How could this little icon 16 by 16 pixels matter for SEO and your ranking? You never know, it certainly makes your website look more professional.

The Google Panda update has made me change in terms of the way I look at SEO. It took a lot of self-reflection to become aware that I approaching SEO too serious and not my users. It will take time to improve my websites. But here is one simple graphical idea I need to start with a favicon.

Google signals are more about details in the post Panda update world – One pet idea for example is maybe,  just maybe Google is paying more attention to style details, so as crazy as it sounds, could having a favicon.ico be a ranking factor for example.

• Think about it, Google did focus groups for this algorithm change and how Google might develop signals based on design without getting into subjective things like colors.
• These groups were people off the street, not techies. People would rank how much they trusted a website.
• A simple thing like a favicon might be a thing spam sites do not use but real sites do.

Think about it how many scrapped sites and spam sites have this? None that I can think of.

How many real sites do?  I notice Matt Cutts’s favicon – a nice flashy one on his blog he has up there. Could this be a hint? Google employees can not say directly what is going on but some to hint at it and clever people can pick up on ideas.

Using something like a favicon, makes the user feel better generally to have one up on the site. It is one idea that I have not seen floating around the blogosphere and forums but I think might help the user if not you.

Google is gravitating towards a female mind – For years Google was a geek run shop, focusing on numbers and left brain equations. Now Google is trying to balance the yang with the yin. It is trying to do this for logical reasons. That is users are not just looking at what is one the page, but how the page looks.

My wife will sometimes ask ‘are you going to wear that shirt’? I ask ‘what is wrong with it’? Trust me women see details better than men. I get my best inspiration from females webmasters when it comes to making blogs look nicer.

The above is only a metaphor of course but one to consider. I now and starting to ask my wife and people I know about my website more and more and what sticks out about it in their mind.

It would not help the big websites on competitive terms as they all have this icon, but if yours does not why not put it up there? It goes up there with looking at spelling and sentence structure. Not for Google but for the users.

Further, like Michael Martinez from  SEO Theory (someone who I consider a good guy when it comes to SEO and understanding people’s struggle with this) has stated to think we know Panda is the pretense of knowledge. So do not scrap your whole website, just try to improve it slowly.

Over two hundreds factors - Not one signal but a chorus of voices will determine if your website makes noise or music. This is Google and other search engines today.

What would it hurt if you created one. I use the program GIMP to simply save an icon to the 16 x 16 pixel size and save it as a .ico. Of course paint.net has a favicon plugin also. The you upload it to the root of your server. I am cheap and do not have Photoshop.

Let me know what you think of the idea of a favicon being a factor in search engine ranking.

Google’s Panda Update

Why some people are rebelling against Google’s approach

What you can do to fix  your website in the SERPs after the Google Panda update

• Write with lots of synonyms with the use of a thesaurus in a natural style, not stuffing keywords or SEO tricks. Do not be a content mill, quality not quantity.
• The Title is the most important part of your post, then like an old fashion news paper the first paragraph and so on.
• Writing longer posts with research.
• Revise posts and add content to posts that have fallen this is key. Do not drop you lame posts, rather make them compelling. Make it so people stay on your site longer and do not bounce off.
• Write with perfect grammar, spelling and sentence structure but in a natural way.
• Write as if search engines do not exist and you are writing your boss at work a detailed analysis of a specific problem or a friend on a personal issue. That is, write more researched posts like you are writing for school or write natural and from the heart.
• Learn to write in a more organized fashion, machine love structure, poets are not paid in any reality.

Lastly, do not panic. SEO is about keeping things honest and intelligent, improving your voice on the web and with time your website will be recognized (again).

More ways to regain position after Google Panda

• add long tale comment titles
• I will experiment with CSS menu on some sites
• add length to old posts
• improve website navigation with more places and reasons for people to stay on my site as now I am a minimalist and I noticed bloated sites like huffingtonpost.com get a lot of repeat visits
• fewer ads
• check people stealing content, I am finding more.
• check outbound links, people say this is more important now
• check miscellaneous  things like 404 and weird pages and errors and code on webmaster tools
• continue to use my brain to explore new ideas
• maybe still a wow introduction page

Update on the Panda update

Panda is still more of a mystery than solved. I think that is correct. Know one really knows what is going on, at least enough to effectuate change and recover.

One idea I had was Google has a greater lag time from the point you change your website and the SERPs change in response. This way people can not simple change and test until they figure out the variable that are most important in this update. Maybe not, but it is interesting that nobody can really recover.

I think your post is right on focusing on things like bounce rate, but also return visits. This is what I meant by build a site that people find without Google. If you have a large feed or people find you anyway, without Google, this is a sign you are a trusted site to Google and they will send you even more traffic. This is why eBay got more traffic and eHow less.

I use a simple WP theme on my site and it was hit by Panda. A few people I know have the same exact theme and set up, and they increased from Panda. Which leads me to conclude onsite traditional SEO is not as important.

One thing they did have is more of a community, than I.

Also maybe their writing style is different, like they targeted longer-tail keywords not popular searches.

Maybe simply the more unique your title is, it is a strong signal you are not a content farm that targets highly searched words. So if you are more of a poet than an SEO you will be rewarded.

I do have a pet theory (pure speculation),that might contribute to some decline on website. It is this: sites which have a lot of titles that correlate with exact matches (or close) on high searched keywords could have been effected. ehow.com for example built its empire highly searched keyword phrases like ‘how to SEO a website’ and this was usually the title of the post.
I had a lot of similar matches on my little site on Political Economy and it seemed to have taken hits on those pages that were matches.
Not of course that does not explain everything or maybe anything. It is just a theory and an observation.

These are some of my ideas.

If you have questions ask. Do you feel Google made things better or worst with the farm update?

Puppy Linux is the fastest and best OS in the world and my primary OS.  It beats Windows, XP, Vista and 7 by a mile, not to mentioned Macintosh Leopard. It works great with netbooks and old computers as the requirements are small.

Do want to accomplish more, have more free time, have fun working on your computer? I did and I do. You can work at light speed and be limitless with this a unusual OS that actually gives you free time because of its speed.

I created a short list of reasons you need to try this world-class operating system. It was not created by a large company,  but my a visionary man, Barry Kauler, and gives he gives it to the world for free.

I have tried every version of Windows and most versions of  Linux and played with Mac.

Why use Puppy Linux?

The reasons I use Puppy Linux are:

• Speed. There is no faster OS on earth. Software programs load into your RAM and therefore open instantaneously. This results in increased productivity and efficiency and less aggravation. Hence, you have more free time and happiness.
• Safety – I rarely chance connecting to the Internet with Windows. Why risk it? You could get all kinds of personal information stolen. Ignorance is bliss until you have someone steal important things. This means headaches. On the other hand, Puppy Linux is perfect for online banking. Strong security as nothing is stored on your hard drive unless you set it to. Therefore, Puppy Linux is the safest operating system you can get.
• Compatibility – I do pretty heavy-duty design and business work on Puppy. There is nothing that I can do with Windows that I can not do with Puppy Linux. No program that Linux does not now have something equal or better. It is a bold claim and even 3 years ago it could not be made, but not, it is reality.
• Easy of use – I find it easier than Windows.  The install take about five minutes and in 30 minutes fully customized, but you can use it in 5. No need to look for drivers or other things, Puppy does it for you. It does everything from printers to video card with a set up wizard. You might have to get use to where things are, but this is pretty easy. Remember when you learned Windows, how awkward everything was, it is good for your brain to learn a little. However, the newest versions are so close to windows it is not a problem. There are many tutorials and videos that make Puppy easy to learn.
• Free from constant updates – How do you feel about your computer always doing automatic updates and other programs too. With Puppy Linux you have full control of this.
• Saves money – You can take an old piece of junk computer with no real working hard drive and use Linux puppy and it will be faster, more secure and more stable than your friend who buy a candy colored computer for $3,000 dollars. Also you do not need to buy all the expensive programs.
• Looks great – I customized it and make it look like something from the future. The Puppy logo is cute also and has a story behind it. The creator of this OS is a man with a heart.
• Portable USB OS – I put my Puppy Linux OS on a $5 dollar USB pen drive (the whole OS is under 150 MB) and carry important files where I do. I fly from the USA to Europe a lot and it is easier to take a Pen drive than a laptop. My OS on this drive instead of my whole computer. When I am at a friend’s house or in the USA, I boot up my computer and have my personal desktop and programs. And yes this is encrypted.
• Recovers lost data – Your computer is broken, no problem. Puppy Linux can rescue data and do other great tricks where expensive OS systems fail. You win instant fame and status with your friends as a techy geek they want to know. It impresses girls also.
• Cool factor – It examples your mind and works in ways other operating systems can not. You are part of a community of users that have a passion for innovation and being on the cutting edge.
• You do not become outdated – Planned obsolescence irritates me. Macintosh is very big on making you think you need the latest and greatest as is Windows. In fact, they are coming out with Windows 8 and older systems will not be supported eventually. Every time you have to upgrade all your proprietary software. It is a never-ending cycle. Instead I just use Puppy Linux and Libre office, GIMP, Scribus etc. All free all getting better every month. Open source was once for the cheap and geeky, now it is for people who want cutting edge better software.
• Open source is better – Companies have limited resources. This is economics. However, open source are driven by thousands of volunteers who are passionate about the project. It will be hard to compete eventually as momentum is growing and the open source software is getting better than the paid for. An example is Puppy Linux and how it is taking leaps, and not baby steps when it comes to innovation. Can you imagine Windows being on 150 MB and running fast and smooth and safe? It is really not even strictly a traditional Linux OS, but something else.
• Language support – I work between a few languages. I can choose my interface as well as other keyboards in my languages. You need to get Windows premium for this.
• OS stability – Does not crash on me.
• Puppy community and forum – There is chat, forum, blog everything for almost instant help. Try getting that from any other OS (Most Linux systems have this but I am partial towards Puppy).
• Free games – Lots of free games and free educational games for children. There is even a derivative called Arcade Puppy which is all about gaming. But the bottom line is your kids can have free games and so can you. It also has Wine a Windows emulator is there is a program you can not give up.

How I use Puppy Linux

I do professional design and complicated stock and accounting work, yet I use Puppy Linux for everything. I have no idea why your would risk connecting to the Internet with Windows or have the patience to wait for programs to open or not (not responding) or the whole OS slow down over time? Or spend so much cash on a Mac even if you can. There are better charities than Apple computer. One last question:  Have you ever been forced to restart your computer with Windows?

Did I convince you that it is the best operating system in the world as well as being the fastest?  If you have questions ask. Here is where you can learn more and try Puppy and download Puppy Linux.

WordPress Headspace2 plugin vs Platinum SEO vs All-in-one

Basically Platinum SEO is a combination of the famous All in one SEO pack and Headspace2.   I think the author of  the Platinum SEO just modeled a lot of the code after these two plugins.  Even the set up looks similar under the setting section.

Is this bad?  Not entirely.   In fact, WordPress is mostly open to redesign and development by the community, that is that makes it so good, but people should give credit if credit is due.

This plugin is mostly the All-in-one SEO pack with ideas from headspace2.

Will headspace2 or All in one be bad if I use it?  No, they cover most of what you need for on-site factors, I like all-in-one over headspace2.

Platinum SEO pack is my new All-in-one for WordPress

• Platinum SEO beats All in one
• Platinum SEO beats HeadSpace
• HeadSpace plus All-in-one equals Platinum

If I did not have a good theme that was strong on on-site factors, I would use the Platinum SEO pack now as my main plug in on WordPress for on-site factors, even over all-in-one. I have seen Yoast has an SEO plugin, however, I have not drilled down to see the specifics of this. I also see the thesis theme claims to be SEOed and it might be, but at this point I still trust the Platinum pack as the best way to address code issues in WordPress until I see evidence to the contrary.

What do I do on my blog? I personally use to modify my own templates, so in reality most of the work for on-site factors was done. However, now I actually purchase a theme and it works even better than a plugin or modification which is time-consuming. I trust the template creator to be up to day on all coding php, css etc. It is a matter of division of labor.

The current theme I use now is not the most modern in style, but I do not care because, if everyone has the same style on the web, you will not stand out. Retro is sometimes good. While everyone else is using the same look and big blocky images for eye candy, I prefer to be a little more simple. If you want to know the theme I use you can write me at markbiernat@yahoo.com. It really is better than any SEO plugin in my experience and takes the burden off me to rewrite the code, mostly php. It can be modified in terms of design pretty easy. I blog professionally full time and write software so I know what I am talking about.

With this theme or the Platinum SEO pack you only need a couple more plugins like related posts. That is it. Do not try to over optimize your blog. Try to write something of value and make it personal based on your knowledge and experience.

So if you want to keep your Search engine optimization simple for WordPress, try the WordPress Platinum SEO plugin.

If I were to start all over again I would recommend that people use one website or maybe a few no more than ten. Why? The extra effort to maintain a large number of websites, even using a CMS like WordPress is a lot cost and the fact Google does not like too much inter linking between your own sites as this could be perceived as a way of distorting the Google algorithm. Why have 10 PR 3 sites when you could have 1 or 2 PR6 sites.

• Identify your real interests not something you want to make money on.
• If you can not decide your domain name it could be your personal name. Then you could have many categories for each of your interests. This is how the big sites do it.
• If you have a business site you can keep a blog on that site, not on a separate site. I never understood why people do this. They have a blog on another site from their main site.
• If you have a portfolio of domain names and weak sites, consider selling them, the opportunity cost is higher than the profit in most cases.
• If you a serious about blogging and have a good domain name, keep it. Add content slowly. Over time it will gain age and value as it will be a trusted site as long as you do not do anything wrong. Therefore, if one of your sites falls in the rankings you have a back up.

Many guys blogging out there buy domain names because they are cheap and load up with fancy names. Nothing wrong with this. However, just beware than when you buy a domain the only way it will work for you is if you have unique, personal content and it is not interlinked with your other sites. Outsourcing content in my opinion is not the best idea as they tend towards spammy low quality content mills.

What most website owners do

Since most domain names are cheap they buy like 15 domain names and set up 15 sites, but most of these will be useless as one person can only promote a couple of sites unless they have a large staff working for them.

I personally own a number of domain names as I did not understand all this. I have let a few expire and a not actively starting new website. However, I use a couple to experiment on. For example, I always want tot try to start a forum and a social networking sites. So I set these up. But again, I noticed unless I am on this and building content on a regular basis nothing happens. So it comes back to my original recommendation, that is less is more, when it comes to website numbers.

In fact the content on this site use to be on another site of mine I closed. I was using the word WordPress in the domain name and I did not know that was a no- no. I closed the site to be honest and now move the best content to this site. That is an example of why having some back up sites, but not many are a good idea. You do not want all your work to go to nothing if you make an honest mistake like I did.

My recommendation if you have many sites and want to interlink

I advise not to. If you really must, the children need to have their own links and if you link to your other site make it relevant and related to the parent if you really want. Some people use no-follows if they interlink their own sites. I do not use no-follows on anything, just as I try to be real in my linking. However, I do not interlink.

In conclusion about how many website to own

If you have too many sites for your time to create good content,  let some expire or sell them and move your content to your stronger site. Some people do 301 redirects, I do not as I do not want to even slightly appear as spammy. I know a 301 is honest but still I want to be clean as possible. If the content is good it will be found. If you have links to that old site write the own of the site that gave you think link and switch it.  Focus on your strongest sites.  You can keep a few to experiment on or in case your main site gets hit with a Google penalty. One site or many? I recommend only a few.

If your pages end in html they will appear static to search engines like Google.  Static pages have a slight advantage as they are more trust worthy because php pages can be scripted and auto generate spam.  This is just a theory. If you patiently write every one of my pages by hand so why not get the benefit of having an html page in the search engine ranking? I do not believe that HTML are higher ranking, but some people do. If you do here is a consideration for your WordPress blog. That post is how to remove the trailing slash in WordPress if you want to make it look clean.

Why use a hierarchy in WordPress in terms of structure?

I think a hierarchy is better as it organizes the data in silos and this is not only better for the Search engines but also better for user experience, especially when you add breadcrumbs.

How to have no trailing slash with html pages but a trailing slash with categories

Today I made a big break though!  Ok maybe it is not big for other people, but for me I could not figure out an easy way to do it.

I turned my WP permalinks into html pages with a hierarchy.  You may say aha Mark that is easy to do – just set permalinks to ->
/%category%/%postname%.html
But there is a problem.

That is if you set it to /%category%/%postname%.html/  your html pages have a trailing / , that is html/ and search engines will see them as directories not static html pages.

While if you use no trailing slash for your categories will not have a trailing slash. and this looks funny.

So there is a solution. I found a plug-in called smart trailing slash.  This plugin is found here -> fastagent.de/res/download/smart-trailing-slash.zip. This WordPress plugin and it does not put it at the end of the html but does use this at the end or categories.  Therefore, you get a hierarchy ( can use breadcrumbs) and a static look.

To transform your WordPress site or blog and  and turn the pretty permalinks into static html posts (static posts get a little nudge in Google as they are less likey to be auto generated) use %category%/%postname%/.html  – next step upload a plugin called ‘smart trailing slash’ that enforces the / with categories but not at the end of html.

Ok to many it might be  trivial for WP website owners but even bit helps. I have seen sites like this wordpress.com/category or worst wordpress.com/category/mypost.html/

This is a huge break though WordPress SEO for honest writes of content who do not intent to spam, but use WordPress simply as a tool for creating content easily. Let me know your experience with HTML pages vs PHP pages. Also if you use WordPress do you:

• Use a hierarchical structure
• Care about a trailing slash?
• Think HTML or PHP has any particular advantage
• Think things like no trailing slash with HTML WordPress makes any difference?

I for the record believe less is more when it comes to WordPress out of the box install.

Foursquare is newest online social network site that might be the next twitter. Do you have what it takes to be the major of your city?  This post is about the definition and rules of foursquare. However, I will also add my two cents about this iphone -  mobile site.

What is four square?

You check in at various locations and describe your experiences there. You can uncover a happening scene or give heads up on a place that is lame. The name means on all four corners of your city. You earn badges and rankings by helping others explore your city via a mobile and handheld device.  At the core it is a game with a social aspect. If you are the top you can become a mayor in your city, that is an authority at least in terms of the social scene in your town.

Your interaction is by iphone, cell phone, Android app, blackberry etc. This is total instant gratification for those who are addicted to their mobile phones. The hook that foursquare game uses to get people to join is that if you use it a lot, then you might win free hotel stays etc. My take on this give away incentive is a hotel stay is worth maybe 200 dollars and the time might be better spend simply working for it. I do not know maybe I am foolish.

The rules are simple, the more you contribute and people like your contribution you earn points.  This gives it the addictive play,  that is a combination of a game and positive feedback from your peers. But like pogo.com (which I love) there is a game aspect to it and badges but mostly because I like to play chess.

How did foursquare take off? I think they had a nice marketing budget to break into the top ten thousand at Alexa so fast. I think this because to make a social media site work today, takes a large war chest or intelligent marketing at least, both is best, but I have found that both is often mutually exclusive. Their target market I think is from ages eighteen (or younger) to twenty eight years old maximum.  I can not image anyone with a family playing around too much on foursqaure phone social.

The hub of this site is NYC, but of course it is the whole world and every city.

I gave up my cell phone as it was an expense, I am not convinced about the long-run safety of cell phones, and they are a distraction from real life. But read the real reason why you will not see me on foursquare.com.

Why I will not join Foursquare

I am not a big fan of social sites like “foursquare social” only because I do not have the time.  I am married and it is more for singles. I have a family and my own business. I sometimes check my facebook and vkontatke.ru (I am a slavophile) accounts.

My tweeter account has fallen to the waist side. I have removed all social media links on my site as I do not want my sites cluttered with non-relevant links that produce low quality traffic that does not convert. People swear by social media and Google.com has even embraced it somewhat. But I do not believe it.

I am a social media skeptic based on the principle that time is a scares commodity and time efficiency counts if you want to develop your business . All the time I spend on these sites like foursquare,  I could be spending with my real life friends and family or writing content on my blog.  Therefore, I am firmly ant-social media.

The irony is I have a social media site of my own. I have not gotten a chance to jump start it, but it is a real niche site for geeks, which I will not even mention the name yet. I might in the end scrap it.

Foursquare feedback

In conclusion, if you want to see what foursquare is like you can review it and then write a comment here and let me know what you think.

I am an American that has lived in Eastern Europe  for many years. When I first came to Eastern Europe I thought I would find a search optimization genius at a low price. Why, because Russians, Ukrainians and Poles are brilliant IT people, the founder of Google after all is from Russia. Further, I thought poorer country would mean lower prices.

What I found out is, Ukrainian firms are good and professional. However, any Ukrainian firm that is good, charges a little less than American firms, but not by much, I would say 30 percent less.  This is because it is a European country and the world is global. I live in Eastern Europe and it was hard even for me to find someone. I learned SEO myself.

The problem is most of the SEO firms in Ukraine are more for Ukrainians. Why? This is because of the language. The bottom line is, I think Ukrainians that market to the west charge more than local firms in Ukraine. The ones that do not charge a lot work mostly with Ukrainian and Russian language people. The best deals in search engine marketing are always connected with the local and not international market. So if you speak Ukrainian you will be all set. If you do not I suggest the following.

How to look for a Ukrainian SEO firm if you do not speak Ukrainian. I  think from Russia to Ukraine, from Kiev to Crimea you have many talented technical IT guys. You just have to be patient and find out how to access them, maybe via slando.com.ua.  Slado is a the largest Ukrainian classified board I found. You can use Google translate to guide you.

What is the secret to making money online and search engine optimization anyway?

I think the answer to how to make money is found in an idea from ancient times. What? What about modern business theory and all the blogs on how to make money online.   My answer is those are nice, but they are not really going to give you the road map of how to make money.

Why not? Either because the people giving you advice have made money by accident and could not replicate it in another field or they do not tell you the way to make money as they are afraid they will lose out to competition.

What about you? The site you are reading is my smallest site and for fun.

So what is the secret to making money or making money online?

In most cases I think most people do not need an SEO firm. They can about it on the web.  However if there was a it would be from the the ancients:  “the imagination is where the divine resides.”  What, is this something like a Da Vinci code wisdom minute?  No. It simply means your real power as a human given to you from above is found in your imagination.

If you want to stand out from the crowd and get people to come to your website, you need to be imaginative.   People want interesting content. Everyone writes the same old same old. Be shocking unique and interesting and beautiful. If your brain needs a jump start for creativity try www.winwenger.com

If you have done onsite SEO on your WordPress blog or site and your swinging away with content but still not getting traffic.  Than your content stinks I am sorry.  Really.

Try doing something really amazing.  Spend a day in a forest just dreaming up ideas or on the beach. Next spend a week writing one good piece of content, which could include a video or images or something very useful and free, then you will see people starting to link to you.

Then you will see your traffic pick up.

Then you will understand the secret to SEO is in imagination.  Use your imagination to write good content which in turn will make you money. Then after you make your money, you can use some of it for doing good in the world in gratitude.

The best Ukrainian search engine optimization consultant

I am an American, however, I am also Ukrainian in background. If you are looking for an SEO in Ukraine or an SEO in general, consider me. I am very good and one of websites is about 100k Alexa.  I am trustworthy and I am fair in my price. Write me at markbiernat@yahoo.com if you have interest. I am trustworthy.

How do I know about SEO in Poland?  I am an American that lives in Krakow, Poland, I am also Polish. Do I do Search Engine Optimization in Poland? Sometimes, I do not do this directly, its more of a hobby for me. Therefore, I have a pretty good idea of the SEO  consulting scene in Poland.

I have a pretty good feel for the effectiveness of using a firm that does search engine marketing Poland and the cost. I know both languages and I know the market and prices as well as the effectiveness of the different types of marketing and IT companies in Poland.

There are three types of SEO firms in Poland

• Artistic Polish marketing firms
• Advanced coders
• Polish SEO firms that know both

Kraków, Poland for example is a techy hub.  It has over 100,000 students from all over the world and many study IT.  Poles are very good with IT for some reason, I think it comes from the fact that the communist governments always pushed technical universities or Eastern Europeans are just gifted in such things.  The founder of Google.com of course was Russia. Therefore, Kraków SEO is pretty advanced, but you have to know who to choose.

Polish marketing

Living in Krakow, I see many traditional online marketing firms. The best artists in the world in terms of flash and design and conception are in Poland.  These are very talented people with innovative ideas. However, the issues is these artsy firms are traditional marketing companies, that is if you want a business card or brochure or even a cool flash site, then your all set, but they are the worst when it comes to SEO in Poland. Do not use artists and marketing companies for search engine optimization in Poland or Krakow.

These firms are organized by young artists, many in Kraków or Warsaw and their art and websites looks fantastic. However, from a search engine spider perspective they are weak.

Sometimes behind the flash search engines can not even find text or content.  This is so basic yet I see many marketing firms in Krakow not understand this. However, for design they are second to none. I have tried to explain it to them but they have artistic minds and do not want to listen.

Coding geeks in Poland

On the other hand, I see companies that are very techy and code oriented. If you want an ecommerce shop or anything very complex, these are the guys who can do it, in any strange computer code or language you need it done in.  Polish programmers are better than anyone you might find in the west for the lower price. But again they do not directly understand the SEO market in Poland. This is the main problem.  They understand how to write code but not the big picture even if they tell you they do. Further, from a design perspective they are just ok. However, for functionality they will do the job. Some how the artists and the coders are like from two different worlds and they do not understand

Poland SEO that is effective

The firms that know and use WordPress or other CMS systems in Poland for SEO are pretty much in the know.  They do not try to trick search engines rather they build a framework where users can drop content in it.

If you want some consulting I can help, just write me.

If you are looking for CSS work: One of my friends Adam optimized the code for onet.pl (the largest portal in Poland).  I teach him English and he in my opinion is a power guru.  But he is more a CSS guru.  He can also work to set up a beautiful theme if you are looking for a CSS expert with lower Polish prices.

I am not in the Polish SEO business directly but write me if you need help. Let me know if you ever meet some who has a website that gets 5-10 k visitors on it a day, I do not think there are many. This is what I g and I can help you.  Write me at markbiernat@op.pl  or I can set you up with someone I trust.

The problem with pricing and Polish SEO

On one hand the firms are very cheap or at reasonable for the amount of work they do.  They will not rip you off at all.  I do not feel confident about many SEO firms around the world, but Polish firms are honest.

However, a lot of their pricing is based on per keyword on a month to month basis for ranking high.  That means they do not do flat fee consulting too often.  It is

not worth it to them. They are very reasonably priced, but you do have to pay every month.  They would rather make a little every month than take large fees.

WordPress and Polish SEO

WordPress is popular in Poland but I would say not as popular as in the the USA for example.  I think a lot of Polish guys use other platforms from CMS Made simple to Drupal and Joomla. But if you ask them to do it they will work with you with WordPress no problem, they are not as mesmerized by WordPress as I am.

SEO in Poland, Ukraine and Russia compared

Poland is your best deal.  Why? Russia is as expensive as the USA or the UK.  They market to the west with western prices. In Ukraine SEO is developed but I think like in Russia you do not get your best value. Poland has Polish prices (non Euro, but rather Polish złoty), EU and western laws and way doing business.  SEO in Poland is the best deal all around.

In the future there will be no SEO.  Google and other search engines will perfect the algorithm so there you will have very little chance to skew the odds of ranking higher in your favor. Many people ask me how do I get people to notice my website? How the can I attract visitors. How do I rank high in Google? Why do I have no links? Here is the answer or at least the future of SEO. The only way to develop your website, in my opinion, is to build quality content.

It is the message most people do not want to hear. But listen to my story. I started building websites in 2004. I was looking for every way to win the search engine game. I wasted so much time trying to find the best WordPress plugins (I use only about five plugins and a very well SEOed theme) and code to help my websites.  I hung out on Twitter and build a ‘friend list’.  All this time I could have been building content. I built a Facebook page. But mostly teens and 20 somethings hang out on Facebook and even when I do, it is only to check a website not comeback to it over and over when my friends put a share up there.

Content is the future of SEO

Quality content is not recycling the content from other people’s websites. Quality content is writing something that is unique. Building a learning resource for example, that people can come back to. That is the future of SEO. It is like you are back in college. Maybe not academic writing but well research writing in palatable form.

That is it, something of interest or value to other people. Forget the hype about social media, time is too valuable.  I am sure you have heard this mantra before but it is true today and will be true in the future when it comes to SEO is content well written.

Search engine optimized content is creative content

Using your creative talents in a positive way instead of a negative tricky way is what  the universe will reward you with.  I know this is hard to believe when you have people making their living off of search engine optimization but that is the hard truth. There is no easy way. I teach languages and people want to learn a language in a week, and I tell them the truth.  People are not really gifted in languages, rather it takes patience and work.  They do not want to hear it but its true.  Today and in the future SEO is the same hard work. So do not waste your time reading too may SEO sites.

Useful, practical content writing by you, will make you money.

The best way to develop ideas about what to write about is to bring a clipboard or notepad with you where ever you go.  While in the bus, or tram I jot down my ideas.

However, the best time is when I am shopping with my wife.  I do not have a cell phone anymore as it is a time vortex, I would rather use my brain to develop content then to simply yak away.

Sometimes, when I am sitting on a park bench I get my best ideas. In the evening. I come home and put together of basic sketch of what I want to write about after that often I sleep with my notepad by my site.

The next morning, I get up early in the morning. For me it is the best time to write because the whole house is quiet.  If there is nothing to distract me, actually writing the post takes under an hour. However, with proper organization and I can write three times as much.

Where can I get my ideas for future content

The question is how to develop ideas, and put those ideas on paper. The way to develop ideas is write about what you really like.

Further for me to create creative ideas I think the best way is to expose yourself to many different types of things .  For example, to not just read about SEO .  Read about things that truly interest you.

If you read about things that truly interests you then try to make a connection to your targeted idea of your content will be more creative and more interesting.

Let me explain let’s say you’re interested in history; however, the targeted subject of your post is “how to write SEO content”, then the best way to write would be perhaps combine the history of writing with blogging and how blogging has changed writing over the last ten years.  The next step would be to bring this into some sort of fusion with the idea of SEO.

Spending your time in this way, using your own creativity and interests, is the future of SEO. Spending your time worrying about the best plugins or social media optimization, or reading too many ‘experts’ is not the future of search engine optimization.