Avoiding Bad SEO Advice - Advice Found on Message Boards
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Watching the Words on Message Forums
Internet message boards offer a great way for website owners to market their site, offer information, and gain knowledge from other members. Search engine optimization is no exception. A number of very high quality SEO forums are active on the Internet. They offer some excellent advice to their members and to the general readership. They also offer some mistaken theories. Along with the gold, there is some baser material in the alloy.
A number of very good SEO message forums can be found very easily. The membership of the various boards, which often overlaps, includes some of the finest and most knowledgeable SEO professionals anywhere. These well informed individuals are to be given credit and thanks for providing good information to the rest of the membership.
Along with the SEO professionals, members include others interested in the topic, ranging from complete novices to very well informed individual website owners. There are also some people freely dispensing advice that is not very helpful to the webmaster. Many recommendations are even harmful if applied to a site.
SEO message boards are available in two general types. There are the widely based membership sites, and the individually sponsored SEO forums. The large membership sites include:
SEO Chat http://www.seochat.com/
Webmaster World http://www.webmasterworld.com/
Cre8asite http://www.jimworld.com/forums/
High Rankings http://www.highrankings.com/forum/
Jim World http://www.jimworld.com/forums/
Search Engine Watch http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/
IhelpYou http://www.ihelpyouservices.com/forums/
Among the individually organized SEO boards are:
SEO Guy http://www.seo-guy.com/forum/
DigitalPoint http://forums.digitalpoint.com/
and the bilingual Abakus forums http://www.abakus-internet-marketing.de/en/forum/ .
Many other good quality SEO message boards are available as well. Even more forums can be found with a simple Internet search of the terms.
All of the message boards include some extremely knowledgeable people among their memberships in general, and their moderators in particular. While most members attempt to provide helpful information to the general readership, not all posts are of equal quality. Care must be taken to ensure that the good SEO concepts are gleaned from the forum. Equal care must also be taken to avoid the less valuable, and often incorrect statements.
To do well with any message board, it takes a bit of effort on the part of the reader. Simply posting one time and expecting an answer to solve all of the website SEO problems is unrealistic at best. It can also lead to making some very grave errors that may take months to correct. Regular reading and participation at one or more message boards introduces the member to many of the posters. Following the lead of the forum moderators is usually a reliable starting point for the novice.
Over time, the member will become familiar with the knowledge level of the various other posters. Once the highly skilled individuals are identified, it's much easier to find the sources of good SEO advice. It also becomes easier to avoid the ideas proposed by the less helpful sources. By spending time at the forums, the SEO novice can learn infinitely more valuable information than expecting a one-time overall response.
A good policy to adopt for any website owner is to not apply any new and unfamiliar search engine optimization practices without first checking their validity. Investigate forum discussions of the topic and advice in question. Seek out second, third, and even fourth opinions. A costly error in judgment can take months of hard work to repair.
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