The Ten Commandments of SEO.

Author’s note: While this is CLEARLY meant to be funny…live by these, seriously, and you will prosper.

Thou shalt not violate the TOS

This means that violating Google’s Terms of Service is TOTALLY off limits. Their rules are clearly stated. Live by them. You cannot build a long term asset that purports to make money from the exposure of their site if you spit on their rules. They will catch you and it will not be well with you.

Thou shalt not build any graven images. A site built totally in FLASH is a graven image

Search engines read text. That is what they understand. Yes, you can attach text to the graven images to help things, but in the end there needs to be sufficient text so that a search engine can determine what the site is about.

Thou shalt not cloak

This is in keeping with commandment number one. When you show one thing to the search engines and another to the public, it is not well with you. This is the quickest path to destruction that there is. Don’t do it. Don’t employ a consultant that tells you to do it or that you can get away with it.

The domain that will be penalized is your and not theirs.

Thou shalt build thine own authority

Search engines determine relevance by inbound links which (when properly gathered as part of a diverse link portfolio) are good indicators of relevance. While you can hire someone to submit your site to directories and to do some of the tedious labour for you, you MUST build your own reputation and relationships online. You must be a part of your industry’s online conversations. In fact, to succeed you must lead them in a time efficient manner. More on that later.

That is why I coach and provide creative authority building expertise on this site. You will notice that I do not sell the service of providing 500 links for $50 bucks or other such drivel here…At the end of the day, YOU (whether you = corporate or personal) are the only one who can provide your own authority…

This is also why paid links are of the devil and should be shunned…

Thou shalt not help thy competitor

You would think that this commandment is self evident, but let’s take the real estate industry for example. In this industry, it is common practice for agents to spend hours writing on sites like Trulia and Zillow and adding tons of user generated content when they are truly only helping those sites rank above them.

(Note:If the 10 commandments analogy does not work for you…then how about the Hippocratic Oath – think: First do no harm… )

Thou shalt honor thy mentors and friends

Search engine optimization is in large measure about building relationships online. To succeed you must not only MAKE friends and LEARN from mentors, you must KEEP them. To do this, you must honor them and hold them in high esteem for a lifetime. Create lifelong relationships and do not violate that trust.

Do good to others. Pay it forward. Build true authority. Participate in the arena of ideas. And honor the relationships that you build with a lifetime of faithfulness. Nothing less will do.

Thou shalt not steal content

Taking the content of others is forbidden. You cannot build your own authority on anything less than original content on your site of a quality that others will link to. HOWEVER…Having others provide the original content FOR YOU is not only GOOD, it is a sign of true authority. When others come to your place and provide UGC (user generated content), it is well with you.

Thou shalt not (simply) covet thy neighbor’s links

If all you do is chase you neighbor’s links you will forever be behind him. You MUST create additional relevance in order to succeed. That requires creativity and effort and often money. It is a much better path than simply following others.

You must follow them, overtake them and pass them. Coveting alone is not the answer

Thou shalt think like a spider

No one that I know of has administered an IQ test to a search engine spider. So many website builders simply over complicate their sites with code and / or make it hard for a site to get crawled by a search engine spider. Then they whine because they are not at the top.

I cannot make Google’s spider become Kreskin or and innately see the artistic value of your site. I CAN tell you how to make your site indexable to the search engines. If you choose not to take that advice, you cannot come back at me and say I did something wrong.

I can only work on your site and not the search engine. Quit whining.

Thou shalt TEST

The ONLY way to know if something works or does not is to TEST. The SEO industry is RIFE with people who simply parrot what others say or dumb it down to the point of being incorrect. There is a REASON that I TEST. True search engine professionals do. All of them. They don’t take other professionals’ word for it. They do not assume. They do not make the mistake of deluding themselves that what worked yesterday works today. And they don’t provide forward looking statements without actually testing them out.

We actually DO that here and provide the answers to our clients.