From Leading Australian Professional - Anthony Parsons
To me there is no in between in regards to optimization, either a webpage is optimization or it isn't. A professional SEO will not give you a choice of options when it comes to what they optimize within any given webpage. You will only see options available from unprofessional SEO in the range of what actual modifications are made to each webpage. At no stage should a user have a choice when it comes to what is modified, with the exception of copywriting. The website owner is the professional in relation to the content within each webpage or product item, so the website owner must provide this information to some extent. The SEO copywriter would then enhance the written material supplied, with relevant keyword phrases, to suit search engine characteristics and current search criteria.
Many changes that an SEO will make to a website will not even affect the actual look of a webpage. Some required SEO might impact the website owner's taste, however; the website owner must be conversant with what they are employing an SEO to accomplish to start with. It is very much a give and take affair between the SEO and the website owner. As a website owner, remember who the professional is and what service you're looking for. I am often asked by owners why I need to change something, my answer is generally "you employed my services to get your website high ranking, not the other way around", simple as that to me. If a person does not want high ranking for their website, then stop wasting my time and your time looking for an SEO, and be happy with no publicity for your website from the Internet.
Let's discuss what to look for when you view an SEO website and come across packages. As stated already, the level of optimization should never be given as a choice. The only choices you could possibly have for packages from a professional SEO are the amount of pages an SEO will modify. Example, bronze < 10 pages, silver < 50 pages and gold < 100 pages, then with a possible quote for larger Websites. Other options include but are not limited to whether you are submitted through the long waiting free submission or paid rapid inclusion, a manual directory submission campaign or an in-depth report on your website to allow you to see what is wrong and structure your budget to suit, etc. These are not the same as offering different levels of optimization to a webpage. Stay away from any SEO that offers such services.
Please ensure that you check everything that an SEO is offering before payment. Treat it no differently to shopping around for a new car, because the cost can vary between $50 to $10,000 or more, depending on what your purchasing and the size of your website and nature of optimization it requires. The best means is to find comparable products and services with other businesses and examine costs. Then take the best product or service that suits your requirements, not necessarily the best price.


Search Engine Optimization Software
From Leading Australian Professional - Anthony Parsons
There have been many great advances in software technology over the years, one to stand out is the advancement in software to achieve high rankings. Many companies attempt to make substantial and suitable SEO software, though none have really been all that successful I would say. Now with that statement the first thing that probably comes to mind is Web-Position Gold 2. What a guess that was. Let's face it people, incorporating techniques into a software program and then distributing to the world is not that effective. Look at it like this, these companies study search engines at a current point in time, and then they develop their software for those standards. Once they have Beta tested the software, fixed faults and released it, search engines have changed their algorithms to account for other techniques. Search engines are aware of all of these types of software and account for them to ensure that high rankings are kept to a minimum from the use of them. Some search engine algorithms clearly identify certain criteria that these programs incorporate and penalise them hard.
Be aware that what these programs actually offer is not so much optimisation, but actually spamming a webpage with words and phrases in attempt to achieve the high ranking. These programs cannot add good relevant copywriting to your pages which is what the search engines mainly base rankings on nowadays. Think smart and do not opt for the quick fix, cause that's all you will gain from such software, a quick shoot up the rankings, then down you go to never be seen again. Only a professional SEO is going to achieve a constant high steady ranking for your website. Why not view this interesting article concluded by Jill Whalen at High Rankings: View Here. The manufacturers of this type of software never tell the bad, only the good. Professional or Unprofessional?


Link Analysis vs. Link Popularity
From Leading Australian Professional - Anthony Parsons
Link Popularity is the easy one to explain. This is a link of any sort on any page pointing to your site. Any link pointing at your website, that's it. Simple Huh? Now your wondering how link popularity affects your website? Well if done correctly, expect good things from it, like increased search engine rankings. With increased rankings, comes increased traffic. Try and achieve this through link farms and goodbye link work. Example, anthonyparsons.com article on any old page is helping link popularity.
Link Analysis is the more complicated of the two. Link analysis is how most search engine algorithms classify sites to rank them against given words and phrases searched (with other factors). Link Analysis is no longer in regard to how many links you have pointing at your site, now search engines analyse the page that your link is on, the text used within the hyperlink and the page the link points at, to determine its relevance and quality. Example, Link Analysis vs. Link Popularity Article contains two words relevant to my Title, Heading and Content. Place this on any page and you have decent link analysis.
How does this affect you? If you have a website about books, then your website would be placed within directories under the category, "books". This is a relevant page title, heading and content to deem relevance. Now, when a search engine reads that page, containing your URL about books it would assess the page your link is based upon, your site information, link text and determine that both pages have sufficient information about books to make your link credible. Work it any other way and your relevance is lost in the wind. Example, a webpage about link popularity and analysis that contains; for more information you should also read the article, Link Analysis vs. Link Popularity by Anthony Parsons. Now you have the same link, containing the same two words "link analysis" & "link popularity" on a page about those two words, with hyperlinked text containing those two words, pointing to my article about those two words. The only room for improvement is maybe "Bold" or "Italicize" the link text. Now that is Quality Link Analysis; See The Point!!!
Now as you could guess, this type of link work can be manipulated by webmasters to the extent of link popularity to gain rankings, however; it is certainly challenging as most key directories and websites will not participate nor willingly place links at something in direct competition. You will generally see many websites with reciprocal link directories attached to there website nowadays. This is the ethical method to achieve the desired outcome; I guess you could say. The problem with this type of reciprocal work is, if the engines change their algorithms to eliminate or place lower relevancy upon reciprocated links, goodbye free rankings.