Table of Contents
Truth 1. Getting noticed by spiders, robots, and crawlers
Truth 2. Learn to do the Google dance
Truth 3. It’s not about traffic—it’s about qualified traffic
Truth 4. Your reputation is on the line
Part II. The Truth About Being Site-Specific
Truth 5. SEO is an ongoing project, not set-it-and-forget-it
Truth 6. SEO is not an afterthought
Truth 7. SEO results aren’t immediate or lasting
Truth 8. You don’t have a homepage anymore
Truth 9. Think like a publisher, even if you’re not
Truth 10. Site and page design count
Truth 11. Write for users and search engines will follow
Truth 13. Use analytics and keyword research tools
Truth 14. Site stats share the bad news, too
Truth 15. Think twice about hot new technologies
Truth 16. Content management systems matter—a lot
Truth 17. What’s in a title? Everything...
Truth 18. The relative importance of meta tags
Truth 19. Tag images, audio, video, and other media
Part IV. The Truth About Links
Truth 20. Some links are more equal than others
Truth 21. Building links through online directories
Truth 22. Using SEO PR as a link strategy
Truth 23. The jury is out on paid links
Truth 24. Share and share alike: Reciprocal linking
Truth 26. Build your site in a good neighborhood
Truth 27. Blogs are a terrific link strategy
Truth 28. Putting the kibosh on link love with nofollow links
Part V. You Call That a Search Engine?
Truth 29. Search is going vertical
Truth 30. Everyone is local somewhere
Truth 31. Get listed to get vertical
Truth 32. Optimize off-site searches
Truth 33. Universal search and personalized search
Truth 34. Blogs are built for SEO
Truth 35. RSS feeds “feed” SEO efforts
Truth 36. Users will create content for you
Truth 37. Tag images, video, links, and other media
Truth 38. Being #1 ain’t what it used to be
Truth 39. Don’t live and die by PageRank
Part VIII. The Truth About SEO Management
Truth 41. In-house or outsource?
Truth 42. Hiring a great search professional
Truth 43. Great SEOs sweat the small stuff
Truth 45. Search engines frown on keyword stuffing and spam
Truth 46. Don’t cultivate link farms
Truth 47. It’s very difficult to get unbanned
Truth 48. Moving to a new domain is stressful
Truth 50. Mobile SEO is more important than ever