For as long as I have been involved with the web and search engine optimization (SEO) in a variety of roles and projects, I’m always amazed at what small business owners are told and believe about SEO.

I hear a wide range of stories, myths and lies on a regular basis as it pertains to small business SEO.

But what surprises me most are not only the people and businesses spreading this mess, but it is the small business owners that take and receive it as the gospel.

Not only that, but in most cases, small business owners lose precious resources, if not their entire business, only to be misled.

They were lied too, and scammed out of thousands of dollars for deceptive SEO practices sold under the disguise of affordable small business SEO.

Deceptive scam artists, posing a qualified SEO professionals, guaranteed to rank small business websites in the number one position on page one of Google and generate results.

And this is where I enter into the picture and find most small business owners as potential customers.

Now as much as I would like to strangle the person and company that told a little white lie or a bold faced lie, I must also be willing to be brutally honest with small business owners.

I receive many inquiries and phone calls on a weekly basis from potential customers asking about pay for performance search engine optimization (SEO).

Some think that there is fine print and hidden strings attached to such a too good to be true SEO offer.

Some have never heard of such a SEO offering, and think that it is a scam of some sort.

Some are skeptical based on previous experience with a SEO professional or firm that took advantage of their company using deceptive SEO practices.

Some knew about and even asked for deceptive SEO strategies and practices all for the sake of making money.

All the while, others unknowingly were taken advantage of with a $99 SEO offer that was too good to be true by some fly-by-night SEO company or a Fiverr deal promising traffic – not qualified traffic.

But for every bad experience, there are customers who have yet to experience the good, the bad and ugly of SEO.

And before you have a nightmare experience, or should you have already experienced one, I’ll tell you point blank why pay for performance is your best option.

I receive a wide range of emails and phone calls in a given week questioning how to generate content that increases website traffic.

From business owners, website developers, and even other SEO consultants posing as potential customers, everyone wants to know what the secret is when it comes to content marketing that increases search ranking and website traffic.

There are plenty of resources, whether newsletters, websites, blogs, ebooks, etc., telling you the bare bone SEO basics and principles, such as creating content:

• Written with a focus on customers and not search engines
• That is more than 600 words in length, ideally 1000-1500 or more
• That is relevant and specific to your industry and target market
• That educates, informs and solves problems for customers
• That customers will share with the masses
• That is easy-to-read content consisting of short sentences and containing every day layman terms
• Using specific keywords and keyword variations in moderation
• That includes the use of header tags with keywords within header tags
• Containing moderately supportive external and internal links, images, and videos

And the list goes on with other value-add content marketing strategies and techniques to help increase not only your website or blog’s search engine ranking, but also increase the likelihood your content is shared with the masses and increasing overall website traffic.

Today’s post on content marketing will guarantee you success should you religiously understand, comprehend and flawlessly execute each aspect.

Let’s get started.

I had an interesting exchange the other day in regards to whether a client should invest in a website redesign or a domain name upgrade to increase website traffic.

We’ll focus on website redesigns for now with more on domain name upgrades to come. We’ll also address what both have to do with increasing website traffic.

Typically, most business owners that have been in business more than five minutes will tell you to invest your money in a new website redesign in an effort to increase website traffic and drive sales.

And for the right business owner and situation, I do believe this could be very sound advice.

Afterall, a website redesign with a focus on providing intuitive, sound user interface and experience can work wonders in resurrecting and increasing website traffic and search engine ranking when implemented and executed properly.

(Credit: Jason Cipriani/CNET)

I recently read an article, Apple drops .com button in iOS7, written by Andrew Alleman over at Domain Name Wire. 

A short read, Andrew talks about how his daughter was using the iPad with iOS7 and went to press the .com button, and it was nowhere to be found.

Puzzling if you ask me as I

Having been involved with SEO in various roles over the last 10 or more years, I’ve had my fair share of conversations dealing with a wide variety of theories and hypothesis concerning the best approach to a company’s SEO efforts.

From in-house SEO to outsourced SEO, I’ve seen SEO efforts range from being planned, implemented, executed, measured and sustained flawlessly to those SEO efforts that were DOA or dead on arrival once the SEO efforts were executed. I’ve also seen and experienced mediocre SEO efforts.

My point is, there is no one-size fits all SEO effort. Whether in-house or outsourced, consider your SEO effort to be unique in its own right.

That’s not to say you should not focus on SEO fundamentals, but it is to say that you should always enter SEO knowing that there is no guarantee either way.

Link wheels can be very deceiving based on who you discuss them with. As with everything in life, link wheels have their pros and cons.

It is a must to understand the advantages and disadvantages when considering link wheels as a part of your search engine optimization (SEO) strategies.

In today’s post, I’ll cover the high-level advantages and disadvantages of link wheels.

Based on the pros and cons of using link wheels, it’ll then be up to you to determine whether or not link wheels are the best SEO strategy for your business.

Let’s get started.