Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for your website

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Information Overload

(continued)

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Lurk! There’s no harm in checking out the SEO forum(s) of your choice, but don’t post—

or believe what you read—until you’ve gotten a feel for the competence of the regular

posters and the moderators.Here are some indicators that the advice you’re reading is reli-

able: Multiple people on multiple sites seem to be giving the same advice; you can corrobo-

rate this advice via an article written by a recognized SEO expert; or you can find your own

evidence (using the “I wonder why that’s happening”method) to back it up.

•

Pace yourself. Unless you’ve got a life-or-death situation (and these are very infrequent

in SEO), take in a little information at a time.SEO resources on the Web are great for research-

ing specific questions on a need-to-know basis.Just do your best to tune out arcane details

like which Google search tab moved where or how many pages Yahoo! says it has in its index

today.

In a short time, you’ll have enough SEO expertise that you’ll be able to choose a few sources that

you trust and stick with them.

SEO Forums

In our conversation with Danny Sullivan, he cautioned, “Forums probably aren’t the

best place for beginners. They should do a lot of reading from more focused sites

before diving in. As for advice, be wary of everything and always remember that noth-

ing should be taken as fact.” To begin your own SEO forum research, start with these

tried-and-true sites:

•

forums.searchenginewatch.com

•

www.highrankings.com/forum/

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www.webmasterworld.com

•

www.searchengineforums.com

Jump in on the forums whenever you have a burning question that needs

answering, but don’t count on them for your regular SEO news fix.

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