SEO is about as voodoo as a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken. Mami Wata agrees.

SEO (search engine optimization for those of you who prefer the long tail) is an art often compared to voodoo.  It’s complex, there’s a lot to do, there are no actual rules (unless you count Google’s rules, which many people do).  Adding to the mystery are the monikers of “White Hat”, “Black Hat” or “Grey Hat”.  Nobody really spells out what’s WRONG or what’s RIGHT.  There’s no standardization, no universally recognized regulatory board.  Just a big ol’ free for all akin to the settlement of the Wild West.

It would seem, to the casual observer, that navigating those muddy waters would be as simple as building a rocket ship from match sticks and duct tape.  The truth is that SEO for small businesses and individuals, especially those not in an extremely competitive environment, is more science than art.  With patience, a little cash and the right tools you can get your site on the first page of Google.

How do I know?  Well, I’m glad you asked.  Before I came onto Hosting Nation as marketing director I was doing SEO and Search Marketing for small businesses.  I was personally responsible for getting first page ranks for over a dozen SMB’s, always with heavy time constraints and virtually no budget.  During that time, I discovered a plethora of tools and resources that saved me hours of time I could spend on getting rank.

Sit back and get your bookmarking finger ready, I’m unloading it all, starting with all of my favourite search engine tools and resources.  Ready?  Begin!

Search Engines and Search Engine Tools

There are, essentially, four search engines (actually, there are hundreds – only four really matter).  Those four (in order of traffic and importance for SEO) Google, Yahoo, MSN (includes Live Search) and Ask.

You can view any other search engines, including a list of the top 100 alternative search engines on Searchrace (provided by Alt Search Engines.  Some search engines to keep an eye on are iSEEK which won alternative search engine of the year in 2008 and one that I’ve been closely watching for a few years now called Hakia (Hakia didn’t make the list, but I think it’s a better resource for researchers and has a good understanding of natural language processing).   You can download the top 100 list in .xls format (or PDF) .

If 100 isn’t enough, you can also download the middle 200 in .xls format (and again, PDF).

Alternative engines aside, the big four – while each maintaining an independent index of content, have for years been inextricably linked in areas of advertising.  It’s only recently that each company has forged ahead with unique ad platforms.  When I want to view the current relationships, I always visit Bruce Clay’s search engine relationship chart.  You can also use the histogram to view how those relationships have changed over time.

Comparative Search Engines and Search Utilities, or, I Never Meta Search Engine I didn’t Like.

If you’re too lazy (like me) or working on time constraints, there are a ton of tools for quickly swapping between search results.

Soovle reminds me a little bit of the Groowe Toolbar, though Soovle allows you to perform simultaneous searches on Google, Amazon, Wikipedia, Ask, Yahoo, Answers.com and YouTube.  Pretty decent tool for quick results finding.  You can also try Grokker or Clusty if you find yourself hooked on meta search engines.

While the traditional meta search engines, like Dogpile and Mamma are no longer widely used, they share some similarities with current semantic web applications and search tools like Cuil, Hakia and the Headup Firefox plugin – all of which aggregate different content types such as video, news, wikipedia entries and images.  Google is already trying their hand at this with the universal search feature they unveiled in 2007, but in my mind they’ve failed to create anything especially innovative so it’s worth watching the smaller players.

If you want a more direct comparison, try the Google vs. Yahoo tool.

A gaggle of Googles, or, 100 ways to find what you need, not what you searched for.

A Google (actually, a googol) is 1.0 x 10 to the hundredth power.  More accurately, it’s a 1 with 100 zeros after it.   Google (the search engine, named after the number) was introduced in 1998 by Stanford students Larry Page and Sergey Brin.  Only 11 years later, they’re one of the richest companies in the world with share prices worth well over $300.00.  They claim the largest index, have the lions share of the market (over 65%) and collect one out of every four dollars spent each year on online advertising.  Pretty impressive for a company who’s original storage space was a box made from lego.

Humble beginnings aside, if you’re serious about SEO and search marketing, you better learn your way around Google’s index.   Clients will be checking Google for rank, and you’ll be monitoring for traffic.

You can do a lot more in Google’s search box than type in Brittney Spears or “What is Love” (Google Zeitgeist). With some advance operators like the ones I’ll show you below you can get to the heart of the matter more quickly.

Well, more appropriately, I’ll direct you to www.googleguide.com.  They’ve developed an extensive list of of queries you can use to refine your searches.  The complete list of over 40 tips, tools and advanced search options can be viewed in its entirety here or downloaded directly as a PDF from this location.

There’s also Google Trends, which shows search patterns over time (very handy tool for predicting search popularity), image search, Google video, news and 39 more tools and Google products.  Not in the list of 39 is Google Webmaster Central which offers even more features to understand and improve the Googleability of your site.

Beyond Google – Go Deep.  No, Deeper.  Deeper.  There you are.

There is a land beyond Google, a land where even Google dare not tread.  That land is the land of the Deep Web (or Dark Web, or Dark Internet, or Invisible Web – they’re synonymous).   While Google and other search engines only show the searchable or visible web, the invisible web (containing government and medical databases, libraries and much more) is approximately 500 times larger.

If you have serious research to do, do not pass go.  do not collect $200 and for goodness sakes, do not use Wikipedia.  Start out with this resource -  Research Beyond Google: 119 Authoritative, Invisible, and Comprehensive Resources. You can also use CompletePlanet to discover over 70,000+ searchable databases and specialty search engines.  If the 70,000 plus we’ve just mentioned aren’t enough, there’s also the librarians internet index, a government database search and ResourceShelf, a research and resource site updated daily by an editorial team headed by Gary Price.  You may recognize Gary Price if you recognize Chris Sherman – they’ve worked together on projects in the past  (Chris, like Danny Sullivan, is one of the most respected authors and individuals in the search industry today).

That covers my post on search and search engines.  There are many, MANY tools that aren’t in this list so if you have a favourite that’s not posted here, please drop a comment below and happy searching!  Next time, I’ll be unleashing all of my keyword research tools and resources.