What is SEO? Answers from Google and Bing

I get a lot of questions like “What are the key SEO elements?”. These are simple intro questions that don’t require a very detailed answer, yet I created an SEO process that every new site should follow. Of course, feel free to take a look at that process, but also make sure you review the following guides from Google and Bing themselves. The irony is that they tell you what they like to see in proper website SEO and most of the time we ignore those simple things.

What is SEO according to Google

This Google Help section answers in simple words what SEO is and what are the key elements of the website that you should pay attention to. Also, make sure you download the PDF version of the SEO guide and print it out. The document also goes into things to look out for and unfair business practices by your competition and other weird sites you spot while searching Google.

What is SEO according to Bing

This Bing SEO guide goes into key elements of website optimization. Bing tells you directly what it wants to see in a well optimized pages and what your site needs to be like to perform well on its Search Engines Results Pages (SERPs). Some time ago I’ve written an article on the importance of optimizing your website for Bing search engine. The document in this post is actually telling you what you should do to your website to make sure it ranks well for selected key phrases.

As you can see, it’s not rocket science and the information is readily available from search engines themselves. Of course, they’re not disclosing their algorithms, otherwise they would be out of business :). Search engines are not there to change algorithms and prevent you from ranking. Remember, the goal of search engines is to ensure it displays relevant results for every search query. So all you need to do is to follow their simple guidelines, make great content that is worth sharing, +1-ing and linking to.

Quick update August 31, 2011: Here’s Google’s Matt Cutts talking about this 20-pages document trying to answer the question if SEO will be here in 20 years:

As always, I hope this help you answer some of your questions regarding SEO. This will both allow you to save money by not paying for simple things AND will help you and me speak the same language if you ever need any help. Feel free to +1 this article if you found it useful.

21 tips to quit smoking, thank your friends and family

I smoked for 10 years. Two weeks ago I quit and feel much better. Below is a list of things that may help you to quit smoking. Feel free to add more to the list in the comments to this post. Here we go…

1. Don’t get ready, just quit. Don’t think, just do it!
2. Read the book by Allen Carr called The Easy Way to Quit Smoking
3. Tell your friends and family that you quit.
4. Don’t confuse “I’m quitting” and “I quit”. It’s done. Stop doing it. Stop thinking about it.
5. Tell your colleagues that you quit smoking.
6. Blog about it, pretty much the same way I’m doing it right now.
7. Chew some gum. I heard Nicorette helps.
8. Use patches. I tried Nicoderm, helped to get rid of physical cravings.
9. Create a Facebook group around your quitting. Make an event out of it. Courtesy of Karine Vartanova. 
10. Think of all the positive things that you will gain as a non-smoker.
11. Think about all great things you are missing out on as a smoker.
12. Think of it in a way “smoking is for kids”. Courtesy of Robin Eldred.
13. Consider the diet: “Tips from Andrew Weil’s anti-inflammatory diet and food pyramid will help you a lot. Most of my cooking is now based on the ingredients in this pyramid:  http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/ART02012/anti-inflammatory-diet” Courtesy of Alex Gault.
14. “Make sure that you eat lots garlic, ginger, red peppers and turmeric. All have powerful anti-inflammatory powers, and consuming them will accelerate the cleansing of your system of nicotine — making it easier for your body to cope.” Courtesy of Alex Gault.
15. Twitter about the process. Here’s what I’ve been doing here @zagoumenov. People that follow up, even professionals, are people too and some of them have quit. My twitter friends have been very supportive.
16. Think of life. “Yesterday I ran and made it to a peak heart rate of 184. For my age it is clinical death by a lot of beats. With clogged arteries, from siruppy nicotine, that would have been certain death. Yo have a choice . . live longer and keep your arteries clean, live shorter and enjoy smoking . . . . vse budu horosho, in both instances we end up death, so what’s the big diff?” Courtesy of Tim Hartel.
17. It may hurt, but consider meeting less with your smoking friends and more with your non-smoking friends. Try it for a little bit until you get rid o cravings. Once cravings are gone, go crazy with your smoking friends.
18. Once you quit, help others quit. It’s like learning by teaching. The more I teach, the better I know the subject.
19. Once you quit, you quit. Don’t screw things up by just having one cigarette. You are a non-smoker now.
20. “The best way to quit smoking is to stop smoking.” Courtesy of Robin Eldred.
21. Avoid drinking companies for a little while. For many people alcohol and cigarettes are complimentary products. So, stop drinking alcohol for a few weeks

Good luck! You CAN do it! When you quit, thank your friends for support. The closest people will get hurt the most. Thank them big time! I want to thank Ulyana, my better half.