Google may be a giant…

…but it might be a mistake to think of it as your enemy. If Google is a business, then what is its product? That�s right – your website, along with the millions of others that are on the Internet today. And their customers? The searchers. It may seem as if Google haphazardly throws together search results with little regard for the searcher, or what it is that they are looking for. However, this approach would certainly not be in the best interests of the search engine. Google works on a strict relationship-marketing basis, i.e. it is the relationship with the searchers that is important to them. As such, it is crucial for them to ensure that the search results they provide are as relevant and as specific as they possibly can be. The rules and standards that are in place with regard to optimisation are not there to catch you out; they are there to produce higher quality search results.

Why Wear a White Hat?

It�s all too easy to assume that Google has grown so big and so clever, that it won�t notice a bit of spam here and there, but don�t be so sure. There are many black-hat SEO-ers out there, who attempt to beat the search engine systems using spamming techniques such as keyword stuffing, hidden links, doorway pages, and link farming. However, whilst these somewhat underhand strategies might work temporarily, they will only be successful until the next time your site is indexed, at which point the chances are the search engine spider will pick up on your spam. If this happens, you can expect your site to drop out of the rankings once and for all (or for a very long time). So why wear a white hat? Because Google�s rules and regulations are in place to ensure that they can provide the best possible search results. Better to win yourself good rankings by abiding by the rules, than to risk having no rankings at all.

Working hand in hand

Whatever other pies it may dip its fingers into, Google�s priority remains delivering good search results to its customers. By doing this, they ensure that searchers will return to Google, rather than using another search engine. By putting in place rules and regulations that relate to keyword frequency, title/meta tags, and other aspects of SEO, they can be sure that the highest ranking sites are the most relevant. So, if we keep these guidelines in mind, we are not only helping Google retain customers by providing them with the best possible products to work with, but we are helping ourselves to gain customers by achieving the best possible rankings.

So, whilst it is important not to under-estimate Google, it is important not to be scared of it either. A giant it may be, but in essence a friendly one. Taking a white hat approach to SEO and working hand in hand with Google will not only help them to provide good search results, but your ranking results will reap the benefits. This is important to any industry sector, not just those working towards travel marketing solutions online.

Frank Orman is the Managing Director of LeadGenerators, an SEO marketing agency providing travel marketing solutions online in London. LeadGenerators offers online marketing solutions to achieve first-rate sales conversions for your business.

When search engines decide what pages to show in response to an inquiry, they consult their indexed database of millions of web pages and decide which are the most relevant results, and in what order they should show them. A job in SEO involves figuring out what search terms a particular website should try to rank highly for and then helping the site to move up the rankings for these terms.

In some industries, like travel, high rankings in Google and Yahoo can provide a huge increase in sales and revenue, and SEO is becoming increasingly regarded as the form of marketing that provides the best return on investment for many niche businesses.

What does an SEO job involve?

Search Engine Optimisation begins with keyword research, finding out exactly what people are typing into search engines, and then evaluating these keywords and key phrases on a number of criteria (frequency of search, level of competition, relevance to the client website and so on.) A number of key phrases are selected for each page on a site, and the content and code of a page are enriched with these key phrases.

For seriously significant increases in rankings, however, you need to increase the number of one way links coming into a site. Links are regarded as votes of confidence by search engines – the more links you can get, the higher that page will rank (although individual links vary greatly in value). A job in SEO focuses heavily on attracting links to a client’s website, often by creating viral content (articles, videos, applications and so on) that spreads around the internet and generates links.

How do you get into it?

There are no specific qualifications required for a job in SEO, although a degree is preferred by many companies. Typically, if you want to work in-house at a large company they will require you to have several years experience, while an agency may be willing to take you with no experience and train you up if you display some of the right skills. Entry level jobs in SEO are advertised through a number of online sources, and there are even recruitment agencies (like mine!) that deal specifically with online marketing jobs.

What skills do you need to succeed?

A job in SEO requires a broad range of skills. You’ll need analytical and organisational skills to do keyword research and understand website statistics, combined with the creativity to produce great content and think up effective strategies for link building campaigns. Strong writing skills are very useful, as you will be expected to produce plenty of written material, and some degree of HTML and basic web design knowledge can also come in handy.

Above all, if you want a job in search marketing you’ll need a passion and understanding of the internet, including concepts like social media and Web 2.0. SEO is a rapidly evolving business, and you’ll have to be able to stay on top of all the latest online developments in order to be good at your job.

How much does it pay?

Salaries for search marketing jobs vary greatly depending on your level of experience, location, size of company, and whether you are working in-house, for an agency or as a freelancer. An entry level job in SEO might pay between £20,000 – 25,000, but as your experience increases, so does your earning power. Higher level people could potentially earn over £50,000 if they’ve got the right skills and experience.

Gail Kenny is the managing director of Puregenie, an online travel jobs website. The site deals with jobs in the ever growing travel sector and offers a wide selection of PPC and SEO jobs, as well as other roles involved in maintaining a presence online. Although the site is mainly travel focussed, it also displays vacancies in the hospitality and leisure industries.

Edit, Edit, Edit

And then edit again. There’s absolutely no excuse for errors in grammar and spelling. If you aren’t sure of the basics, then do a refresher course or at the very least, buy a book. Nothing looks worse than a careless typo, except perhaps a dodgy sentence structure! Things to look out for are missed words, incorrect punctuation and misspellings of names or places (particularly important when writing travel content). Using the spell check function on your computer is not totally reliable; sometimes the program simply replaces words with another which can completely change the meaning or structure of a sentence. It’s not enough to run a quick eye over the document and assume that if there’s no tell-tale underlining that everything is fine. A good writer must also be a good editor. Read the article several times thoroughly and you may find that in the process it can change quite radically from your first draft. If there are only three things you learn about writing, make it these; edit, edit, edit.

The Yawn Factor

When you’re writing travel content what you’re really doing is painting a picture of a destination and making your reader really, really wish they were there; or at least making plans to get there. Try to find a unique angle or attraction and don’t wheel out the well-known, and well-documented, facts. Make some time to really understand the place you are writing about so you can evoke the character and authenticity of the destination in your article. Remember, you need to stand out from thousands of other articles written about the same country or city, and if your article is not only well-written, but interesting too, then you are half way to winning the battle.

The Facts and Nothing but the Facts

Unless you’re writing about a fantasy destination, one of the most vital things when writing travel content is to check your facts. Don’t try to cut corners and make things up; somewhere along the line, someone WILL pull you up on it. Before you even put dainty fingers to the keyboard, make sure you have researched the major facts and not just in Wikipedia. Be prepared to be able to back up anything you write about with the appropriate data, and never be tempted to add in a Fourth World War or a new geographical landmark just to make things more interesting.

About The Author:

Julietta Henderson is a regular contributor to article directories, and specialises in writing travel content relating to holiday destinations all over the world..

Thank you for visiting Travel Articles Directory. Feel free to use any of our travel writing articles for your own website, on the condition that you also take the link we have included in the text. Check back for more travel writing soon; we’re uploading more original travel articles all the time!

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Julietta Henderson is a regular contributor to article directories, and specialises in writing free articles relating to travel and holiday destinations.

But unless you work in an SEO marketing agency or your parents are SEO marketing consultants, how do you find out just what drives this runaway train, and how much of the journey do you need to embark on? Do you need a full-on season ticket to ride, or will a day pass to the next station be enough to get you to where you want to be? At the end of the day you will only get out of SEO as much as you put in. How involved you become will depend on your requirements and the results you want to achieve, as well as more tangible factors such as budgets and time constraints.

In order to understand SEO it is really only necessary to understand a few fundamental principles. Just like our metaphorical train, a successful SEO strategy has individual components that make up the sum of the whole. Without each part of the strategy working in conjunction with the other you cannot expect optimum results; but the good news is you don’t need to be an SEO marketing consultant to comprehend the basics.

Site structure – SEO (Spell Everything Out)

The very first thing you need is to ensure that your site is visible to search engines. Site structure is like the station your train departs from. If no-one can find it, how are they going to get on board? Make sure that there is nothing which physically creates a barrier to the search engines. This doesn’t have to be as scary as it sounds and most of the time you can retain all your bells and whistles with just a few small changes. A good SEO marketing agency will be able to advise you what alterations need to be made.

Keyword Research – SEO (Strategy Eschews Obfuscation)

Ok stop panicking! If you’ve never heard the term ‘eschew obfuscation’, all it is, is a deliberate irony which means avoid baffling people by being intentionally difficult to interpret! Keyword research is like the timetable your train needs in order to continue successfully on its journey. In SEO terms, the strategy of your keyword research is simply determining just what battle it is you want to win. Keyword research is a crucial part of SEO and most of the planning that follows is based on this. No matter what you do, there’s no point being number 1 in Google for a phrase nobody’s typing in!

Keyword Enhanced Content – SEO (Say Everything, but Elegantly)

Once you’ve chosen your key phrases for your page, the next step is to optimise the copy on the page using those phrases. There is an art to making your copy rich enough to be of SEO benefit, but to also keep it relevant and easy to read. An SEO marketing agency can help you with copywriting services and will ensure that all your text and meta tags are correctly enriched and not ‘overstuffed.’ When Google sees that your page is indeed relevant to the keywords you are fighting for, it will appear higher up in the rankings when someone searches for them.

Link Building – SEO (Significant External Onus)

The last component in your SEO train journey is the fuel to keep it going. A link building campaign is an essential part of any successful SEO strategy. Links are like votes from your peers, telling Google that your site is relevant and reputable. The best way to achieve good, quality links is by providing great content. Online press releases, articles and anything interesting or controversial that people might want to link to can work. A good SEO marketing agency can assist you with your links campaign and, as experts, they will know what works and what doesn’t.

You don’t need to be intimidated by SEO. Follow the basic steps and it can be So Easy to Optimise! A bit of planning and some careful research and implementation could see your business reap the rewards as your Site Enters Orbit!

Frank Orman is the Managing Director of LeadGenerators, an SEO marketing agency in London. LeadGenerators offers online marketing solutions to achieving first-rate sales conversions for your business.