This interview with search engine optimization expert Jill Whalen is continued from page one.
What do you see as some of the biggest misconceptions to people trying to optimize their sites for search engines?
The biggest misconception for those starting out is they generally think that there's some sort of trick or magic bullet that will shoot them to the top of the rankings. They really think that there must be some secret code they can stick on their site somewhere, and they'll be all set. Part of this comes from the fact that there is such a thing as a Meta keyword tag the you can put into your HTML code. It was originally created to help search engines categorize pages, but it was NEVER a magic bullet, and it was never something that could propel your site to the top of the engines simply by putting the keywords into it that you wanted to show up for.
SEO was always and will always be a long-term proposition. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to create a great site, and there's just no quick way to get around that.
If you could sum up search engine optimization in a nutshell, what would you say?
My nutshell definition of SEO is that it is making your site be the best it can be for your site visitors and the search engines.
Tell me about HighRankings. What is an average day?
Well, I work at home, so the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is get my coffee started and turn on my computer. Then I have to generally make a lunch or two for the kids, and get them out the door for school. Once everyone is out of the house, I grab my coffee and sit down at my computer to start the work day.
I usually go through any new email and check the overnight forum posts at my High Rankings forum.
Depending on how much work I have planned for that day, I may check out a few other forums such as ThreadWatch or the Search Engine Watch forums, as well.
Then I see if I have any phone consultations later in the day, and if so, I start reading the information the client has provided me and researching the site in question so I'll be prepared for the call. That will generally take a couple of hours. If I have no calls scheduled, I'll generally have a site analysis report for a client that is due at some point during the week, and I'll start working on that. Sometimes I might have some pages of copy written by my Search Creative team that I need to review, or other things to go over with them by email or phone. There's often a potential new client to speak with at some point, also.
In between the "real" work, I generally check the forum a bunch more times during the day and also answer a lot of SEO questions for people by email. (Those are the things I like doing best, but I do try to get my work done while I'm at it!)
Somewhere around noon or 1:00 PM I realize I'm hungry and make myself some lunch. Occasionally I'll have an outside lunch meeting with my Search Creative business partner or someone else, but most of the time I'm just eating at my desk. (Usually leftovers from the night before or a sandwich or something!)
The afternoon is usually more of the same, and then the kids start coming home or needing to be driven places, etc. so I'm generally less productive as the day goes on. Even though I've been in the biz for 10 years I still think of myself as a mom at home, first and foremost, and it's really great having the flexibility to be there when they need me. My 16 year old has half days of school every Friday, so often we'll go out to lunch then. Or if I have some calls scheduled, we may get take out.
That's really about it! Some days I am really focused and get a lot of billable work done, others I find I just need a break and I hang out on the forum all day. It's nice to be able to be flexible and have no boss telling me what to do!
Where do you see search engine optimization going in the next year?
I really don't see it going anywhere different than it is currently going. It's certainly a lot harder these days to do well with the engines due to there being so many more sites to compete with. My hope is that more people will begin to understand that SEO is not about how you can best *trick* the search engines into ranking your site highly, but how you can actually *make* your site be the best it can be and truly be the most relevant.
Thanks Jill!
