Does google look for number of pages in PR?

[Paul_KY]

"I am glad you have said that, s it is something I promote constantly. Design for your users, but with the search engines in mind. Never design a site for the search engines, as what is bread today, is water tomorrow."

Excellent! So NO one has to pay your firm THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of dollars, for uncertainty. Their money would be better spent on PPC, or, even less, common sense. What a bargain!

Also, Google Guy, at WMF, IMHO spoke of SEO as a form of SE Spam. Again, relevant content rules. And those whom make money with that relevant content cash large checks, or receive HUGE direct deposits.

It's all becoming much clearer to me, and I hope to all.

Thanks for clearing that up for the new guy/gals on the block.

Regards,

Paul

[OldWelshGuy]

SEO is NOT a black art, it is something that can be learned like any other skill. The main difference is that if you mess up a design you lose sales, mess up SEo efforts and you can get yourself banned. There are many many good resources on the web for site promostion, usability, optimisation and promotion, but for each 'good' site there are probably a hundred or more 'hack' sites, run by people who do not have a clue, and are in fact pushing people to do things that willl actually harm the site.

Most businesses have one of two elements available, money, and time, rarely do they have both. If a business person has the time, then they are always advised by myself (and the other people with whom I associate) to have a go themselves. We try to keep them away from the dark side, and help them for free as much as possible. If someone has not a lot of money then I would suggest an in depth report in plain English that will tell them how to optimise the site.

Forums such as this one are a boon to new webmasters/business people, and I do try to help as much as possible. I was fortunate in as much as when I sarted using the web, there was not that much competition for positions etc, so I pretty much learned as I went along. Today competition is hard in a lot of areas, but unless you are talking about black hat stuff, IP delivered content etc, then with time the webmaster should see some results.

One thing though Some phrases are simply too competitive for organic SEO to be viable, and for this reason it can often be a better alternative to use PPC. Any SEO who does not use PPC as part of the web marketing package is not that up on things IMO.

[Paul_KY]

IMHO, SEO is a natural, "Process", not a, "Skill".

One common trait, and yes, perhaps I'm taking a shot here, of SEOs, is to use the word, "BANNED". :yikes: I'm not sure if it's an industry wide scare tactic, but it must work. IMHO, if you design your site for your audience and your objective, steering clear of all SEO tactics (Excluding the obvious), you'll do fine, just fine. And don’t be so frightened about being, “BANNED� lol! There are plenty of search engines to go around. 5 Years ago, AltaVista/Excite was king and inclusion into the Yahoo directory was a MUST. Oh how times have changed… R.I.P. Alta Vista :blue:

"SEO is NOT a black art"

Although the search engines have stated publicly, they regard this is SE, "Spam", I'd still have to agree with you on that. That is, if you're in the <Guess> 5%, "Legit" group. The other 95%, which take one's money, produces little or no results, or even gets the site blacklisted (Links from link farms, etc.) have given the industry a black eye.

"Any SEO who does not use PPC as part of the web marketing package is not that up on things IMO."

I would agree that any, "Complete" online marketing plan would be laughable without PPC included, but I'm not sure where PPC and SEO correlate. Unless the SEOs are now calling themselves, "Online Marketing Consultants". Again, PPC is a vital component to a healthy online marketing plan.