Search Engine Optimization Secrets: Do What You Never Thought Possible with SEO

Chapter 5. Solving SEO Problems

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Getting unindexed pages indexed

• Fixing penalties

• Saving yourself time while helping the client

Now that you know how to identify SEO problems, you are ready to start solving them. Are you ready to learn the big secret of SEO? You have covered a lot of material so far, and this might be the most important concept covered in this book. Alright, here it is: most SEO problems are caused by a lack of links. You see, hyperlinks are the Swiss Army Knife of SEO. Assuming a few other conditions are met, links can fix almost any problem. The search engines need to index and rank content that people are naturally linking to. With that spoiler out of the way, this chapter is about fixing SEO problems and getting more links.

FIRST THINGS FIRST

The first thing I do when starting the actual job of fixing SEO problems is to check for the following common areas. I developed this list out of necessity after I wasted far too much time digging deeper into SEO problems than I needed to. Just like in software, sometimes the best SEO solutions are the simplest ones.

• Identify the link profile: The SEOs and computer scientists at SEOmoz believe that about 70 percent of Google's modern algorithm has to do with link metrics. This is based on large-scale correlation tests and first-hand SEO experience. The reason the engines focus so much on links is that they reveal a lot about a website. This is why the link profile is the first thing I examine when I start analyzing ...