Optimize Schmoptimize!

In order that all men may be taught to speak truth, it is
necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it.
- Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English Author, Lexicographer

With all the hype in regard to SEO (Search Engine Optimization) one could come to the assumption that all you have to do is optimize your pages and Shazam! your site is in the Top 10! I think that comes from a desire for that to be true. Many feeling that by just optimizing their site and wishing on their lucky search engine rabbit foot rankings will just happen. Thats so 1990s!

Now fast forward to the present and optimizing is one of the most talked about silver bullets. However, I am seeing that critical considerations are being ignored before optimizing. Here are just a few:

Do you having a quality, consistent design to optimize
Did you investigate if you are entering an overly saturated market
Is your pricing competitive
Do you have a USP (Unique Selling Proposition)
Is your shipping and handling overpriced
Do you have a strategy, methodology or business plan

Need I go on Without the above, optimizing is a waste of time and the site owners money. Regardless of what Spam or the Black Hat SEOs want everyone to believe, optimizing is futile without having your ducks in a row on the important issues first.

For those who havent heard the term Black Hat, Black Hat SEOs are the SEOs who will say or do anything to get into the customers pocket book with claims of quick and unbelievable results. They cater to what they know many Web site owners want to believe; that search engine rankings are easy and just a matter of optimizing. Many times using what the site owner doesnt know to make claims of Top 10 rankings and what the search engines dont condone to accomplish even minor results.

Then there are White Hat SEOs. These are the folks that realize optimization is an important part of getting rankings--but not the end-all-be-all. Not the silver bullet, not the magic pill, not the miracle cure to getting solid rankings for a poorly conceived Web site. Just a piece of the puzzle that includes well written optimized content catering to site visitors first, then search engines while making sure all the other important variables are also in place.

Yes, optimizing your content is a smart thing to do. But you cant optimize your site to the point where the text is no longer readable to human beings and expect to get orders, contacts or conversions. You can optimize your site to death, however, if you have a product that is not in demand, or at the wrong price on a poorly designed site--youve just optimized a site that will not produce regardless of its rankings.

Optimization is only part of having a comprehensive marketing program--not the Holy Grail! You need to look at your overall site marketing strategy, which should include all the tools available to you in the year 2005 to market your interactive site for best network exposure. From Blogs to autoresponder campaigns, to content that grows like a corn stalk; without these added to your program, you can optimize until the cows come home but the fat lady will never sing.

Dont optimize before you strategize!

About the Author:
Judith Kallos is an authoritative and good-humored Technology Musewho has played @ for over a decade. Check out her new Dot Com Business Starter Kit @ http://www.DotComStarterKit.com

PostNuke or "Nuke" Sites and the Major Search Engines!

Most people wonder what it takes to get a nuke site ranked higher in the search engines. I have the answer! S.E.O or Search Engine Optimazation! There are several steps you can take with your PostNuke/Nuke site to achieve a good seo! I will show two here.

First and fore most is the use of ShortURLs. Google and Yahoo both will read the familar / or /modules so common in a nuke site. What they get stuck on is the also common session id number that is also in the URL. The ShortURL(Mod_Rewrite is needed fo this to work and you will have to check with your host to see it if it available) feature in PostNuke 750 is a thing of beauty! All you have to do is enable it and you are one step closer to being good spider food!(additional steps may be needed depending on your host)

Now the next and just as important! After you have ShortURLs enabled and Running you MUST generate a SITE MAP of your site! A great place to go to do this online is XML Sitemaps. Spiders and crawlers just devour them! With ShortURLs running there is more of a chance all the relevant content on your site will be in the map! I encourage all Nukers and those running HTML sites to use site maps! You might just be surprised by what it can do for your listing!

For a more detailed summary of this issue for you Nukers visit the

Jason Grant is Lead Developer of Custom Portal. A content management system written in the PHP scripting language.