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Originally Posted by Nutstretch  I am even more confused now.... |
SEO (search engine optimisation) is a term that was probably invented by an estate agent.
In general it refers to things that any website creator should have learned in lesson 1 of their education - title, description, keywords, semantic markup (H1 tags
etc), hyperlinking (never to the index file by name), ALT tags for images, attracting relevant inbound links.
If you make websites and don't already do this you are playing the wrong game.
Advanced techniques are more to do with server configuration than website creation - using 301s for moved content (though
"cool URLs don't change" is a useful mantra), addressing potential duplication and canonical issues, controlling vermin and proxy servers that can adversely affect your rankings.
Most will do this in .htaccess but those on a dedicated server can configure it themselves.
The "SEO industry" has sprung up because so many sites are poorly made, but in my experience most of the practitioners are chancers or snake-oil salespersons - they might get you a good ranking for as long as it takes for your cheque to clear, but the techniques they use will always be penalised by the search engines eventually.
The good news is that everything you need to know can be found in a community such as this, where a high calibre of peer review usually ensures that the advice is sound - and completely free.
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