be an ongoing process. Take it slow and steady and focus on gaining the highest quality links possible instead of the greatest number possible. Search engines love HIGH QUALITY links to your site and this is absolutely the key to getting more visitors.

Forming a partnership to deliver Search Engine Optimisation services (SEO) to your clients demonstrates your commitment to providing access to a vital range of techniques that ensure their online presence is taken to the top of the search engine rankings.

Search engines drive the world-wide-web, dominated by Google, Yahoo and MSN who account for 70% of all searches and how you rank in them dictates the traffic visiting your site and ultimately the revenue generated. Clients with an online presence that is not optimized for the search engines will simply be ignored by prospective customers looking for their products and services, unless they rank on the first page of a search a prospective customer is unlikely to find their site at all. If you rank on page 3 or less, your online presence may as well be a billboard in the middle of the Sahara.

Affiliate programs provide a potentially lucrative partnership for referring clients for SEO services with a commission structure based upon the level of referrals. You benefit not only from generating an untapped source of revenue from your clients but also from an enhanced perception of your ability to deliver immediate and continuing business results that are simply and easily demonstrated and measured.

As e-commerce continues to gain momentum and acceptance, and we are nowhere near the potential that has yet to be unleashed, businesses have to look to where their future customers are going to come from. I recall reading something recently that made the glib comment “NBC is laying off people as fast as Google is hiring them” and this reflects the economic reality that increasingly consumers are turning to the internet to source products and services, and of those who do; a majority are using search engines such as the Big 3 to find suppliers.

Something else that is coming out of the empirical research on who is doing what, where, when and why on the internet is that consumers not necessarily looking for e-commerce sites when they are searching – very often a search will be “Attorney Daytona” or “Plumber Binghamton” - what almost three quarters of consumers are doing is searching for a service that is local to them so they can make direct contact and obtain a quick divorce or fix the leaky bathroom (source Kelsey Group).

This is all great news for local business as hardcopy media is overtaken by the adoption of the internet as a means for obtaining information. So for those who provide businesses with support and professional services, there is a window of opportunity to add value to existing relationships by forming a partnership with an SEO provider affiliate program.

So this all sounds great and fantastic, where do I sign up?

Not so fast, let’s take a look at the market and see what is currently on offer and let’s also take look at some of the do’s and don’ts. Simply placing “SEO reselling” into your search engine will uncover a list as long as Route 66 of SEO service providers and some form of affiliate marketing or reselling program. The reason for this is simple, over 50% of internet traffic is generated by the search engines and consumers are using search engines to source products and services more than any other form of online marketing activity.

What you will find is dazzling array of SEO providers, but first you need to exercise a degree of simple business common sense. Keep to the forefront of your mind that if you are going to partner with an SEO as an affiliate they are going to be delivering a service to your business customers who will be relying on the relationship they have with you to stop them from being oversold, overpriced and avoid failure of service delivery – their success will give you credit but failure can be damning.

First principle, identify an SEO with a market reputation that stands up – any SEO will be quite happy to provide you with references and a detailed schedule of the services they provide with a clear charging structure for work performed. If they can’t or won’t, avoid them like the plague, if they can’t provide basic supporting collateral to you as a potential business partner what will they be like let loose on your customers?

There are also some unethical SEO techniques which companies may use that you should be aware of. Methods such as using link farms, “hidden” text where the printed content is the same color as the background and even some tactics take a user to a webpage completely different from the one they wished. These techniques are referred to as “Black Hat” and search engines may penalize a site that uses such methods or eliminate them from the search engine altogether – in February 2006, Google removed BMW and Ricoh in Germany for use of deceptive Black Hat practices.

A “White Hat” practice refer to techniques that are not considered to be unethical or deceptive and conforms to the guidelines and terms of service as laid down by the search engines themselves. White Hat is about providing content for site users not for search engines per se and promotes accessibility and usability of a client site.

Make yourself aware of exactly what SEO methods are being delivered by an affiliate program before you commit to signing up to it. The decision to use Black or White Hat methods revolves around your sense of ethics and your own view of your business reputation.

The affiliate programs that are available all appear to be embryonic at this stage; this is an immature concept for which it is highly likely we will see continuing development. Some affiliate programs are free requiring minimal registration while at the other extreme fees of $750.00 can be charged before you can refer potential clients to them. I have even seen one program that simply states we have no affiliate program but will pay 15% commission on any referral.

This leads onto the topic of money and payment for client referrals. How much can be made out of SEO reselling. Clearly there is an opportunity to add value to existing client relationships by SEO reseller affiliation but the remuneration and commissions do vary though the average appears to be something between 5% to 15%. Volume of referrals and type of referrals also factor heavily in the commission structures, with high volumes attracting greater levels of commission and bonus payments as does the ability to refer larger sites and online enterprises as opposed to a local restaurant downtown.

There is a wide discrepancy in the quality of SEO providers, not only between those who practice Black and White Hat processes, but in the ability to appreciate that SEO is not a simple, single skill set that operates on a stand alone basis. SEO providers who genuinely practice a holistic marketing methodology are actually few and far between. Such holistic SEO practitioners believe that search engine marketing is actually part of a larger range of online marketing methods that need to be combined and tailored to suit the business goals of the client. The SEO affiliate programs available vary widely in the apparent ability of the offerings to deliver services alongside SEO such as public relations activities, email campaigns, blog consulting, web trends, and online media buying.

Clearly SEO affiliate programs will develop and the market will respond to the good and the bad, but in the interim arm yourself with at least a basic understanding of what SEO consultants do and the value added they can provide.