Preston Taylor

read moreEarly in my human resources management career, I interviewed Rey. He seemed to be perfect for a machine operator job, but I noticed that Rey could not look me in the eye. My instincts told me, "You can't trust him." Another voice in my head said, "Lack of eye contact may just be a cultural thing and this guy has all the skills I cannot find anywhere else." I decided to listen to the second voice, and wound up hiring the poster child for workers compensation fraud. After he conned us for six-figures, I wondered if I should have trusted my gut all along.

read moreThe primary thing that made Google the most influential Search Engine in the world was the concept of determining a site's value based upon the number of its incoming links! Around 1994, Larry Page recognized that the act of linking one page to another required conscious effort. Such effort was evidence of human judgment about the link's destination. Individually, each link was statistically insignificant. But collectively, millions of these links provided a key adaptation for the natural selection of search results.

read moreIn the meantime, read everything you can. Join several of Google's forums. Start using Google Analytics and webmaster tools for every site with which you are associated. Dig into the data for each site until you start to see the patterns. Dive into optimization as a numbers game. Learn Googlese until you can find anything, first search, top of the page. Then, remember that the whole reason for optimization is actually MARKETING. Optimization does no good without conversion to real business. A successful optimizer knows more about online marketing than does any conventional marketing expert.

read moreContent is King! Offering free, valuable, expert information is the key to long-term search engine success. Don't invest in tricks. Don't plan your long-range success on pay-per-click. Never spend more on advertising than you can comfortably afford. Build a great site and invest in a good, simple site promotion program designed especially for your business. If you offer detailed, complete, topical, expert advice, you will not need to spend much on optimization! Search Engines reward original, unique content.

read moreKeywords are at the heart of online success and are terribly important to any website optimization effort. But, not in the way you are probably thinking! Before the first HTML is placed, before a logo is designed, keywords must be identified. As a business operator, you have to know what words and phrases identify your business. Online businesses have to determine what words their potential clients will use in searching for this particular business. Those exact words must be used throughout the site.

read moreTell Google to display related information such as, dates, measurements, locations, images. Take a look here from time to time. Google premiers features here that you won't find yet in regular search (like Experimental Search described above). No telling what you will find from day to day. Now everyone knows that Google works as a calculator, right? Just type in a formula or question, 1+1+?, or 12in=?cm, for almost any combination you can think of, and Google gives you the answer. But, did you know that Google recognizes common number formats such as UPS tracking numbers, vehicle VINs, FedEx tracking numbers, patent numbers, etc.!