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Ask HN: Contemporary 2014 resources on SEO

16 points by drinchev 12y ago

Hello all, I'm asking what resources are you using for creating SEO-friendly website. The story about this question is that last such thread was 6 years ago [1] and I guess things have changed by now. Anyway everything I'm reading consists a lot of words like "may be", "usually", "somewhat" and other non concluding statements that make me feel the whole SEO-business is actually somehow a SCAM. I'm particularly interested in: 1. Infinite scroll navigation ( Should I include noscript tag and put pages links or what is the technique in general to make the pages indexed ) 2. How to replace javascript UI elements with crawlable links ( for example a price slider ) [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=277259

narrowrail 12y ago
I've always found the SEO/SEM industry rather shady. It is full of consultants with relatively low technical knowledge, usually just following the herd. I'm pretty sure Google itself offers plenty of resources (analytics, webmaster tools, etc.). Most of the advice I've read over the years seems pretty common sense, as long as you're offering a fair product for a fair price. If I were in your shoes, I would probably use what Google offers for free for a few months. After that, I'd sign up for moz.com's free 30 day trial ($99/mo afterward), and learn as much as possible from what their service offers. If I felt comfortable on my own after that, I'd cancel. This is not my area of expertise, but I hope it helps.
mhoad 12y ago
Check this out regarding point 1 http://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-offers-seo-recommendations-pages-infinite-scroll/90533/ http://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-offers-seo-recomme...
ASquare 12y ago
I think you may have a more informed discussion on this question on Inbound.org simply because SEO is a huge focus of that community (vs HN) . Not being facetious - and I'm not an SEO guy - but opinions on SEO by people who do not have expertise in it are not as relevant and may simply feed your confirmation bias, rather than get you (closer) to the true answer/conclusion (whatever that may be)
itengelhardt 12y ago
I personally prefer the use of fuzzy words and don't see them as scammy, but rather as an indication of someone being honest with me. Remember: Only a sith deals in absolutes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgpytjlW5wU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgpytjlW5wU) - SCNR :-) OK. Back to topic: The language is fuzzy, because no one knows the Google algorithm. The best SEOs can do is make predictions and tell you the general steps to make your site rank: Nail your on-site SEO and build links. There are two good resources for this: http://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo http://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo http://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-link-building http://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-link-building As narrowrail said Moz holds a lot of information for SEO marketers with an interest in playing nice with Google. Then there is the whole topic of "blackhat" SEO - i.e. people who use techniques that Google does not endorse (e.g. private blog/link networks). They know a way to make it to #1 on Goolge right NOW, but are running the risk of being caught by Google and loosing all their rankings. IMHO the best resource for "short-term SEO" is www.viperchill.com. SEO is an easy-to-learn marketing channel. It is relatively low-cost, but slow on the uptake. If you make your way to #1 for a keyword, you usually stay there for some time. That gives SEO a fantastic ROI - at least in my experience and that of a few other founders. Regarding your specific questions, this might be helpful: http://www.brombone.com/ http://www.brombone.com/ Additionally, you should sign up for the Moz community (IIRC that is free) and ask your questions there. A lot of good SEOs hang out there and are willing to help. Also try http://www.reddit.com/r/bigseo http://www.reddit.com/r/bigseo - pretty helpful crowd there, too. Disclaimer: I am the maker of www.linksspy.com, so I am slightly biased towards SEO
- drinchev 12y ago
  Thank you very much for the time spent on your answer and for the useful links. I'm giving you my feedback 1) Regarding Brombone is actually a service that indexes your pages with probably a headless browser ( similar to PhantomJS ) and then proxy the urls to their servers. What I'm actually doing is even better. I'm having a single page app built with backbone and nodejs that gracefully extends to single-page application with backbonejs and other goodies. In other words this service is not for me, I've already built this from scratch. 2) About Reddit - I will try to ask also there.

16 points by drinchev 12y ago

narrowrail 12y ago

I've always found the SEO/SEM industry rather shady. It is full of consultants with relatively low technical knowledge, usually just following the herd. I'm pretty sure Google itself offers plenty of resources (analytics, webmaster tools, etc.). Most of the advice I've read over the years seems pretty common sense, as long as you're offering a fair product for a fair price. If I were in your shoes, I would probably use what Google offers for free for a few months. After that, I'd sign up for moz.com's free 30 day trial ($99/mo afterward), and learn as much as possible from what their service offers. If I felt comfortable on my own after that, I'd cancel. This is not my area of expertise, but I hope it helps.

mhoad 12y ago

Check this out regarding point 1 http://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-offers-seo-recommendations-pages-infinite-scroll/90533/ http://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-offers-seo-recomme...

ASquare 12y ago

I think you may have a more informed discussion on this question on Inbound.org simply because SEO is a huge focus of that community (vs HN) . Not being facetious - and I'm not an SEO guy - but opinions on SEO by people who do not have expertise in it are not as relevant and may simply feed your confirmation bias, rather than get you (closer) to the true answer/conclusion (whatever that may be)

itengelhardt 12y ago

I personally prefer the use of fuzzy words and don't see them as scammy, but rather as an indication of someone being honest with me. Remember: Only a sith deals in absolutes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgpytjlW5wU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgpytjlW5wU) - SCNR :-) OK. Back to topic: The language is fuzzy, because no one knows the Google algorithm. The best SEOs can do is make predictions and tell you the general steps to make your site rank: Nail your on-site SEO and build links. There are two good resources for this: http://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo http://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo http://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-link-building http://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-link-building As narrowrail said Moz holds a lot of information for SEO marketers with an interest in playing nice with Google. Then there is the whole topic of "blackhat" SEO - i.e. people who use techniques that Google does not endorse (e.g. private blog/link networks). They know a way to make it to #1 on Goolge right NOW, but are running the risk of being caught by Google and loosing all their rankings. IMHO the best resource for "short-term SEO" is www.viperchill.com. SEO is an easy-to-learn marketing channel. It is relatively low-cost, but slow on the uptake. If you make your way to #1 for a keyword, you usually stay there for some time. That gives SEO a fantastic ROI - at least in my experience and that of a few other founders. Regarding your specific questions, this might be helpful: http://www.brombone.com/ http://www.brombone.com/ Additionally, you should sign up for the Moz community (IIRC that is free) and ask your questions there. A lot of good SEOs hang out there and are willing to help. Also try http://www.reddit.com/r/bigseo http://www.reddit.com/r/bigseo - pretty helpful crowd there, too. Disclaimer: I am the maker of www.linksspy.com, so I am slightly biased towards SEO

drinchev 12y ago
Thank you very much for the time spent on your answer and for the useful links. I'm giving you my feedback 1) Regarding Brombone is actually a service that indexes your pages with probably a headless browser ( similar to PhantomJS ) and then proxy the urls to their servers. What I'm actually doing is even better. I'm having a single page app built with backbone and nodejs that gracefully extends to single-page application with backbonejs and other goodies. In other words this service is not for me, I've already built this from scratch. 2) About Reddit - I will try to ask also there.